Category: New Normal

Finding Community – Reflections on the New Normal, Part 3

Posted on by Brian Burdett

Way back in April I identified and articulated six major changes that I considered to very likely to our culture as a result of COVID-19. I began sharing them with the leaders of my church as well as other local church leaders. To me, these are dramatic psychological and cultural changes that churches must wrestle with as a result of the present pandemic. I began unpacking them individually in this forum in May, however I lost steam in June because pandemics are exhausting!

Having now had a little bit of R&R, it’s time to resume the unpacking. In the two months since I originally proposed them, it’s clear that I was much right-er than I ever imagined back then. I have been shocked by just how drastically different the world is becoming, despite having predicted it. The world is NOT going to ever revert to “normal” as we defined it in January, 2020. We will continue to work our way through a rapidly changing series of “normals” for the foreseeable future.

To briefly recap those changes I’ve already shared here:

  1. In-Person gatherings will be precious, smaller, and different. Yup, yup, and yup! Our church has gathered to worship in person five times, plus heldd a couple of outdoor gatherings and we’ve seen all three of these words in play every time. People are thrilled to be together, to see friends, to share an experience of God’s presence and praise complete with social distance and face coverings. But only some people. We’re still running about 25-30% of our pre-COVID numbers in person. The rest are online. I don’t think that’s going to change anytime in 2020, particularly as several states are visibly exploding with COVID-19 cases.
  2. Digital participation is, and will remain, important. Yup and yup for the very reasons described in #1. As a church we’re investing in audio and video equipment that will be an important part of our digital strategy for the next several years.

Change #3: Real Community Will Be More Vital Than Most Previously Realized. Churches Should Provide It Through Small Groups.

This is probably the most important change and it provides an incredible opportunity for the church in North America! Americans, particularly those of us in the Washington, DC-metro area, were fairly lonely people to begin with. We seldom knew our neighbors well, seldom developed deep friendships, and often lived far from our extended family. We used to be able to numb ourselves to this reality with busyness. If we spent enough time commuting, worked enough extra hours, had a large enough circle of casual acquaintances, and spent enough time on social media we could almost convince ourselves we weren’t lonely. Then we all had to stay at home…

Now we work from home, go to school at home, and vacation at home. Many sit at home alone and afraid to even go outside because others aren’t afraid. We don’t shake hands, don’t hug, and can’t even smile at a stranger and be seen behind our masks. Many people are desperately lonely. This pandemic has already inflicted great pain and much of it will last for years: physical pain, emotional pain, financial pain, and spiritual pain. It’s too much for people to bear alone, and those who try are likely to eventually succumb to loneliness, grief, despair, and depression.

We need to be in community. We need to minister to one another, encourage one another, love one another, and bear each other’s burdens. This is fundamentally true. It’s biblical. It’s sociological. It’s anthropological. It’s true.

Unfortunately, our increased isolation will continue in the “new normal” (there’s the phrase again!). Many will work from home permanently. Many will go to school from home for at least the next year. At the same time, there are fewer and fewer places to go. There is less eating out, less going to the movies, fewer clubs, and fewer bars. What sociologists call “third spaces” (gathering places which are neither home nor work) are mostly closed, awkward, hemorrhaging money, or simply dangerous.

People need community and have fewer places to find it. This is where the North American church has the incredible opportunity it’s been dreaming and praying about for years! The church was meant to be community (begin by checking out Acts 2:42-47 to confirm). We were supposed to be made for this situation, though unfortunately, many churches are not. This is where we must pivot! Every church must learn to excel at offering community. The church should become the “go to” place for lonely people to find community. However, that community won’t be in large gatherings in church buildings. No way!

Churches must offer desperately needed community through small groups: 8-12 people at most, meeting regularly on decks, in private homes, at patio establishments, and online. Groups where people can gather, get to know each other deeply, laugh and cry together, discuss and pray together. Groups are where we should grow together and grow strong together.

There are likely to be ongoing and fluctuating restrictions on large gatherings, full of constraints and capacity limits. The best way to provide community consistently will be in small private gatherings with open invitations and open hearts to welcome and love hurting neighbors. Small groups must become the best and most reliable way for churches to offer fellowship, ministry, and even worship together online.

As a church (and as the church) we must aggressively encourage every Christian, whether they live locally or have joined the congregation virtually from a great distance away, to find community in a small group. At our church, these are called Thrive Groups. These are where followers of Christ gather to thrive in community, care, friendship, fellowship, and growth.

Small groups should become the place where sharing Christ easily and naturally takes place. These are safe and easy places to invite friends and neighbors to get to know Jesus. Groups should become the place where serving Christ and the church takes place, as groups tackle the challenges of our hurting and falling world. Groups are a great place to minister side-by-side to clear and present needs like hunger and racial injustice.

New rhythms of life are forming for all of us. However, they will continue to be regularly disrupted by the changing face of the coronavirus pandemic. This means that every church has a precious window of time when people are more flexible and adaptable because they’re already being forced to change frequently. For those willing to embrace this change, 2020 is an incredible opportunity to both minister and form new and healthy habits of life in community, life as Christ meant it to be lived.

Digital Church – Reflections on the New Normal, Part 2

Posted on by Brian Burdett

Last week I shared the rather obvious (though still somewhat depressing) news that the world isn’t going to snap back to “normal” as we understood normal in late 2019 and early 2020. Rather, as we slowly emerge from COVID-19 restrictions, we’ll do so with newly formed habits (some healthy, some destructive) and ongoing psychological impacts that will reshape our behavior for years to come.

Thus we’ll be more acutely aware of changes than usual and will be forced to engage with a continuously changing “new normal” (my apologies to those who are already over this phrase). Both secular enterprises and local churches must proactively adapt and engage with this changed culture or risk rapid irrelevance and eventual death. While this blog is primarily focused on church life, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to extend these points from the sacred realm into the secular business and social arenas.

While it’s natural to mourn change (and the death of the old normal we knew) and to lament the need to take radical action amidst great uncertainty, there are great opportunities available to those who understand these times and adapt successfully. There is a tremendous gospel opportunity waiting for churches that can effectively present the unchanging good news of Jesus Christ to a hurting, anxious, angry, grieving, confused, and divided world.

Last week I began unpacking six changes I see as being very likely as we engage the “new normal”:

  1. In-Person gatherings will be precious, smaller, and different.

Change #2: Digital Participation Is, and Will Remain, Important

Some, perhaps many, won’t rush back to gather in person for extended periods of time inside a building possibly containing and recirculating coronavirus. That’s particularly true for those most vulnerable from a health perspective, including seniors and those with complicating health conditions. It’s also true for families. Safety requirements and volunteer-related considerations will delay the resumption of traditional children’s activities in most local churches. An informal survey of local church leaders yesterday revealed that the plurality of churches weren’t planning to resume Sunday-morning children’s programming until Fall.

It’s my belief that many people, young and old, sick and healthy will prefer to continue worshiping safely or as a family in their own home. Add to that number those families where Dad is presently worshiping every week with the family on the couch, but historically wasn’t that keen on coming to church in person. If you were Mom and the kids in that scenario, would you be in a rush to come back and leave Dad at home??? Probably not…

Many churches are gaining new congregants as a result of this crisis, including geographically distant friends and relatives now worshiping at a local church hundreds or thousands of miles from their home. Even many who were previously unchurched are beginning to feel at home in a church quite far from home. Every church should eagerly embrace the responsibility to engage these individuals more fully in the life of the church so that they too may embrace and grow in Christ.

All this is to say that not only is effective digital participation critically important now, it will remain so permanently. If a church forced to cannonball into the deep end of streaming, shift (or drag) Bible studies into Zoom, embrace online giving, and learn to communicate regularly via social media longs for some glorious future day when they can quit all that nonsense, then they fail to understand that they’ll leave behind much of their existing congregation and lose a huge opportunity to impact this world for God’s Kingdom.

Every church (that hasn’t already) needs to invest significant thought and prayer into how to welcome in newcomers without ever meeting them in person. They must learn how to translate anonymous viewers into increasingly connected and engaged members of the community of faith. They must learn how to most effectively connect “guests” with digital discipleship opportunities regardless of where they may live. I sincerely doubt any church has this all figured out yet and what works for some may not work for others. This should be a season of digital exploration and experimentation. Leaders must understand that some, perhaps most of these experiments will fail before each church discover its particular best way forward. All this must happen as quickly as possible.

Beyond that, if effective digital participation will remain critically important permanently, then no church that’s new to online worship and discipleship can afford to be content with whatever they’re doing right now. Churches must be continuously investing time, mental and physical energy, and significant, real, unbudgeted, unplanned money into upgrading cameras, sound systems, computers, software, internet connections, and streaming platforms. This isn’t optional!!! New personnel, volunteer or paid, must be rapidly recruited and trained to sustain the digital needs of the congregation long after the first people start returning in person.

Right now if a church isn’t doing something new each week to increase its capability, improve the quality of its digital experience, or increase the reliability of its online content delivery, it’s wasting critical time. Formerly “harmless” technical glitches, mistakes, and problems that were tolerable or merely embarrassing in-person now mean that the congregation at the other end of the stream can’t see or hear the gospel being proclaimed in word, prayer, or song. That’s not OK! Problems must be aggressively (dare I say ruthlessly?) addressed at almost any cost. Excellence (or at least consistent competence) is far more important than some leaders may have previously realized, because there’s always another church available online and people will only endure so much before they drop out.

But enough about large-group worship experiences! The criticality of ongoing digital church life must affect everything we do. Almost every small group and Bible study a church offers should operate in a hybrid in-person + online mode once people resume meeting in person. Online or hybrid should be the permanent expectation for everything you offer as a church. This will permit business and leisure travelers, shut-ins, and the sick to remain connected with their groups and studies and it provides the means to engage remote congregants in genuine discipleship. Churches shouldn’t permit groups to not include an online option without very strong justification.

Churches should move all routine committee and team meetings, business meetings, and just about every other meeting imaginable either entirely online or into a hybrid format. Churches historically had a bad habit of asking their most engaged Jesus-loving members to leave their homes many times throughout a typical month to do business (some important, some not so much). We should give everyone the opportunity to participate in these from the comfort and convenience of home. We’ll likely discover a greater level of participation from those most challenged by evening meetings held at church (such as parents of younger children) as well as improved morale for the team members.

The bottom-line is that every church needs to fully embrace digital opportunities and thoughtfully integrate digital participation into almost everything it does. This allows people to engage more fully in the life of the church regardless of where they are or what’s going on with the pandemic. While many churches have been reluctant to engage with digital technology, that runs counter to the historical practice of Christianity. For the past 2000 years, Christianity has harnessed new technology to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, including the bound codex, the printing press, radio, television, and the internet. It’s well past time for every local church to get over it’s discomfort with the complexities and (shrinking but significant) costs of digital participation. We must embrace the gospel possibilities of a world in which every small local church is also a beacon for the Gospel to the farthest ends of the earth!

Altered Gatherings – Reflections on the New Normal, Part 1

Posted on by Brian Burdett

Experts vary on how long it takes to form a new habit. I’ve heard 21 days. I’ve heard an average of 66 days. Regardless, it’s already been longer than that since Northern Virginia (where I live and pastor) locked down in mid-March. At this point we don’t even know when our region will enter “Phase 1” of reopening. Why does this matter? Because every one of us has had time to form new habits and rhythms of life which won’t change easily as the world begins to re-open.

Some of these new habits are likely good and healthy, because let’s face it, life in Northern Virginia was deeply unhealthy. Hopefully we’ve developed new habits of devotion to God, new habits of engagement with our families and neighbors, and new habits of rest and exercise. I pray these habits will persist long after COVID-19 is a terrible memory. Unfortunately, other new habits are likely unhealthy (binging on Netflix, binging on snacks, addictions formed or worsened, etc.) These will be extremely difficult to shake once restrictions begin to ease.

Whenever we begin to come out of our cocoons (or when other people do for those who’ve been out the entire time), it won’t be “all at once”. We’re rapidly learning the language of phases from our state and national leaders. Restaurants will reopen partially (and many will never reopen). Theaters will reopen partially (and most won’t reopen). Teleworkers will “go back to the office” slowly (and many won’t go back all that often). I also suspect that once things begin to ease, that we’ll see alternating cycles of loosening and tightening restrictions over the course of the next 12-24 months.

The point of all this is that we’ll never exactly “get back to normal.” We won’t be going back to life in February, 2020 ever. We’ll instead emerge into a “new normal.” Some view this phrase as being terribly overused and exaggerated. I respect that view. There’s merit to that viewpoint if you define the “new normal” as a singular, unchanging experience shared by everyone for an extended period of time. That’s never the case.

“Normal” is constantly changing and always has been. We’re always journeying into a “new normal,” it’s just that usually change is so slow we don’t notice it happening. If we were to look back objectively, “normal” in 2019 was significantly different from “normal” in 2009. However, for the past decade, we simply didn’t notice the incremental changes as they occurred. 2020 is different. It’s a year of rapid and radical change. We’re noticing these!!! For the foreseeable future, we will experiencing a constantly shifting “normal”. That’s what I mean by the “new normal”.

The church must be perpetually seeking to understand and adjust to the changing “normal” of our culture in order to meaningfully proclaim the unchanging good news of Jesus Christ and effectively demonstrate the unchanging love of Christ to a changing world through our actions. In 2020 we must adjust faster and more radically than usual (not that the North American church has particularly excelled at this in recent years). Whether we like this idea or hate it doesn’t really matter. It must be done for the church to have significant Kingdom impact on the world. If a church doesn’t lean into this reality, prayerfully studying and ministering to her “new normal” she will become increasingly irrelevant and eventually Christ will remove her lampstand. That’s a tragedy that doesn’t need to happen.

Because I have total confidence in our Triune God who remains powerfully at work in this world, it’s my belief that every church can shine brighter through this stressful and uncertain season. In fact, every church should. There are many wonderful stories of that happening already and I’m confident there are many more waiting to be written. But what must we do to prepare for this “new normal”. As we stand in the midst of the fog of the current war with coronavirus, what will the “new normal” begin to look like and how must the church adapt as the world gradually reopens?

Nobody can predict the future perfectly. Certainly I can’t. However, as I have sifted through the evidence and experiences available so far, I see six changes as being very likely. Am I 100% certain about these? No. Unfortunately, certainty is a luxury we don’t have right now. We’re in a season that requires us to act with far less certainty than we’d prefer. There’s risk in this, but also great Kingdom opportunity. I firmly believe that for every church, the risks of inaction far outweigh the risks of prayerful action to respond to these anticipated changes. We must act boldly to position the church to respond to these changes. Because things aren’t certain, we must also constantly assess as we pivot to respond to these. I will unpack these six changes over the course of (at least) six blog posts, starting here…

Change #1: In-Person Gatherings Will Be Precious, Smaller, and Different

Without a doubt, after the longest period of isolation most of us have ever experienced, there is a deep hunger to be with other people. There is a great desire to see people face-to-face. This is particularly acute for our seniors who may not have jumped into every possible technological alternative to in-person gathering. When churches resume gathering for worship again, there will be some folks very eager to be there. There will be joyous reunions and energetic worship and fellowship as restrictions ease. Many will appreciate and treasure in-person gatherings more deeply than ever before. In-person gatherings will be precious!

At the same time, there is, and will remain, very real fear about getting close to people. For months we’ve been conditioned to fear others, to fear spending too much time together, to fear getting too close. It’s going to take time for most people to feel safe hugging people outside their family. It’s going to take time for many to overcome their appropriate fear of large gatherings. Indeed, leaders will need to intentionally create smaller gatherings because there will be on-again, off-again restrictions on how many people can get together either socially or for worship. People simply aren’t going to return to church buildings in a flood, rather it will be a trickle as confidence slowly grows or loneliness comes to outweigh fear. In-person gatherings will be smaller!

“Social distancing” rules will remain in place for quite some time. Hygiene protocols and awareness of them will be off-the-charts for quite some time. Masks (whether voluntary or mandatory) will be a part of most gatherings for quite some time. Habits of touching, shaking hands, and hugging may be changed for years to come. Traditions of passing things in church (offering plates, communion elements, even bulletins) will likely fall by the wayside permanently. Outdoor gatherings will likely prove to be dramatically safer than indoor gatherings to the extent weather permits. Creativity will be at a premium in designing gatherings that satisfy these concerns. In-person gatherings will be different.

As a church, we must think about the types of gatherings we offer and the types we encourage. We must think and dream creatively about how to most effectively create and utilize these precious, smaller, different gatherings for God’s glory. What we must not do is sit around lamenting the situation and wishing we could go back to what we had last year. That’s gone. We mourn and we move forward!

How do we meet in the “new normal” to best “be the church” – worshiping God, making disciples, and doing so in a way that simultaneously loves God, loves our neighbors in the community, and loves one another? That’s the challenge for every church leader in responding to Change #1.

Why We’re Celebrating the Lord’s Supper in A Parking Lot (and Not at Home)

Posted on by Brian Burdett

I’ve never blogged before, as you’ll quickly discern. Frankly, I’ve never felt that I had that much to talk about on a regular basis (beyond what I already say on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights). However, we’re in a strange new season and suddenly there’s an awful lot I’d like to “think out loud” about. So I’m going to give it a try and I hope you’ll think out loud with me.

Mostly I plan to use this blog to unpack my thoughts about the changes I expect to stick around for awhile in the world and culture around us because of COVID-19. I will explore how “the church” in general, and one little church in particular in Lake Ridge, Virginia, should respond to these changes to better shine the light of Jesus Christ into the dark world around us.

But first, I thought I’d explain why we’re celebrating the Lord’s Supper in our parking lot this Sunday, rather than at home as many churches have done. The answer requires some biblical reflection on what the Lord’s Supper is and how it’s meant to be observed.

My brief answer is that the Lord’s Supper is a remembrance and celebration by the gathered body of Christ of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, observed by partaking bread and drink symbolizing the broken body and shed blood of Christ by which He established the New Covenant of grace. In his helpful little book, Understanding the Lord’s Supper, Bobby Jamieson more formally defines it as

The Lord’s Supper is a church’s act of communing with Christ and each other and of commemorating Christ’s death by partaking of bread and wine, and a believer’s act of receiving Christ’s benefits and renewing his or her commitment to Christ and his people, thereby making the church one body and marking it off from the world.

In this time of social distancing, many churches have celebrated the Lord’s Supper online in individual homes, either with materials on hand, elements provided by the church, or elements baked in the home. I have no doubt these were meaningful spiritual experiences for all involved. However, I am not convinced those experiences are actually the Lord’s Supper. I realize I’m in the minority on this and may be considered needlessly inflexible and doctrinaire. I can live with that until convinced by Scripture otherwise (which is certainly possible).

I believe the Bible teaches that the Lord’s Supper is far more than an individual experience. Rather, as we unpack 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, the Lord’s Supper is meant to be experienced in the context of the gathered local church. It’s meant to remind us and reaffirm the unity of the local body of Christ. We are commanded to discern (look around, seeing, hearing, and feeling) that unified body. We cannot do so from the comfort of our homes:

  • 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:17-18, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you…”
  • 1 Corinthians 11:20, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:29, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:33, “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another“

1 Corinthians 10-11 is the Bible’s most definitive teaching regarding the practice of the Lord’s Supper. As you can see, the emphasis is on coming together as the body, the local church. That can certainly be done in groups of 10 or 20 hiding from persecution. I believe it can be done in groups of 10 or 20 meeting together in a home to reduce danger during a pandemic. But coming together as the gathered body of Christ isn’t something a single person or family can do at home while sheltering in place.

The elements aren’t what make the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. There is nothing special about the bread we eat or the juice we drink. Anything that appropriately symbolizes the body and blood of Christ will serve.

The pastors and deacons aren’t what make the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. We are just ordinary people, though called by God to serve in a specific capacity in the local church.

The body of Christ gathered to celebrate the broken body and shed blood of our Savior and marveling at the unity Christ died to create within us, that’s what makes the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. We could certainly use music, prayer, and preaching to create a spiritually meaningful simultaneous consumption of bread and juice in our individual homes, but it wouldn’t be the Lord’s Supper. And so we gather in a parking lot so that we may look around and see our brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice that in Him we are one, and remember what it cost to make that happen.

As a pastor, I could be wrong, but if I’m going to be wrong, I want to be wrong on the side of theological caution in regards to the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because 1 Corinthians 11:27 warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.”