derrickhurst.org

living for eternity today

Tag: covid

Where Did They Go?

August 1, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit it. It can be a tad irritating at times. Some people have seemingly fallen off the map in the past couple of years. I wonder frequently where did “so and so” go? But I wonder if that’s the best take on things…

So before I get too far into this, let me reassure you that this is in no way a slam on anyone who’s moved on. It’s not about any one person in particular actually. And this is not about the person who hasn’t reconnected yet either. This is about those who seem to focus more on the one(s) who’ve gone and not returned than we focus on the one(s) who are right there with us still.

I have the opportunity in my job to work with a lot of churches, but this doesn’t only apply to churches! One common thread in many of my conversations with pastors and church leaders revolves around those people who left during the uncertainty of the pandemic and just haven’t returned. It’s a condition that many institutions and groups are facing actually. Once active and heavily engaged individuals just disappearing without so much as an email, phone call or text message.

It’s hard to see this for anyone and even worse when some of these people who’ve just flat vanished are close friends. But I have a feeling our focus in this whole situation is a bit off.

I was talking with a church recently about this very issue. Where have they gone? Why are they not back yet? We need to get them to reconnect. How do we do attract them to come back again?

While I totally understand this way of thinking. And I’ve even thought it myself a few times, this is not the healthiest or even most beneficial way of thinking. I’m curious have we started to focus so much on the ones who are not back that we’ve disregarded the ones who are right there in front of us?

I fear the answer to this question is yes. I believe that our desire to have these missing faces back and re-engaged in the group has caused us to neglect and even ignore those who are willing, able and ready to serve.

Specifically to church leaders: if you want to re-engage those who’ve walked away start with the ones who are still involved. Get them excited about ministry. Share the work of the church with them. The Bible tells us that we’re supposed to equip the saints for works of ministry. But all too often we gather them together and make them watch us do ministry then complain when they leave because they’re bored.

In one of the many books I’ve read recently, I found a principle for moving an organization or group of people. I think it was in the book Tipping Point, but can’t be certain. The idea is basically that focusing on the late adopters (or those who’ve disconnected and refuse to reconnect) is fruitless, painful and exhausting. It yields very little by way of positive results. The author suggests to pour into the ones who are early to middle adopters, those who are right there already doing the work or at minimum watching it being done.

When these current workers and watchers get going and get excited, there will be a trickle down effect to the rest of the organization. So the long and short is that it’s not bad to miss those who’ve gone, but they can’t be the focus. If we focus on those who are right there with us even half as much as we do those who are gone, we’d be shocked how exciting life in any organization can truly be.

Do we need a new HOW?

September 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret that what we do is important, but equally important at times is how we approach those things we hold near and dear. We’ve probably all heard the old adage that says doing the same thing the same way expecting different results is insanity. Well I think that applies to a lot of different scenarios in life.

One thing I have learned from the last 18 months is that some people care more about how they do things than what they actually do! Now it’s no secret that I serve as a pastor of a central Ohio church, so admittedly my examples will be slanted in that direction. But I know from conversations with those outside the church leadership realm, that some of these correlation apply across cultural settings.

I think something interesting happened when the initial wave of closures and shuttering of activities started. Many churches and small businesses realized that they had relied on one method of doing things. Predominantly, churches had a singular method of distributing their content. Come to a centralized location. Receive what we give. Go home and live it out.

This worked for decades in North America and even in pockets around the world. But take away the church’s ability to meet together and the whole system goes out the window. I’m not saying we shouldn’t meet together! Actually I think meeting together is very beneficial, if not essential. But is it the only way?

From what I’ve seen and experienced it appears many churches in mainline Christianity have made the structure of how we do church more important than the gospel the church is to proclaim. In other words, doing church has become more important than being the church.

Think about the operational system of the church. Many churches are formed around the principle of gathering. If the church gathers it is functioning properly, then it will be gathering in a large assembly. But can the church operate without mass gatherings? What are some alternatives to the church assembling in one location?

Now before we get all early church critical here. The early church, according to the book of Acts, tells us that they gathered as an assembly and they gathering in homes. It wasn’t one or the other, but it was both. However it seems in our 21st Century church tradition we worship the idea of gathering more than letting the gathering fuel our worship.

Think about a restaurant or fast food joint for a minute. If you have only dine in seating, and you can’t gather to sit inside, how are you going to stay in business? This very problem caused many small businesses to shutter and eventually go out of business last year. It had similar effects to some churches who just couldn’t pivot fast enough to provide connecting points beyond the Sunday morning in person worship gathering.

What happens when the church can’t gather like we expect it to gather?

I think we need to start looking at how we can do and be the church in the midst of rolling black outs of meeting together. Analysts have said this is not the last shut down we’ll experience. And if we believe the teachings of the Bible to be true, we’ll see things getting harder and harder for the church as time goes on. So we need to value highly our gathering times, not neglecting to gather by any means. But we also need to find creative ways to gather, get the message out, stay in touch with one another. We need to develop deep relationships with those around us. We need to look out for one another and be proactive in establishing emergency response plans where we take care of those in our community.

There is no hard and fast, silver bullet approach to navigating crisis. There’s no perfect solution to a disruption but we can see clearly that putting all of our eggs in one basket of how we do what we do, didn’t work so well. Look at strategies for staying connected and even reaching beyond your current circle to those a little farther off who are in need of the good news you have to share.

The point is your methods aren’t bad. But perhaps we need to look at additional methods to bolster the overall impact of the message we have to give.

Smaller or Sent Out?

August 11, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There’s an interesting shift happening in the landscape of the church today. Interesting in what has felt to be a very disturbing way. Interesting in a way that is scaring leadership of many mainline denominations. Interesting in a way that appears to be, by all outward appearances, the great shrinking of the institutional church. But I am curious.

Is the church decreasing or is it decentralizing?

The shift for churches to an online presence throughout the pandemic has drawn many would-be church goers to stick around at home and watch from a distance. While there are some issues here that we can go into at a later point, we need to resist the urge as pastors to jump to the negative on this one.

Is this a hurdle or an opportunity?

The short answer is yes! This is a hurdle in the sense that many of those who are not joining in the worship experience in person are missing out on some massively beneficial aspects of what the church is supposed to be. They’re missing the family connection when they join worship together with other believers. They’re missing out in many cases on participation in communion as a body of Christ. They’re missing out on the realization that they are part of something significantly larger than themselves.

But it is also a wildly exciting opportunity if we just take time to engage the possibilities. Through the pandemic, as many churches shifted to online worship or made their current online options more robust, the increase in those who participated in some form of worship engagement was astronomical! The church I serve saw an online engagement that was 200% or more higher than our normal Sunday attendance pre-pandemic.

Additionally, now that we are online many of our members who were unable to attend for a variety of reasons from health to mobility to job requirements all have the chance to participate in worship.

So what would happen if we looked at the shift that’s happening as an opportunity? How can we empower and equip these members of our churches to be missionaries in their communities when they’re not at church? Newsflash but when the church first got rolling in the New Testament they didn’t have brick and mortar buildings or programs out the wazoo. They had people to love and hold accountable. They met in homes and in neighborhood settings.

A word of caution to you pastor type people. Don’t lower the quality of your online option to make people come back to in person gatherings. I’ve heard that and it makes me sick to my stomach. How underhanded is that really!?

A word of caution to those of you not willing to engage in worship in person. The longer you’re gone from in person gatherings with your church family, the harder it will be to get back with them. You’ll find any excuse in the book not to come, and we’re already seeing it.

Love one another well. Serve one another without expectation of repayment or without a what’s in it for me attitude. Just be the church (the people of God) for goodness sake and watch what God will do when his people are faithful to his call on their lives!

The church is not shrinking. It’s moving to places we never let it go before and it is terrifyingly exciting! We’re witnessing the great decentralization of church away from institutional into incarnational.

I Don’t Want Normal!

April 21, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There are some buzz words from 2020 that are still lingering around almost a year later. I’m going to pick on two of these in a quick series over the next couple of days. We’ve heard words and phrases like: Unprecedented, pandemic, this is how you really love someone, and one of my least favorite New Normal.

What in the world is new normal all about anyway? And why would I want that?

The issue with new normal that drives me nuts is that we are a culture built on comforts. We want the comfort of consistency and predictability. The striving for a new normal really is our way of trying to go back to a time when things went as we wanted. We don’t want a new normal because that invovles change. What we want is the old normal on a new day. Let’s just be honest.

If you’re one of those people who’ve been using this phrase, then I likely offended you a little. And that’s ok it’s not personal. I like things to operate in a consistent pattern as well. I mean I have my own normal that I do everyday. I wake up, get dressed, head to the gym, home to shower, fire up the coffee, consume copious amounts of coffee, eat breakfast… You get the point. We all have a routine and that routine is what we think normal looks like. But routine and normal are not necessarily the same thing.

A routine is all about rhythm while normal is about controlling a situation and wanting your rhythm to be uninterrupted. I work in an industry, ok church isn’t really an industry but I didn’t know a better word. But I work in a field where normal or predictability and stability are really critical. We like our firm foundations and set structures. I mean many of us use systems that have been in place since the 1950s!

Now there’s nothing wrong with tradition but if you’re doing life the same way today that you did 70, 50, 30, heck even 10 years ago then you’re probably missing something really important! Part of my job is to serve as a pastor of a local church in central Ohio. The other part of my job on a very part time basis is to work for the larger organization that supports the local churches. So I get to see both sides of the spectrum. And what I’m seeing a lot of these days is a longing for days of old and calling it a new normal.

So many of our ways of doing things stopped being effective when the massive technology boom hit our culture more than a decade ago. Yet thousands of churches across the country were caught off guard when we had to swiftly pivot and launch some form of an online presence. We have focused so heavily on the in person gatherings that all we want is to get back to normal, but what if that isn’t the point?

Ok so don’t go all panties in a wad on me. Give me a minute. Why do we value in person large gatherings so much anyway? If we’re honest, then we’ll admit that what we measure as effective ministry is boards, budgets and butts. And we can’t do any of those well if we’re not in person in our buildings in large settings. We think that a good ministry is based on how many people are back in worship. Sure that’s a measure but is is the best measure of effectiveness?

The bible doesn’t talk about how many people are in a worship place. They talk about how many go out from that worship changed and live a different kind of life. The bible doesn’t tell us how many listened to Paul in the book of Acts but they do say that over 5000 were added to their numbers that day. Added to their numbers was NOT a phrase that meant church membership as a passive experience. It meant they were changed, transformed. They left that gathering as a totally different kind of person who saw Jesus and the power of the resurrection in all they did.

I firmly believe that for the church to be who we’re called to be we need to start focusing on changes lives and not how do we reopen our doors on Sunday or how good is our live stream. I really don’t think Jesus is going to stand at those pearly gates when we die and ask how well our online worship was or how many people came to church the Sunday after Easter.

So if the leaders want to serve the churches well and if the churches want to serve the people well, we need to all be focusing on what does life change look like. How can we help provide a clear path toward a more Christ centered life? How can we encourage and hold one another accountable to live a different kind of life as someone who gets the resurrection? We need to worry less about larger gatherings in our vastly underused sanctuaries and start focusing on connecting lives across generations and geographic locations.

If we as an Lutheran Church body, an Ohio District or a local congregation want to experience something truly abnormal then we need to be about the things the book of Acts describes. We need to value home gatherings, large and small group assemblies, spiritual growth through the spiritual disciplines. We need to grow deep in our faith and relationships not wide in surface level connections.

I do NOT want a new normal or an old normal on a new day because the Bible calls me to be abnormal. And I’d love to chat more with you about how we can live an abnormal kind of life together wherever you are.

Loneliness and Anxiety

October 9, 2020 / / 0 Comments

If there’s anything this pandemic has taught me, it’s the value of people and healthy, strong relationships. Men and women were not created to do life alone, which makes this long and drawn out season of distancing and limited gatherings an extremely challenge time for so many people in our communities.

It’s no wonder the depression rate is on the rise and the suicide rate is skyrocketing. It should be no shock that substance abuse and addiction diagnoses are greater now than in recent history. Loneliness is driving so many to lengths they would never normally go.

Marriages are falling apart. Friendships are being broken down. We’re highlighting problems more than solutions. Compliments have turned to complaints. Love has turned to hate. All we see is the negative in other people.

The spirit of men and women is being broken. It’s being broken by our inability to be around other people. We need to be surrounded by others who can challenge us in a healthy way and encourage us in a loving way. I fear the longer this forced distance goes on the more long lasting harm is going to be done to whatever is left of our relationships.

This distancing is causing loneliness in so many people. And that loneliness is leading to anxiety the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety.

  • Physical activity – Do you workout? Are you a runner?
  • Mental distraction – Do you have a hobby? Love to craft? Is coloring or video games your release?
  • Rest and relaxation – Enjoy napping? or vegging with a movie or video games?
  • Relational release – Find someone you can talk to. Find a friend to lean on emotionally. Who can you call to talk through the difficulties? Who’s already in your life as a constant source of encouragement and grounding?
  • Spiritual connection – An aspect of life we all too easily overlook is the spiritual needs we have. Take time to be in prayer. Take a walk and list the things for which you’re thankful. Spend time reading the Bible. Join with others who believe the same way and study together. Ask someone whose opinion you respect some hard faith questions. Try fasting (who hasn’t packed on a couple pounds since covid started?) Experiment with meditation.

Whatever it is, we all need to find a healthy and nondestructive way to release some tension. Take time to focus on self care. Relieve stress. Rebuild relationships. Restore the basics of your faith system.

These are a few ways you can handle the loneliness and anxiety that are infiltrating our communities and families. What have you found most helpful to help relieve stress? How do you show those around you that you value their friendship?

Flip the Curve

October 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Imagine for a moment one scenario with two potential outcomes. The scenario is simple you face a challenge. You get caught off guard. You’re thrown off track. Something comes out of no where and completely derails all of your plans. All of your momentum is halted. You come to what feels like a dead stop in an instant.

Sound familiar? I think we’ve all kind of lived this very scenario in our own ways. Graduations were canceled. Spring athletes never had their chance to perform their talents for family, friends and scouts. Summer activities were canceled. Businesses were closed. Churches stopped meeting in person. Family gatherings were stifled. Nearly everything we knew ground to a painful, screeching halt.

And if we’re being honest things aren’t really all that much better. The very thing that brought this calamity upon us is still with us. Fear is being handed out like it was candy to a group of children on halloween. The situation seems so bleak. Business are closing their doors. Churches are being split over how they handle the regulations. Families and friends are divided over where they stand on the issues facing our country.

When our situation is this dire there are two natural outcomes: crash and burn or pivot and soar. The rest of this post will address the issue as it pertains to churches but is really applicable to all scenarios.

In a recent article in Outreach Magazine, it’s been estimated that nearly 1 in 5 churches will likely close their doors within 18 months of the pandemic. This is awful to even think about. But how can we prevent this from being our reality in whatever field we find ourselves in?

If we keep doing the same things we’ve always done, we’ll get the same results we’ve grown to accept or even worse.

So to change the tide we need to pivot. The idea of pivoting in basketball is to keep one foot in place while moving the rest of your body in different directions to determine which way will benefit the team most.

Right now we’re in a situation that demands a pivot. The curve is trending downward. We’ve grown accustomed to being an organization that is all about Sunday morning. Gather together is the goal. Meeting is the mission. But what happens if we pivot our thinking?

The mission of the church never was to just gather and meet. Jesus said to make disciples. The mission of the church if we’re following the command of Jesus should be to go, baptize, teach. It’s all about growing the family of God.

If we don’t pivot our thinking we’re going to ride the plane right into the ground. But if we can keep one foot firmly rooted in the promises of God in scripture, then pivot our methods to see where He might be leading us we’ll be able to soar in ways we never thought imaginable.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll look at a few things we can do to pivot our thinking and approach our current situation not as a series of challenges but as opportunities that God has placed before us to help us soar.

As we end this post consider where you’ve been and what direction you’re headed now. Then evaluate why your church or organization really exists. That information will be helpful as we move forward next week.

© 2024 derrickhurst.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑