“Flexibility is the key to ministry.” Someone taught me that phrase early on in my ministry years. That truth has played out in a big way in churches around the world in recent days. Some have pivoted quickly, some are deeply struggling, all are impacted. I have not posted much for the past week or so because: 1] I have been very busy with the aforementioned pivoting, and; 2] I have been watching, seeing what has been happening and trying to learn from it [or at least gain some sort of handle on what’s happening, lol]. In the days to come, I’ll try to share what I’ve gleaned, for what it’s worth, as well as some ideas that we’re trying. These are just my opinions – treat them as such, use what you can and toss the rest…
I’ll start today with the type of online services that are out there. In my opinion, the best ones I’m seeing are the ones where they are being done from the homes of the people involved. I am BIG into quality and excellence, for reasons that I’ve discussed before, but that doesn’t matter as much as connection and impact. The services from the homes are real people dealing with a real situation and sharing the same experience as their people. These are generally less “produced” than services/messages shot at the church, but everyone understands why and is pretty accepting – look at the Jimmy Fallon show and many other examples out there. The worst option I’ve seen [again, IMO] is the pastors preaching their message to a captive staff at the church building [doesn’t matter if they are sitting 6 feet apart or not]. Your staff should be at home, and so should you, for reason that are obvious to everyone [including everyone watching your services]. I’ll hit the worship side of things in my next post.
Please understand, I don’t think this is a pride issue, although we Americans are famously stubborn [myself included]. I think it’s a fear issue. I think that the individuals involved are afraid that if their quality drops, people will disengage. Two months ago, I would have agreed that this was true to a certain extent. But not now. The rules have changed. More to come…
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