Reopening After COVID-19: Treating Our Worship Spaces as Workplaces Rather Than Theaters
Point fingers. Place blame. Perform an autopsy. Something has clearly gone seriously wrong with this country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The report card will clearly vary from state to state, but across the board the national picture is less than rosy. The United States far outstrips every other country with infections and deaths, plus the mounting economic toll.
Perhaps this was an unstoppable pandemic destined to wreak havoc. Perhaps it was always a long shot to eradicate this disease in North America. Perhaps shutdown successes in places like New Zealand, Iceland, and Taiwan were simply impossible because of the country’s size and its populace’s mobility.
Regardless, it’s time to see the situation as it is. COVID-19 is not going away. This disease will be here at least until there is a proven vaccine.
Since eliminating COVID-19 is not in the cards, businesses and organizations must find ways to live safely and responsibly with the disease in their midst. For Christian communities, this is especially difficult. Churches are facing priorities that seem to compete momentarily. They ought to always place a high priority on showing care and concern for neighbor. But they should also remain committed to the Lord and not allow fear to triumph over reasonable thinking.
Given this set of polarities, I think it’s time to think creatively about how to reopen churches in a way that honors both God and neighbor.
Each church must navigate its own set of challenges and concerns. No single plan or framework will fit every situation. Some churches will risk opening too soon or too quickly. Others will perhaps wait too long. Regardless, all are facing the near-impossible task of threading the needle on decisions they have never faced or prepared for.
My suggestion is to think creatively about your worship space. Perhaps this is time to hit “reset” on the way you understand church. In reopening your physical plant, don’t think of this as a decision to permit people to come and attend. Don’t view your gathering space as a concert hall—even if the space resembles that.
Instead, try visualizing and describing your building as a workplace. Talk about your church members as your employees who have all been working from home during the shelter-in-place order. Now some are ready to return to the office (read, the church building) while others will still want to work from home. Allow your workers (read, members) to start moving on these two separate tracks. Reopen your headquarters with precautions for those who need the physical interaction while continuing to equip and encourage those who need to stay home.
This way of thinking can change your decision-making calculus. Instead of wrangling over whether to reopen, plan for how to do so safely. Like any company or organization, it’s your job to provide a safe workplace. You don’t need complex plans, but you need a plan. You must think through how your people can gather safely and feel enriched, ready to live out the church’s mission. You also need to think through your continued use of technology to stay connected with those who can’t make it to the building.
If you can begin to reframe the conversation in this way, I believe you will save your congregation from a heap of grief. And what’s more, I think you will be steering your church to a more biblical way of thinking.
To put it kindly, many churches have gotten confused about what they are supposed to be about. In 1 Tim. 3:15-16, we find these rich descriptive terms: “the household of God,” “the congregation of the living God,” and “the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” The final metaphor reveals a great deal when read parallel to the previous two. The church is not the truth. It supports and upholds the truth of Jesus Christ. It is God’s possession. God’s glory dwells upon it. On its own, the church is nothing but a fascinating architectural structure designed to prop up something much more meaningful and magnificent. Churches mean little unless they are focused on sustaining God’s precious cargo, the mystery and message of Jesus Christ.
Your post-pandemic church can discover the mission of Jesus. Your worship gathering is not a performance. You are not a Sunday-only enterprise. Your assembly is not the essence of our faith. Instead, you are at your best when your meetings support God’s renewing and redeeming work in the person of Jesus and empower the workers who are being equipped for God’s kingdom work.
If reopening your church means getting back to thinking that the Sunday morning assembly is the mission, then you ought to struggle and even fail with navigating the journey ahead. But if reopening your church means allowing your workers to once again revisit the factory where they are equipped and rejuvenated for the mission, while still nourishing those working from home, then you should be able to creatively engage the exciting journey of being led by God’s spirit.
