For all the difficulty they cause, crises can teach valuable lessons and create unique growth opportunities. The message we heard repeatedly during the COVID-19 pandemic was “never waste a crisis.” The idea was to adapt to the present circumstances through innovation: in the face of urgent problems, figure out how you can do things better. “Not wasting a crisis” meant carefully considering what you need to do that you have not been doing and honestly evaluating what you need to discontinue.
Many congregations did just that. They upgraded technology. They started paying more attention to mental and emotional well-being. Congratulations to everyone who managed to make meaningful changes: you did not let the crisis go to waste. But we all know the recent global health pandemic was not our congregations’ first crisis, nor will it be the last.
It may have been the first one in our lifetime that lasted as long as it did and that impacted every aspect of life and ministry. Yet as much as we want our contexts to stabilize, we can know for sure that another crisis is in the future.
The next one may be a leadership crisis: what if problems arise during a pastoral succession? It could be a community crisis: conflict in the neighborhood (public education, community safety, partisan politics) can affect the mood of the congregation.
How is your congregation positioned to handle the next crisis?
What are you doing to cultivate trust among your leaders and between leaders and the congregation? Have you refined your communication tools to make it easier to keep stakeholders informed? Are you cultivating a genuine commitment to prayer? What else is needed for you to be ready for whatever’s next?
