One Powerful Way You Can Move Your Church Out of Crisis
I remember when the first week of ministry was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. We contacted our ministry leaders, who contacted their amazing team of volunteers at church to let them know that we will not be able to serve as we always had before.
At that point, we thought we would miss a few weeks of service opportunities at the most. Boy was I wrong. 12 months later we are beginning to crawl back out of the hole the pandemic has created.
As a country we have experienced a health crisis, for some a financial crisis, and others are dealing with the emotional, mental, and relational stress of the pandemic.
Unnoticed to many, the Church is also experiencing a crisis of her own. I don’t speak of just our local congregation, but the church across America, the church as a whole. As a church, we like to focus on the positive, promote the mission, exalt the good of what God is doing in us, through us, and around us.
The church doesn’t typically like to bring attention to herself but we need to recognize a crisis the church is facing as we attempt to crawl out of this pandemic.
3 Things the Church crisis is Not.
The crisis is not a worship crisis, though this is where most of our attention has been. We have navigated the tension of in-person vs virtual worship with some success. As a church, we have seen an increase in attendance when you combine online and in-person data.
The crisis is not financial, as people have found a way to give to the church electronically or through the mail. Surprisingly, most ministries have seen giving exceed expectations.
Though the community has been challenged, it has taken place virtually and increasingly in person in small groups. In all actuality, we have had more people involved in small groups during the pandemic than before the pandemic in our church. The crisis is not a connection crisis.
So what is the current Church crisis?
The Laborers are few.
Very few.
What Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38 comes full circle.
The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
“The one powerful way you can help your church move out of the crisis is to serve.”
Almost every calculable metric in the church has held steady or increased in the pandemic…. except for the number of people serving and laboring in the work of the ministry. Ministries have been scaled back, altered, closed down. Very few outreach efforts are taking place in communities.
Our country is beginning to roll back quarantine restrictions as we see virus-related numbers come back to a more acceptable rate. The vaccine is becoming more widely available and accepted. While things may never look “normal” again, there will be a “new normal.” Outreach must be a part of this “new normal.”
The church must be ready to move forward into a post-quarantine era. We must mobilize, we must get ready. We must with eyes like Jesus, look out into our communities and see the multitudes, being moved with compassion, begin to serve again.
Will you make one powerful decision to move the church out of this crisis? Will you serve, helping the church accomplish its mission?
Let us serve. Let us be the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s reach our community together.
Ryan Flanders
