Come Back Better
Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader
Spring is here and churches are feeling it. How do we know? The requests for consulting, coaching, and training are ramping up, reflecting increasing activity levels in churches. The tone of conversations in our coaching groups and training events is shifting toward hope and eagerness. The focal questions are shifting from, “How do we adapt our ministry for living through this pandemic?” to “How do we break out of pandemic living into our next expression of church?” I’m eager, too, eager to address this emerging question.
What is so, so clear
Before we consider what to do, here are two insights that seem Oh so clear. First, there is no way we want or need to return to the pre-Covid church. We could drag out the charts and graphs to demonstrate the long slow decline of Christianity in this USA over the last 30+ years, yet that seems unnecessary. We’ve seen them before. Besides, the most unobservant among us recognizes the trend lines by now.
Second, innovating toward the end of a pandemic is complicated. We could latch onto one dynamic, pursuing a mono-factor solution, yet we would miss many other dynamics actively influencing our church systems. You may remember my video on the Five Active Dynamics Every Church Must Address describing dynamics that normally do not tolerate one another well: Longing, Fear, Grief, Adaptation, and Vitality. These five are swirling around in our churches, demanding attention. Given this, a singular approach won’t meet the needs before us. Instead, like the world leader I recently heard describing the necessary approach to complex problems, “we need multi-factor solutions.”
What else is so, so clear
We need proactive, intentional leadership. I can hear the collective groan of pastors, church staff, and lay leaders right now. “What, we have to do more? Our decision-fatigue is high and innovation fuel is low. No more heavy lifting, please!” At the same time, I hear the same people expressing a Spring-like rise in energy and hope, eager to make the most of this growth opportunity. That’s where proactive, intentional leadership steps forward with two leadership actions.
First, leaders proactively address the reality before us. There is plenty of anxiety in church systems right now. Allowed to have its way, it will bring its brother dysfunction close behind. We need church leadership, lay and ordained, to step up and proactively address our current situation. That old Peter Steinke quote comes to mind right about now, “Where there is little self-definition, there is a vague vision. Where there is an unclear vision, the people perish in their own anxious reactivity. They have no head and are headed nowhere. Where there is self-definition, there is a clear vision. Where there is a clear vision, there is a response to the future.” (How Your Church Family Works, p.116). When churches know their leadership is intentionally and proactively addressing their current situation, their anxiety settles. A lack of the same produces the reverse.
Second, effective leaders don’t prescribe what to do, they do provide a roadmap for moving ahead. One pastor in our clergy collective is using parts of our ReShape Initiative, plus other resources, creating a roadmap for their church to identify their growth and emerging shape of church. Here’s another option, toward which I’m admittedly biased – Pinnacle’s ReShape Initiative which includes these 7 Key Moves. Each one of these deserves its own article, but I will simply list them here and you can get the book and/or join our ReShape Initiative starting in July.
Reconnecting Church
Debriefing Our Experience
Sorting Our Progress
Choosing A Growth Mindset
Plotting Our Course
Aligning Our Structure
Launching ReShaped Church
Whatever initiative or process you might choose, make sure it’s a multi-factored approach, empowering your church to capture and integrate its transformation and growth.
So, church, come back better. Please, don’t waste this good crisis. Please, don’t leave your spiritual growth to chance. Please exercise proactive, intentional leadership, engaging these moments to come back better.