In the past few weeks I have participated with very large churches with sophisticated live-streaming capacities and small churches who are still helping everyone sort out proper etiquette on a Zoom conference. Through it all hearts are touched, praise and lament are uttered, and the gospel message is declared. And yet, frankly, we are mostly still wondering what this all means for our life as the people of God. What is church supposed to look like when the primary expressions of congregational life and ministry and mission are no longer available to us?

I don’t know. Yet God’s mission in the world has not changed, and the imaginative power of hope leads us forward. Here are some things that likely are a part of congregational ministry and life:

• Electronic or virtual giving. Benevolence and aid are already a big deal. Congregations and their communities need help more than ever. Developing ways for your people to financially share will matter.

• Pastoral care. How do you care for one another when you can’t sit with one another? Virtual connections, Zoom meetings, and FaceTime take on new meaning. Church leaders will need to facilitate and coach others in pastoral work. There is simply too much for a few leaders to do it all.

• High connection. Pastoral care is really just one dimension of relationality. Finding ways to connect with congregants multiple times throughout each week will matter, now more than ever.

• Worship. Even as churches sort out how to do virtual worship, thoughtful leaders will already by asking what will worship look like in the future. Even when lockdowns and “shelter in place” orders begin to be rescinded, certain more vulnerable population groups still will need to exercise caution about being in groups. Will this mean multiple, smaller services? Will this mean maintaining physical distance even in group gatherings?

• Micro-churches. Is it possible that family groups, neighborhood friends, small networks of folk who live geographically close to each other will become intact communities? The idea of house churches is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition. Could it be a significant wave of the future? This could develop an explosion of witness and ministry if existing churches trained and coached their members in launching neighborhood expressions of community!

• Christianity as a lived faith. It may well be that one of the biggest things to emerge from the pandemic is the opportunity for churches to reimagine what it means to be a Christian. How do I love God and neighbor? What do humility, deference, and service look like in my community where people are suffering? This pandemic has our attention; will we embody our faith in real ways?

• New/old ways of being local. It used to be that folks knew their neighbors. In this emerging new age, it may well be our neighbors whom we need to get to know again. Just last week Vickie and I hosted neighbors on our front porch with a meal –complete with times of prayer and sharing, some good laughs, and proper physical distancing. By reimagining the people that are close by as our neighbors, we can find solidarity and new expressions of community!

Certainly there is more to learn and more to explore. And what will be appropriate in your context will be different somewhere else. But I encourage you to not merely look at surviving the next few weeks. Rather, now is the time to anticipate new ways your congregation will bear witness to the truth of the gospel in what emerges as the new normal.