As churches across America (and the world) begin to regather and move towards a hybrid model, pastors & teams try to figure out what that looks like. The difficulty for churches is that this crisis sped up the trends that were already unfolding in faith and church culture.

In many ways, this reminds me a lot of what it was like to plant a church. You don’t know how many people will come back, who will come back, or even what it will look like when they show up. The nervousness a church planter feels as he leads his team to set up and tear down, pass out invite cards, and spread the word, describes a lot of what pastors are feeling right now. What makes this even more complicated, though, is how weary pastors are right now.

Before we get to the ideas and questions, pastors, please care for your soul. Take the time to refill your own heart so that you can lead with your whole self. Take some time to mourn the losses that you have experienced personally and as a leader in this season. Don’t just rush into things, but make sure you take time to breathe.

So, as you regather and move into a new normal, here are some ideas and questions to be asking:

1. Who are we trying to reach? This is church 101, but it is easy to forget. Many churches say they are trying to reach everyone, which is true, but we reach a particular person along the way. Some churches proclaim loudly who they are trying to reach, and others are more subtle about it. That is a leadership perspective, but the point is, your team needs to know who you are best suited to reach as a church.

This becomes even more important as church changes into this hybrid world of digital and physical, and resources are stretched, and staff roles are reallocated.

Here are a few reasons this matters:

• As you communicate as a church through email, stories, social media, video content, etc. Your target determines what is in those communication pieces. If it is young families, you will highlight kids and student content. If it is empty-nesters, that will change.
• Your target can also determine which platforms you spend more time on and focus on. Different age groups use different platforms for content and connecting.
• It will determine your teaching calendar and video content and how you deliver that content.
• Your target, their political leanings, and worldview (what matters to them in covid and a post-covid world) could have an impact on when you reopen and what that looks like.

2. Clarify your engagement and formation pathways. This idea came from the book Intentional Churches: How Implementing an Operating System Clarifies Vision, Improves Decision-Making, and Stimulates Growth; in it, the authors make the point that a church’s engagement pathway is different from its formation or discipleship pathway.

Yes, these pathways are deeply connected, but in this new world, we must clarify these.

Think for a moment; what do you do as a church that engages people? Where people engage with your church? You can list those things out. While some of those things form people, many of them are simply about engaging with them. That’s okay. Clarify that as a team.

In many churches, we have taken all of these paths and made them one thing. In a digital or hybrid world, I think it has revealed for some churches that it either doesn’t work or is very confusing.

3. How do you truly form people? Spiritual formation & discipleship have always been important, but it is becoming more important in this new world. As one pastor recently pointed out, one of the big shifts in the future is from attendance and buildings to engagement and formation.  One thing that covid has shown us is that many churches have not formed their people well.

To form your people, you must clarify what a follower of Jesus is being formed in the way of Jesus looks like and then move towards that. Rich Villodas’s new book The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus is a great picture of what that might look like for churches moving forward. 

4. What things do you need to start or stop doing? This is a transition point in our world and a great opportunity to ask, based on where we are and where we are headed, to ask what you need to start doing or stop doing.

Everything you did as a church pre-covid doesn’t need to continue. A disruption like we have experienced is a great opportunity to ask what is next, what is working, what is not working, what is not clear for your church, and then move forward.

In the end, this moment is a great opportunity to dream as a leader, to ask God what is next, and to forge a new or renewed path as a church.