During 2021 I have been asking pastors and church leaders this question:
“What will your church be known for in a Post-Covid world?”
Most answers continue to go back to the only way we know how to do things. Most answers talk about getting worship attendance back to pre pandemic numbers or “growing the children’s ministry” or “making our youth program the one in town that all of the teenagers want to attend” or “we need to attract new families and younger families”.
Most of the focus is on growing the church.
While I don’t disagree with any of this, I must ask the question, “How will you do this?” Most don’t have any real suggestions that are different from what we were doing in February of 2020.
Most experts will tell you the way the local church was doing things in February 2020 was not relevant and not working. If being honest most pastors and church leaders will say the same.
So, should we really be focused on going back to the pre pandemic ways? If not, what do you do to become relevant in your community?
My word for 2021 has been engagement. The solution to determine what your church will be known for in a Post-Covid world is to engage your current congregation in ministry in ways they might have never done before. Being relevant to the people in your community is what we are called to do and be. This should be the heartbeat of every church; not trying to attract people to Sunday morning worship.
However, if a church has the sole focus of making an impact on the people in their community and the ONLY reason they are doing it is to help people; the church will be attractive and will cause people to check it out; maybe even on Sunday morning. Funny how that works huh?
So, if you have read this far you may want to know how to make this shift. The irony of all this is being known for being relevant starts from within.
Sounds counterintuitive doesn’t it?
Here’s why I say that being relevant in a Post-Covid world starts with the people you currently have.
The best church growth strategy is personal invitation.
People are willing to invite people to their church when they are excited about their church.
People are eager and proud to talk about their church at parties and ball games when they are excited about their church.
People are excited about their church when they are engaged in meaningful and life changing ministry.
People are willing to engage in ministry when they know their time is being used wisely and their involvement will make a difference in people’s lives for the Kingdom.
So how does your church do this in a different way than before?
One way of doing this is Innove. Check out this video to learn more about the Innove process.
Innove is the most relevant and transformational tool I have seen in my 20 + years of ministry.
I work with churches and help guide this type of conversation. Would you be interested in a One Day strategy day to assess how your church might head down this path? If so, connect with me at alan@generis.com.