Like many, when the Global Pandemic caused by COVID-19 hit our country, and then our state and city—seeing this moment in history as an opportunity was the furthest thing from my mind.
I simply struggled to grasp what was even going on in the midst of the loss of life, let alone the way of living we were accustomed to. It has truly been an unprecedented time for me as a pastor, a leader and also as a husband and father.
But as we’ve begun to emerge from our quarantines and social distances, I’ve been challenged to begin looking at this moment as an opportunity to not just look back at what I’ve learned, but also see the new way to move forward in my leadership, and how we function as the Church. Allow me to share Three Lessons I’ve learned from the COVID-19 Crisis:
1. Evaluate Everything
Early on in the process of pioneering our church plant, we determined with our launch team to always ask the question, “How does what we’re doing (or desire to do) connect with, and move forward our mission?” It seems like a simplistic question, that could almost seem adversarial, or a vision preventative—BUT! This very simple question helped us know what ideas, strategy and focuses to say yes or no to. It saved us time, energy and honestly a lot of money avoiding things that simply were not who we were, or what we were trying to do.
However, we reached a point almost a year and a half after our public launch where I realized we had stopped asking the question. And to be quite honest, we had lost sight of our mission and in a lot of ways, who we had been called and set out to be as a church. It was a giant organizational and leadership identity crisis, which would lead us to essentially blow up most of what we had built (a lesson I will save for another post), by asking this question regularly once again.
Fast forward to a few months ago, when the game had changed for literally everyone, and I caught myself resenting what I was doing in ministry. Why? Blame it on weariness, insecurity or whatever, but I had fallen back into trying to do business as usual—all the while forsaking that simple question: HOW DOES THIS CONNECT & MOVE FORWARD OUR MISSION? Asking this question yet again gave me permission to drop (thank ya’ Jesus!) the things that were working against our mission, and allowed me to dream and discover what ministry could look like now and moving forward.
So I’d ask you, Is what you’re doing connecting with your mission and moving it forward?
Evaluate everything you’re doing and run it through this question. Use this opportunity to dial in exactly what your mission and vision is.
And if you really want to take this to the next level, ask this question in your current approach to your marriage, family and relationships. You might be surprised how much you’ve downshifted into the path of least resistance...
2. Embrace the Simplicity
In the church world, this crisis has driven many leaders and churches to finally step up innovating and adapting in ways (most through technology) that they previously had not. If we choose to perceive it, this is an incredible opportunity to move forward. But within new things comes new temptations to compare our quality to those we would see as a better quality (aka: the comparison trap).
When the call to help flatten the curve in our state came, our leadership and I determined the best route to go for our church gatherings was what we lovingly called Zoom Church, utilizing the Zoom Video Conferencing platform. It made the most sense for us in evaluating our “Why” question to help determine Our “What” strategy. But it meant we wouldn’t have the live-streams, the slick production and graphics (something I personally love creating), or even the post production flare for our website and app. It triggered A LOT of my “having significance” issues (more on that in a sec) in ways I was unprepared for.
Then another pastor shared with me something he felt God had reassured him with in this season, and that was the permission to “Embrace the Simplicity”.
God wasn’t that concerned with whether my production values met my own expectations or those of others. God simply wanted me to meet him, and his people in the simplest way that would engage them in the mission we had been put on together.
So if you’re a pastor or leader who feels like you, or your presentation don’t match up well against some of the others. Be at peace. Jesus still sees your faithfulness to serve, and LOVES IT. Give yourself GRACE and relax. Yes, we can still pursue excellence and growth in new things. But if this has become something to obsess over, or source of shame for you personally, it’s no longer productive. Embrace the simplicity.
3. Let It Go
A couple weeks ago, I had the realization that I was triggered by literally anything. Who knew the key to my overcoming this lay buried in Disney’s Frozen? (I’m a #GirlDad, no apologies) This 3-word phrase hits as a multi-layered lesson of sorts for me, and maybe for you too:
Release More: I have a tendency in leadership to take on more than I should. Not in a micromanager-type way, but rather in a, “I’ll just get it done so nobody else has to” type way. Fun fact, that’s not actually leadership! That’s just giving myself more work outside of my own capacity. In this season of newness, I’ve learned the real opportunity has not been to just try new things, but to release new people and leaders into leading the new things. It’s actually increased our leadership buy-in, and extended me in my ability to lead. Which leads me to my next lesson...
It’s Not About ME: How fun, right? I don’t know a leader who doesn’t wrestle with their own significance (even the really humble ones). It may manifest in many ways, but the struggle is all the same: "Who am I, and does what I do actually matter?" When Jesus says “Let that Go”, it’s not because you’re supposed to be put in your place, or not worry over it. He simply means, remember who I SAY YOU ARE, and that I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE RESULTS. Let that be your motivation, where you find significance and your way forward.
Grace, Grace & GRACE: I don’t know about you, but I feel like some of the worst parts of me have bubbled up to the surface during this season. And guess what, it has in others too; those I have been called to serve included. When we work with broken people, you’re going to encounter all that comes with brokenness. It has been a deliberate action (because I don’t always wanna), to choose to forgive and to give grace as people and leaders wrestle with their own “opportunities for growth" in this crisis. But dang, 'Let it go' has never been so relevant.
What Will Be Different? Let’s be real, things are not going back to the way they were. But Church Leaders, if all we’ve learned from the the COVID-19 pandemic is how to do services online and bolster our online presence, then we’ve missed it. What if this is the moment to truly examine if we’re on mission? Is what we were doing “Before Corona”, or even now, actually making disciples? Is what we are doing really moving the needle closer to Christ, or our own church brand? What can we Let Go? And what needs to be added?
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