The Post Pandemic Church (Pt.1 of 3)

Dear Pastors

The Post Pandemic Church (Pt.1 of 3)

Today I am starting a three part series of blogs on ‘The Shape of Things to Come’. Without a doubt all of us will have some thoughts about that already even if they are still in an embryonic stage. I think we can agree now that things will be different unlike after the first lock down in 2020 when we quickly returned to how we always did things. But not only that there was very little evidence that the pandemic was generating new thoughts. It is now. I will be joined by four pastors from around NZ who are in two different generations and from quite different backgrounds. Two are in their 40’s and the other two are a bit older. But first an opening thought from me.

Prior to 2020 the Sunday morning gathering was almost synonymous with ‘being the church’. We had this equation in the back of our minds…….Church = Sunday morning. I am in no doubt that the Sunday morning corporate worship experience will continue for many believers if not most (but definitely not for all). Afterall it’s in our DNA to gather, to worship together and to hear the Word of God taught. Where I think the changes will be are as a result of the social movements that I discern are already underway and that will impact how we think about Church and ultimately what we do and perhaps more importantly how we go about what we do.

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group said last year about the American Church “The sense of deep-rooted connectedness that most Americans have to a local church is becoming more and more transactional, less and less frequent”. I think we can say the same for the average church going Christian in NZ. A transactional relationship with the church is consumeristic in nature. It’s about a ‘shopping mentality’ that says essentially, what is in this for me? That has never been a value of church life historically but it is today. And that is hurting us. I will say more about this next week.

Now I want to turn it over to my guests.

Brett Jones is lead pastor of Cession Community in East Auckland and also National Leader for the Wesleyan Methodists.

Engagement v Attendance
Are what we're perceiving as challenges around attendance actually existing vulnerabilities around engagement? Our focus on attendance may have masked the reality of historic engagement. Engagement will be important moving forward.

Wellbeing v Welldoing
Pastors and leaders have been exposed at a wellbeing level. Our wellbeing will need to be rebalanced against our welldoing.

Hybrid v Purebreed
Online pathways in the future will offer insurance against future crises (like pandemics), extend engagement when people are absent through illness and holidays and will offer some evangelistic opportunities (but see below)

Community v Connected
The church is an em-bodied organism and will thrive best in person to person environments. Digital networks are a means to this embodiment rather than an end. This will need to influence how we process the "why" of our digital strategies moving forward.

Nigel Irwin is senior pastor of Whanganui Central Baptist Church.

Learning how to lead in the midst of a global pandemic was a challenge in itself; doing so in the aftermath of one doesn’t promise to be any easier.

There are many factors that come to mind, but two in particular: hospitality and relational vulnerability.

Hospitality
As we’ve pivoted away from full gatherings into a smaller house-church format, we’ve struck a difficulty we didn’t anticipate. In our midsize church, we’ve found worryingly few families willing to host others on a Sunday morning. Despite providing ideas and inspiration for how this could be done well, and asking for volunteers to host, the silence has been deafening. To be fair, some have struggled with virus anxiety, but this has been the exception, not the norm. We’ve discerned the need to prioritise the recovery of this ancient and vital Christian practice – both for fellowship among believers, and evangelism in our neighbourhoods.

Relational Vulnerability
While nobody has confessed this outright, we’ve discerned that a major objection to smaller gatherings is an unwillingness to share what’s going on in life. Large gatherings afford a certain anonymity, which is compromised in lower numbers. We’ve struck one of the world’s glaring ideology clashes – the strident freedom to be an individual, and the deep shame of allowing people to know us for who we really are. Only in Christ are we truly free, and only when we find our secure identity in Him can we be real with one another. This truth is notably absent and desperately in need of recovery.

Next week we will hear from Tak Bhana and Marty Redhead. If you have any thoughts to add into this conversation please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

Blessings
Alan

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.