Just a Reminder: We Are in the Midst of a Pandemic

This article was prompted by two articles that was posted on the internet earlier this week, “7 Steps to Get Covid-Concerned Churchgoers Back” and “3 Ways to Help Your Church’s Groups Bounce Back from COVID-19.” These two articles do contain useful information but they overlook one important fact. We are in the midst of a full-blown pandemic. We are not at its tail end.

A sharp rise in COVID-19 cases is sweeping across the United States. Dr. Deborah Birx who heads the White House COVID-19 task force has warned top administration officials, "We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic ... leading to increasing mortality.” The colder weather is keeping people indoors and boosting the infection rates.

80 counties of Kentucky has been classified as a red-zone counties because of their high incidence rates of COVID-19 infections. My county is one of them. On Wednesday 21 new COVID-19 cases and 2 new COVID-19 related deaths were reported. With the exception of the police the county seat on whose outskirts I live has closed its offices. The health authorities are calling for stricter enforcement of face mask wearing.

In all the articles about how to encourage more people to return to church, one group is seldom given a voice—the people who have not yet returned to church.

A number of church leaders appear to be in such a hurry to get people back that they do not inspire confidence that they are doing everything to address the safety concerns of those who were attending the church before the pandemic and have not yet returned. They give the impression that what interests them most is filling the pews with warm bodies and the offering plate with offering envelopes. Their primary concerns are not the safety of the congregation but the church’s survival, its budget, and their salary.

I am not saying these concerns are not legitimate. But if church leaders hope to persuade these reluctant folks to return, they really need to address their safety concerns. They also need to be careful about the impression that they are creating.

A number of the people who are reluctant to return may be better informed about COVID-19, how it is transmitted, and how transmission risks may be reduced than the church leaders are. It is disconcerting to them when church leaders rely on outdated guidance. It is even more unsettling when they urge people to return when the pandemic is entering its most deadly phase.

Church leaders are also not going to get people back by harping on the importance of gathering and otherwise trying to make them feel guilty about not returning. This kind of heavy-heavy handed approach does not create trust. Establishing trust is critical. The folks who have not returned will not return if they do not believe that church leaders genuinely care about their wellbeing.

Church leaders who are quick to assume that the people who have not returned have come to prefer the comforts of home to attending church are creating a barrier to their returning. They are minimizing these folks’ safety concerns and their minimization of their concerns will not go unnoticed.

The people who have not returned may know the congregation better than church leaders do. They know that Mike and his wife Janet may wear facemasks and social distance at church but not outside church. Mike does not wear a mask at work and Janet at the grocery store. They often have friends over to the house when the governor has asked residents of the state not to have family and small gatherings because they have been implicated in the transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The people who have not returned may have encountered on social media websites individuals who identify themselves as Christians and who peddle all kinds of inaccurate and false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. These individuals deny the seriousness of the pandemic and dismiss the concerns of those who take the pandemic with the seriousness that it warrants. The folks who have not returned may know congregants who share views of such individuals.

The people who have not returned read or hear on the national and local news stories of churches that did not follow recommended guidelines for churches and which became the epicenter of fresh clusters of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The number of such churches is growing.

The folks who have not returned also read articles by respected church leaders offering all kinds of advice to their fellow church leaders on what they do during the pandemic, advice that shows that the authors of the articles are not up-to-date on what church leaders need to know about the COVID-19 coronavirus, its transmission, and transmission risk reduction. For example, at one point meeting in small home gatherings was recommended. Since that time family and small gatherings have been implicated in the increased rates of infection in the United States and the growing number of new COVID-19 cases.

The timing of a number of articles has been bad. Articles on what can be done to encourage people to return to church are posted online when new COVID-19 cases are surging in states, counties, and cities across the United States. This points to a major disconnect between the church leaders writing these articles and the websites posting them and the realities of the pandemic.

Church leaders need to be brutally honest with themselves as well as churchgoers, those who have returned and those who have not. If they have been monitoring the situation in the United Kingdom, Europe, and other parts of the world, they know that countries that reopened are now experiencing high infection rates and are implementing near-lockdown and lockdown restrictions. As the countries reopened, people lowered their guard and the COVID-19 coronavirus took advantage of their lack of vigilance. The same thing is happening in the United States. Rather than look at ways to getting churchgoers back in the building, they need to be looking at ways of staying connected with folks who are staying home for their own safety.