Much debate has poured out over this question as the pandemic continues to hold many of our communities within its grasp. “Are public church services considered essential?” “When will we open our churches again?” Such questions, sadly, cover a deeper set of questions the pandemic has exposed.

More significantly, church leaders are asking, “What is essential about being the church?” This question is a whole lot more complex than the real and often complicated dilemma of relaunching face-to-face Sunday morning services! Certainly, worshipping in the same space, being bodily together in community, is valuable and needful to our Christian identity. Public worship feeds us, nurtures us and bears witness to the gospel.

The awkward reality, however, is that so much of our Christian identity has been tied to participating in a Sunday worship service. Without that single weekly event, many Christians have been left wondering whether they actually need church at all.

This is the rub. Christian faith has never been a spectator sport. Showing up on Sunday does not a Christian make! Worship services, Bible class, small groups, ministry commitments, and all the rest are supposed to lead us into a deep, full, rich life with God and with other humans. It is the deep relationship with God and others that composes Christian witness and life. That is what’s essential!

Regardless of whether you can gather soon with members of your local flock, the nagging question remains: “What is essential about being the church?”

Responding to this question may require significant rethinking about the values and practices of many of our congregations. For example, some good places to start are paying attention to local neighborhoods, renewing your focus on welcoming and restoring relationships with sisters and brothers who have a different color of skin, praying more, and partnering more with other Christians in our cities and towns. Consider also how we could intentionally invite people into practices of discipleship. How might we call people to a place of sacrifice and witness to the truth of Jesus in our world?

Though less exciting and less vocal than questions about when we will “reopen,” these questions about identity and discipleship are actually the more important questions. They were important long before the pandemic. And they are even more important in light of the renewed attention that the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others bring to the ways people of color experience life each day. Ministers and elders have our work cut out for us.

As hard as it is to find a way to get everyone back to the church building on Sunday mornings, the greater and more essential challenge is figuring out how to invite people into a life shaped by Jesus. When God’s people seriously pursue discipleship that shapes us to love and cherish others well, the church’s witness in the world will alter our communities and cities. And that witness will declare the praise and wonder of God's work in ways far beyond simply seeing cars parked around a church building on a Sunday morning!