Ken Brady offers a helpful list of issues that deserve church leaders’ attention, before we “reopen” church. “Getting back to normal” is not likely to happen soon, if ever. Ken’s thoughts provide a good starting place to think about and prepare for our foray into the “new normal.”
- What if your worship gathering is initially limited to no more than 100 people?
- What adjustments will you make to the Lord’s Supper, baptisms, and your choir ministry?
- Are you canceling camps and VBS, or delaying them until later this summer? Click here to read an article by LifeWay about VBS in the wake of COVID-19.
- Is a physical “pass the plate” offering a thing of the past?
- What are you doing now to sanitize and sterilize your church building between services?
- Are you going to continue offering children’s church?
- Are you going to continue hosting special events? (weddings, funerals, revivals, dramas, bible drill events, children’s programs/choir)
- Are you continuing to provide coffee stations on campus?
- Will you continue offering virtual online worship?
- What is your plan when volunteers step down? (Older volunteers are telling their church leaders they aren’t coming back to teach their preschool and kids’ classes until a vaccine is readily available – it’s just too risky for them because they are most at risk from COVID-19.)
- What’s your strategy to clean and sanitize your church in real time?
- Do door greeters do their jobs differently, or at all?
- Is this the time to end your church’s “meet and greet” time?
- Because people may return very slowly to church, how will you count attendance and effectiveness?
- Should you add and/or shorten worship services to allow for social distancing?
- What are you going to do about larger Sunday School groups?
- What’s your plan for Sunday School curriculum?
- Will you reopen the doors of your church with a “worship only” strategy?
- Do you have a plan for reducing expenses if your church’s offerings don’t rebound?
- How will you deal with the rise of COVID-19 related addictions? (pornography, substance abuse/alcoholism, etc.)
- Are you going to decrease the fellowship time between on-campus worship services?
- Are you going to cancel mid-week Wednesday night services, meals, and Bible studies?
- Should you be investing in new digital equipment right now?
- Will a new staff or volunteer position emerge from COVID-19?