4 Reflections On Leading A Church Through A Year Of COVID Restrictions
I’ll never forget what the week leading up to Sunday, March 15, 2020, was like. COVID-19 was becoming a thing more and more people were talking about, but no one could have guessed what was about to happen.
New City Church (where I lead) had just moved into our new building. We had maxed out what we could do at our first church building (it was very small), and I was so excited to finally have room again to engage more people with the Gospel.
Our first Sunday in our new space was March 1. We had our largest attended Sunday ever, and I couldn’t wait to see what God would do. The following Sunday our numbers went down a good bit as COVID-19 was becoming more of a thing everyone was talking about. And then the following Sunday we had to stop meeting in-person altogether.
Talk about going from excited and hopeful to anxious and scared; that’s how I felt.
How would we now afford this new building? Will I have to get another job? Are we going to have to go back to meeting in our house again and start over with whoever wanted to come? What were we going to do?
This coming Sunday (as of this writing) marks one whole year from when we had to stop our in-person gatherings and pretty much everything we were doing as a church. I write this post in my office at our church building (that we still have), humbled in a lot of ways by God’s faithfulness to our church and the faithfulness of our people. Here are four things I have learned.
1. People will follow leaders who are clear
Pastor and author Andy Stanley sums it up the best when he says, “people crave certainty, but as a leader, certainty is beyond your control. The next best thing is clarity.”
To be clear, I am not saying I did this well. This is simply what I have seen as I have read, listened, and observed things throughout the pandemic. As a leader, it is ok if you don’t know how everything will play out. Especially in a time when no one knows how everything will work out. But, people respond best if you can clearly articulate what we are going to do right now.
In a church context, being clear on what your worship gatherings will look like is one way to be clear. It’s not about making everyone happy, but about letting people know what your church is doing without shaming people who may not feel comfortable attending. As long as people know what is happening and what is expected, they are more likely to stay engaged. This leads to my next reflection.
2. The clearer a church is on its mission, the better it has faced COVID-19
Generally speaking, I have witnessed that churches that are clear on what they are about have weathered COVID-19 much better than those that haven’t.
I’ll use our church as an example. The mission of New City Church is to help people meet Jesus and grow in a relationship with him. So we try different things and even stop doing things we may like if they are no longer furthering that mission. Even through all the hardships and difficulties of the pandemic, we have seen our people still give generously, and we have avoided some of the difficult church problems that have come from COVID, politics, and the racial injustices that have rightly come to the forefront this past year.
This is not to say our people haven’t disagreed with one another and always think the same thing. In fact, I have had people in our church tell me they have been unhappy with some of the things we have said and done this past year. And this is ok! I am glad our people feel the freedom to share how they are feeling about their church.
But at the end of the day, our mission is about Jesus and we are pretty clear on that. Our mission is not to make everyone comfortable and happy, it’s to love God and love people. When we rally around Jesus first, it allows us to live on mission with one another even though we may disagree with on other significant issues.
And so, while we certainly still have fewer people engaging with us in person than before COVID right now, our church has continued to move forward through this difficult season. We still have financial uncertainties, for example, but not nearly as much as I would have assumed last March if you told me this would last over a year.
I have seen that churches that keep their focus on Jesus and not other things vying for our attention have done much better than those who got off track.
3. Physical isolation is bad, regardless of why we do it
Before the pandemic, if you had asked pastors, social workers, and even scientists who don’t study human psychology, everyone would tell you that it is a bad thing for people to be physically isolated from one another. If you asked anyone about what they would think of people isolating themselves for over a year or more, everyone would have grave concern about the implications of that.
And then COVID hit and physical isolation began.
The reasons for this isolation made sense; we want to protect people from a brand new virus sweeping the globe. And so lockdowns and restrictions were put in place that most of us are still dealing with. And while it is understandable why these precautions were implemented, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it is still extremely detrimental for people to physically isolate from one another. Especially for over a year.
It was also a cause of major frustration for me to see people sharing the lists of the “riskiest” activities you can do during the pandemic. These lists would include things like eating out, going to a crowded place, or even going to church (though the data shows outbreaks in churches have been extremely rare). And yet what never makes these lists is the risks associated with not seeing people.
Suicide. Abuse. Depression. Mental illness.
All of which have sky-rocketed because of the restrictions we have put in place. Again, I’m not saying precautions should not be taken, but I am saying that regardless of the reasons why we take them, physical isolation is bad, no matter the reason for doing it.
4. People should plan how and when they are going to see people (and not only what they won’t do)
The good news is that cases, hospitalizations, and death rates from COVID-19 are all significantly decreasing. Coupled with vaccine rollouts that more and more people have access to, I could not strongly encourage everyone enough to make a plan of when and how they are going to engage in physical, in-person relationships again.
So much effort has been spent on what we shouldn’t do, with not nearly enough thought given to how and when we will do things with other people.
Given the decline of COVID-19 and the rollout of vaccinations, I can see less and less of a reason to not reengage with people. I’m not saying you have to go to a football game with tens of thousands of people, but I am saying that continual isolation from most people for over a year is detrimental to anyone’s health.
COVID-19 is not the only thing that harms and kills people. As a pastor, I’m not even arguing for the spiritual benefits and necessity of gathering together (which would make this post twice as long), I’m simply saying our physical health suffers dramatically when we try to live life alone.
We need each other, and I have seen first-hand the pain and suffering isolation has caused people after a year of isolation from one another.
I’m grateful for God’s grace and New City Church
It really is hard to believe we’ve gone an entire year living through a pandemic that will end at some point. Personally, I can’t help but be grateful even with how difficult it has been.
The people of New City have been faithful and have bought into creating a space that broken people can experience God’s love through Christ. Personally, this year has not been as hard on me as it has been for other pastors I know because of God’s grace and our people.
Given what has happened this past year, I am more convinced than ever about the necessity and importance of the local church. There is nothing more important than people knowing God loves them and that they can receive his grace through Jesus. There are still many unknowns as we continue to move forward with COVID-19, but I look forward to seeing all that God does.
