{"id":31365,"date":"2022-09-10T15:27:29","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-surprising-things-i-learned-about-my-churchs-views-on-re-entry\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:27:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:27:29","slug":"4-surprising-things-i-learned-about-my-churchs-views-on-re-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-surprising-things-i-learned-about-my-churchs-views-on-re-entry\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Surprising Things I Learned About My Church’s Views on Re-Entry"},"content":{"rendered":"
Anastasiia Chepinska photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Josh King<\/em><\/p>\n

Someone once said if no one is following you, you\u2019re not a leader; you\u2019re just going for a walk. <\/p>\n

To that end I believe it\u2019s wise to ask those you\u2019re leading what they think and how they feel. I know feelings are not something church leaders prefer to deal with, because they\u2019re fickle.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re also a reality. <\/p>\n

Our church recently used a free Lifeway Research survey to ask our members how they\u2019re feeling about local stay-at-home restrictions and the potential of meeting back together. <\/p>\n

We included the option for other churches to use the same survey because working together is always better than trying to navigate uncharted waters alone. <\/p>\n

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This also provided more data that could inform near-future decisions.<\/p>\n

The results were interesting. I\u2019m not a statistician nor do I pretend to be. <\/p>\n

I won\u2019t give you actual numbers, but I\u2019d like to share with you what a few churches in a medium-sized, college town suburb, in the Bible Belt found about the attitudes of their people about coming back to church. <\/p>\n

1. Most people were nervous about coming back to church. <\/h3>\n

About a quarter of those who answered said they were ready to rush back the very first day, but the rest had various levels of concern including a number that said it would be quite a while before they attend. <\/p>\n

This helps because we are not going to try accommodate the numbers that were attending before we went online, at least not at first. <\/p>\n

2. They are overwhelmingly flexible. <\/h3>\n

Nearly everyone said they\u2019d be willing to move service hours and locations in order to accommodate as many people as possible. <\/p>\n

Local leaders were encouraged by this because it gives us a lot of freedom. Our church had three in-person services, one of which has always been the largest. <\/p>\n

Knowing people are flexible means we can try to push more people to one of the previously less popular services and many will respond positively. <\/p>\n

3. They don’t want to be in full rooms. <\/h3>\n

They don\u2019t even want them half<\/em> full. <\/p>\n

This makes sense. But it does tell us that while we may want to try to fill the room to at least 50% capacity, they would rather keep it a little lighter. <\/p>\n

4. The children are staying with the parents. <\/h3>\n

Given that most of what I have heard says children are at low risk for COVID-19, and many parents might be craving a break from the kids, I thought they would rush to have their kids in a safe, clean, and energetic environment. <\/p>\n

The majority who responded to the survey said they would keep the kids with them. That\u2019s obviously going to adjust how many we can fit in a room and other things, like service length and content. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all helpful and I think I would sum it up this way: The people in the church are more apprehensive than I first assumed. But then again, that’s why we ask. <\/p>\n

Many of you reading this aren\u2019t in a southern mid-sized college town, like I am. <\/p>\n

Some of you may be in a remote, sparsely populated area and lead a small, rural church. Others may lead in a church located in an urban, densely populated area. <\/p>\n

Whatever your context, it\u2019s important to follow local and state guidelines. And outside of that, it\u2019s critical that you get a read on the pulse of your church and learn how you can best serve and lead them. <\/p>\n

JOSH KING (@JoWiKi)<\/strong> is the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, husband of Jacki, and father of three boys<\/em>. He\u2019s also a co-host of the EST.church podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here to download the <\/em>Lifeway Research COVID-19 Congregational Survey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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See also  Is It \u2018Ministry Failure\u2019 To See a Counselor?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anastasiia Chepinska photo – Unsplash By Josh King Someone once said if no one is following you, you\u2019re not a leader; you\u2019re just going for a walk.  To that end I believe it\u2019s wise to ask those you\u2019re leading what they think and how they feel. I know feelings are not something church leaders prefer … Continue reading “4 Surprising Things I Learned About My Church’s Views on Re-Entry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}