I find it fascinating to observe how people articulate their longings as this pandemic lingers with us. Many businesses are quite eager (for good reason) to get “back to normal.” Airline companies, restaurants, and department stores want us back in the air or in their dining rooms or showrooms ASAP. And I sympathize with parents who are ready to send kids back to school, with baseball fans eager to be at the park, and with cinema devotees wishing to be back in the theater.

And yet.

Is going back to what used to be really possible? And – listen closely, church leaders – is going back to what used to be really desirable? Both questions are important, and both questions call for reflection as we imagine the future.

The question about whether it is possible to get “back to normal” opens up the challenging prospects of what our world may look like with the ongoing reality of the coronavirus. Until medical remedies arrive, we will continue to live with a great deal of risk and uncertainty, especially with various people groups. Perhaps equally significant are the economic factors that will begin to emerge in the coming weeks and months. With businesses and industries severely crippled and with the astounding numbers of people who are currently unemployed, to think that a church or community can go “back to normal” seems rather dubious.

The second question about desirability creates an opportunity for church leaders to engage in reflective critical thinking about what being church truly means. Worship, disciple-making, evangelism, pastoral care, and an active outward ministry are all part of what it means to do church together. The challenge for every generation of leaders is to have the capacity to prayerfully ask what faithful church life looks like for today. Rather than strive to get “back to normal,” church leaders will find energy and hope in asking a different question: “What does it mean for us to be faithful today?”

Old practices are important. They served well in the past, and they may serve well again in the future. Yet the important ingredient is for church leaders to simply ask how to partner with God to help their congregation worship well, foster mature disciples, bear witness to the gospel, care for people, and engage in ministry well. Now is a great time to experiment and to probe. Experimentation and probing are certainly tied to “what was,” but they also continually ask about “what will be.”

Let me offer several specific ways for churches to lean into new modes and ways of being church:

• Offering more worship gatherings that are smaller in size

• Utilizing small groups more fully for care and for ministry

• Incorporating online teaching and worship more fully into the life of congregations

• Ministering more locally within the community and connecting with other Christians to serve and share in neighborhoods

• Orienting children’s and youth ministries more fully with family and intergenerational dynamics

What lies ahead for you and for the congregations you serve? So much depends on your context. But even more depends on whether church leaders are focused on getting “back to normal” or whether they are focused on paying attention to God and the changing reality of what is happening in our world. One path is anchored in nostalgia; the other is grounded in the narrative of God’s hopeful future.