Don’t Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste

Blog Post by
Rev. Dr. Susan R. Andrews, HR
Parish Associate at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church

During the past forty-five years, I have watched drastic changes in the life of the church, and in the ministry, I was trained to do.  At first, I was sad. Then I was mad. But recently my resistance has melted into curiosity. As I watch

“familiar church” disintegrate, I wonder what the future holds?  It is worth remembering that the Chinese character for “crisis” means both danger and opportunity. Which will it be for a church, reeling from the current pandemic crisis?

The statistics are gloomy. Some predict that 30% of pastors will leave parish ministry – burned out and clueless about how to lead in this new troubled world. Others predict that one in five congregations may close in the next two years – unable to cope with diminished giving and unsustainable buildings. Still, other writers have quantified the decline in involvement in the last 18 months – worship attendance, giving, and mission have dropped, on average, 50%.

Church leadership guru Ted Bolsinger suggests that effectiveness in ministry is no longer based on intelligence, experience, and conviction. Instead, current realities demand that we “Rethink and Relearn” – that a renewal and resurrection of the church calls us to “learn, unlearn, and relearn.” The complexities of a pandemic world invite us to hit the congregational reset button:

A crisis gives us the opportunity to ask the biggest question of all-the real reason for being… Survival is not enough. We need to get as clear as possible on this: “why do we need to exist as a church?” And how specifically does your existence truly further the mission of God in your community? (The Presbyterian Outlook, October 4, 2021, p. 21)

Various writers have suggested some challenges that the pandemic offers the contemporary church. Here are a few:

• The technological church is here to stay and can be an exciting tool for evangelism. Some people will continue to prefer Zoom church – especially those shut-in, those with small wiggly children, those who are comfortable spending over 4 hours a day online (the current national average). Just as the printing press was revolutionary in expanding the witness of the church, the possibilities of technology to widen our ministries are untapped. With folks signing in from around the globe, our local witness can touch seekers and believers who might never walk through our doors. And essential meetings and programs can become more effective and efficient if they are hybrid (both screen and in-person).
• AND YET face to face relationships must and will continue. As the Body of Christ, our utterly unique, incarnational faith offers intimacy in a fragmented world – a world “thirsty for authentic community where moral formation and relationships of meaning flourish.” (Peter Marty). The online church can sometimes turn us into spectators. But in-person church invites us into intimacy, proximity, and personal presence. Both are contemporary expressions of church.
• Church buildings must be re-thought, as ministry moves online and out into the world. Holy monuments can become “mission hubs.”. Just as sacred space shapes our emotional and spiritual wellbeing, sacred space can also shape justice systems and abundant life for a world in need. As a presbytery leader in New York for ten years, I watched empty old buildings become community centers for immigrant neighbors, health and wellness clinics, sanctuaries (with refurbished Tiffany windows!) transformed into gyms for children and youth, space for tutoring programs, childcare centers, music schools – and more. (Many of these expansions of building use involved partnership with non-profits and town governments, often becoming an important source of church income as member giving declined.)
• In a world of hatred, cruelty, and intolerance, Gospel churches are called to speak the truth through the vision of Jesus – providing opportunities to be “repairers of the breach” – offering dialogue across divisions to counter paranoia, political partisanship, and misinformation. If Christians cannot proclaim God’s vision of justice, racial harmony, and environmental wholeness, who can?
• Staff designs need to be re-thought in order to provide congregations with the skills of leadership needed for a technological, “spiritual-but-not religious” world. As old habits and programs die, what are the dreams and skills most needed to mid-wife the future of the church.?

The young pastors and church leaders I have come to know in the past few years give me great hope that God has a future plan for the Body of Christ. But only if we learn, unlearn, and relearn what it means to be the kin-dom of God on earth.,

May it be so!

Rev. Dr. Susan R. Andrews, HR
Parish Associate at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church