Q#4: In the still-uncertain post-Pandemic era, how can I build a vibrant, overcoming church?

In the pre-Pandemic era, the landscape was perceived to be more stable (although many issues were already brewing!) Church health and growth were based upon many time-tested frameworks and methods. 

The Pandemic upheaved much of the landscape & also threw up attention to fissures and brewing issues. This has caused us to enter a time of transition in the post-Pandemic era. It may take 5-8 years before these issues stabilize into clear frameworks & methods for successful church health and growth.

In this transition period, how can we build & prepare the church to be vibrant & overcoming? Here are some thoughts for consideration:

i. Remember that this is God’s church, HE gets to shape it the way He wants. 

Pastoral leaders need to capture this heartbeat & educate their leaders so as to hold more loosely to present church forms and platforms. Leaders need to encourage the openness to listening to God and change, rather than solely return to familiar forms.

ii. Be flexible in strategy, find new ways to engage the surrounding community & needs in this season & commit at least a part of resources towards that.

“The Pandemic has somehow thrown up the fissures of these issues reaching even into the church. Leaders should intentionally commit a part of their resources and platforms to engaging and being a witness of Christ to these issues. Otherwise, the church will truly be an ivory tower while the world moves on around her.”

The landscape is now rife with issues from elderly care to LGBTQ+, to climate-change, to economic downturns, to metaverse…the list goes on. The Pandemic has somehow thrown up the fissures of these issues reaching even into the church. Leaders should intentionally commit a part of their resources and platforms to engaging and being a witness of Christ to these issues. Otherwise, the church will truly be an ivory tower while the world moves on around her. 

Train leaders & people to focus on principles yet be flexible in forms. This type of creativity and innovation will matter much in transition phases of uncertainty. 

[The church] can reach more people, and different people as well, and [she can] reach them in new ways [she] would never have been able to do before. –Anthony Hilder ^[vi]

iii. Lead cross-generations well.

More than ever, the concerns between Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are becoming marked.^[vii] The way they see what church should look like and the challenges they face in their generation are different. If unaddressed, what will ensue is a migration of certain generations, or tensions between generations. There needs to be dialogue between generations facilitated by sincere leaders to help generations understand one another, carry each other’s burdens & champion one another to be a united spiritual family.

iv. Mentor the right kind of future leader.

In the next 10-15 years, the core congregation will likely not be the present core congregation. What will the core-congregation be in the next generation? What type of church do they desire? What are the challenges to Christian witness will they face? Yet, likely while that congregation becomes core in the next 10-15 years, the present core-congregation will likely still be around perhaps as a more peripheral influence. That means that the future leader needs to drive vision for the future core, and yet have a heart to lead the generations. 

Leaders are not made overnight, nor are they ready-made. Who would be a good future candidate? How would you help them develop what they lack, in skill and heart? How would you build a team around them that is cross generational?

v. Build overcoming believers that can weather the storms of the future.

We have just gone through a global 2-year storm. 

Jesus said,

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:26-27)

We are now in-between storms, not knowing when the next storm might be, but it will come! This is the time to build robust ministries that disciple overcomers for the next storm. The church can do this by learning lessons from the previous storm—the Pandemic—and build ministries to sustain and withstand it. Giving members conviction and hope in making sense of the purpose of the Pandemic is vital to helping them move forward, otherwise apathy or silent abstinence may set in.^[viii]

Some thoughts for your consideration in doing this:

• Focus on strengthening Small Groups.

They are versatile and mobile to tide through Pandemic or Persecution.

• Build Quality-Leaders for Groups. 

As churches strengthen their de-centralization, the experience of their discipleship may rely hugely on the spiritual atmosphere owned by the leader on the ground—the SG leader. Hilder has described ineffective leadership development as one of 8 main problems in churches.^[ix]

• Teach, equip and train members to have an Overcoming Spirituality, even if isolated. 

These would include learning to hear God’s leading, connecting with & encouraging others as priority, journeying with pre-believers in community to be a life-style Christian witness. The latter is critical in living a lifestyle of connection, engagement, friendship towards pre-believers.