Relearning your A, B, C's
Before I started Kindergarten, I had learned my A, B, C’s and they really haven’t changed, but the A, B, C’s of church life have. In the Western church of the 20th and 21st centuries, we’ve looked at Attendance, Buildings and Cash as measurements for determining the health, growth and forward trajectory of our local churches. They have become the measurements by which we define “success” or “fruitfulness”.
These A, B, C’s of church metrics are all practical and useful measurements of growth. If increasingly more people are attending your local church, then it’s fair to assume your church is growing. If you have a permanent building, then it’s fair to assume that you have a committed and consistent congregation that is invested in being a community of believers. If you have a steady cash flow, then it’s fair to assume you have faithful and obedient tithers. However, these metrics may not provide the most accurate picture of church health and growth as your local church can have steadily increasing attendance, buildings and cash and not actually be reaching lost people, making disciples and serving the world.
As we embark on a “return to normal” with the easing of restrictions and optimism that the pandemic is ending, we have to carve out a “new normal” – there’s no going back! We’re going to have to relearn our A, B, C’s.
Attend to Relationships
In the midst of uncertainty and change, we must attend to the quality of relationships. Trust is often lost in uncertainty, and we’ve been living in uncertain times. If your church leadership has been regularly in personal contact with congregants, you have journeyed with them, and your relationships have grown during a time of separation. If your local church has not had much personal contact with congregants during the time that you have not been meeting in person they may now feel like distant relatives or strangers, rather than immediate family. Everyone has experienced and been affected by the pandemic differently. Some people have lost family members, their health, jobs, struggled with mental health, parenting, and a multitude of other things. As great as it will be to gather again together live and in-person, let’s not make this the goal. Rather, let’s make giving intentional energy and attention to the quality of relationship with our leadership teams and congregation a priority in a multitude of ways.
Build Partnerships
Consolidate resources, ministry programs and even meeting spaces to partner with other churches, groups and agencies. Consider sharing staff with another congregation and rethink ways of doing effective ministry and reaching lost people that are sustainable in a new world in which pandemics halt daily life and routines. Don’t default to rebuilding what was, but look at the new landscape of opportunity and capitalize on what can be through partnerships that combine resources. How can your church partner with local agencies in your community to provide services? Instead of starting a food bank, can you partner with one? Or maybe, you can host one in partnership with a community agency or you can expand the reach of an existing one.
Care for the Community
What does your community need? The needs might be different than they were 18 months ago. We need to be solution providers in our communities who are rooted in the truth, love, grace, and mercy of Jesus. Provide Christian counselling, grief share, the Sanctuary course, Freedom sessions, tutoring clubs for kids, summer day camps, volunteers for community programs and anything that gets you out into the community and a voice in the commons. Talk to your community leaders and neighbours to find out what they need; don’t assume you already know. Look for what God is doing and at work in and partner with Him.
What was, may not be what’s needed now.
Hailey Armoogan has served in vocational Christian ministry for 30 years as Children’s & Family Ministries Pastor in local church contexts across Canada and overseas in Jerusalem, Israel, as a PAOC Global Worker, as well as Lead Pastor in Fort Smith, NT and Director of Northern Initiatives & Church Partnerships with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. Ordained with the PAOC, she holds a Bachelor of Theology with a minor in Cross-Cultural Studies, a Certificate of Messianic Studies and a Master of Arts in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. Hailey was born in Montreal, Quebec and raised in Waterloo, ON, where she currently resides.