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When the pandemic began, none of us were prepared. Governments, national, state and local; businesses, both large and small; schools systems at every level; medical communities, from large hospitals to local care givers; parents were unprepared to care for their children, and last of all, local churches had no clue how to be a church without doing church every Sunday. Local pastors began to call the experts and experts began to call local pastors to find out what was going on. (When the experts I called started calling me seeking advice I knew we were in trouble). No one knew what to do.
That led to an interesting experiment. We shut down church for a year. Most of us went online in some form or fashion -- with varying degrees of success. We tried to hold meetings with Zoom and even do small groups with Teams. Universally, the video meetings and groups quickly grew old and most eventually stopped all together. The teleconferencing went from "Hey, we're all in this together" to "Sorry, but just can't do another Zoom meeting." Most of our congregations adapted to online services. From time to time, people would complain about wanting to come back to church, but by and large, people enjoyed sitting on their couches in their pajamas and watching church.
In short, we closed our churches for a year and no one missed us. Now, while that's not totally true -- some missed gathering for worship and some missed their small group. Some were frustrated by not being able to have a funeral or wedding in the sanctuary, but other than that, they didn't miss us. Add one of the most divisive presidential elections in recent memory, and we have all of the ingredients for an Oscar-winning disaster movie.
We flunked pandemic. Read More
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