Listen and Adjust
I really appreciate the 262 responses received when I asked you to tell me about your readiness to return to the building. Here are the highlights:
If you want more detail, click here to see the summary our leadership and staff are using to formulate our plan for re-entry.
I am listening carefully right now, Faith. I appreciate all the ways you’ve responded. I asked many of you who were previously serving on our Sunday morning teams if you are able/willing to return in a new role. I’ve been in touch with our leadership to hear how they are feeling about returning. I’ve been listening to our staff so I can understand both their concern and longing to be back in person with you. Finally, I’ve been listening to church leadership experts to gain a sense of what re-entry is like across the country.
So far, here is my takeaway. This is not going according to plan…because none of us planned to face a pandemic in 2020. I really appreciate Tony Morgan’s quarterly report of churches surveyed in five key metrics. If you click the link, you can submit your email address and then you can download the second quarter report. It is short, just six pages, but gave me a deeper insight into what we are experiencing at Faith.
Here are some highlights from Morgan’s report. At the end of May, only 6% of the churches surveyed had re-opened. The smaller their average weekly attendance, the more likely they were to have re-opened. Across the board, attendance has been MUCH lower than pre-shutdown numbers. Most average 20-25% returning to the building. All churches surveyed reported that their online attendance is outpacing in person attendance, no matter the size of the church. Sixty percent of the churches surveyed reported a decrease in giving, but the average decline was 5%, not nearly as devastating as was feared. Finally, churches of all size are considering staffing realignment to address the increased need for online connection and engagement.
I also follow Carey Neiuwhof’s blog, Church Pulse Weekly, Lewis Center for Church Leadership, and a few others. Each link is a great read or listen to what these leaders are saying. If you have resources or have had conversations with other churches about their processes, I would love to hear about it. Email me and give me any and all information you can. I am really trying to listen right now as we think about our next steps.
Our Administrative Council is meeting on Tuesday evening, July 7, to adjust our re-entry plan. In last week’s blog, I named the variables we are facing that mean we have to re-work our initial plan so I won’t go over those again. I really do hope you’ll pray for our leadership and for our church as we make decisions about building re-entry.
The title of this week’s note is “Listen and Adjust”. I’ve told you the ways I’m listening right now. The harder part for me is adjusting. Perhaps you experience this in your own life, in which case you will know what I mean without any explanation. I would describe the tenor of every conversation I have right now as “strained.” From my seat, it feels like we are all trying to make sense out of a reality that doesn’t make sense and it leaves us all on edge. I will claim for myself that I am more tempted than ever to dig in on positions I hold. I am quicker to dismiss your information if it doesn’t agree with the way I’ve made sense of the information I’ve received so far. As I examine this more closely, I can see that the uncertainty we are facing creates a sense of chaos and distress. I don’t want to hear you if that means I will have to consider different information or change my point of view. And, my perception has been that you don’t want to hear me either when my point of view bumps up against yours. Adjustment is hard.
The call for us in this season is to stay flexible — to remain “adjustable.” We have to continue to hear each other and lean in to the relationships we have with each other as we have to make decisions together. I am trying to listen AND ADJUST.
It will help that we get to see each other in person on Sunday. I hope you will join us for our outdoor worship service at 8:00 am on Sunday, July 5. The weather is supposed to be a bit cooler over the weekend, no rain expected on Sunday. Join us on the west parking lot. Bring your Communion elements and a heart for worship. Remember to social distance — 6 feet between you and anyone not in your household. The building will be open after worship for a short restroom break. Some of the Sunday School classes will circle up their chairs on the lawn after worship for class time. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to outdoor worship this Sunday so we can just be present with one another. And, yes, we’ll stream our online service at 11:00 am, just like always on our website, Facebook Live and YouTube. Pastor Heather and I recorded our “Pastor Talk” this week. We celebrated what is special to us about Independence Day and where we struggle. We asked each other hard questions about allegiance, the separation of church and state, and how we are trying to listen to those who have a different experience of “freedom” than we might. I hope you tune in at 10:30 or so for the conversation. I’ll be on Facebook responding to your comments.
Until then, I wish you a fun and safe holiday weekend,
Pastor Charla
