Redefining "Normal": A Preacher's Ongoing Re-Entry Plan

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Many congregations are finding their way back to in-person worship.

The temptation is strong to regain a sense of normalcy.

But getting back to normal is only worthwhile if the “normal” we knew before is relevant to our present realities.

In other words, does the “normal” we know work now? For these people? In this place?

Does that normal help build the reign of God now, after all we’ve been through? After all the deaths and illnesses? The addition of digital worship? An election that tore communities and families apart, and who are only now beginning to see each other again?

Does what you used to do make sense now?

Here are five considerations as you make the transition.

Everything will take longer than you think (but not for the usual reasons)

Everything takes longer than we think because we overestimate that things will go perfectly, and underestimate the actual time required for a task.

As we return to in-person gatherings and meetings again, they’ll take even longer still.

We’re all tired, traumatized, and, hopefully, really, really happy to see each other again.

That means making many church business decisions will take longer not only because we’re not thinking as clearly as we ordinarily do, but also because people need to reconnect during these conversations.

Think of this period of time as an extended funeral wake when friends and family gather to grieve their losses and tell story after story.

Some wakes last for hours.

Our collective wake may last for months.

When planning meetings then, reduce the number of items on the agenda, give plenty of time for people to talk, and expect fewer measurable outcomes.

The small goals are the big ones

It’s always helpful to talk about parish goals, but this year’s goals probably aren’t going to be what we usually think of.

They probably aren’t going to be grand, sweeping programs like fundraising for a building campaign.

This year, small is big. Huge, even!

People are feeling overwhelmed, traumatized, and uncertain about the future.

There are big question marks about who will return in person, what will an ongoing, online community look like, and how we continue to keep people safe when the virus is waning but isn’t yet vanquished.

We’re a culture that’s constantly focused on doing, doing, doing.

But doing, doing, doing, can be used to mask hurts within that need to be healed, that just “being” reveals.

It’s OK to “do” less and “be” more.

Just managing in person liturgy is a big-enough goal.

Many clergy have accepted new positions during the pandemic and are only just meeting people in person for the first time.

Getting to know those you serve is a big-enough goal.

Pausing with parish staff and lay leaders to have coffee, take a walk, share about the impact this past year has had on each of you is a big-enough goal.

This next program year, regrouping is plenty.

Reconsider from the ground up

We hardly ever have a chance like this!

With so many routines disrupted, it’s the perfect time to be intentional about the old patterns that are worth preserving and the ones to toss.

For example, if your congregation managed online worship without any bulletin at all, do you need to bring them back?

Or if you did use bulletins online and feel they are still essential, do you have to print them again? Could bulletins be made available on an app or the parish website instead?

What about online worship? Will it be continued? Modified? Clergy may have been responsible for its planning and production out of necessity, but is that necessarily true going forward?

And what about preaching? Many preachers who preached 20-40 minutes in person discovered that online sermons worked better if they were shorter.

Will you go back to longer sermons? If so, why? To what end? If a shorter sermon shortens the entire liturgy, is that OK? How else might you and the congregation be faithful stewards of that time?

In short, we often feel constrained by the parish mantra “We’ve always done it this way.”

For a short time, we can say, “We always used to do it that way. But should we now?”

What are you about?

This thought continues from the last one and gets at the big picture: Why does your ministry exist?

The world is really, really hurting, including us.

We want to lick our wounds and hide under the covers until it’s safe to come out again.

But a hurting world is exactly the condition Jesus sent the disciples out to heal, and it wasn’t any picnic for them.

Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (6:1-3) describes the extraordinarily difficult circumstances he and other disciples faced: calamities, hardships, starvation, beatings, imprisonment, and more.

And yet while they were wounded and hurting Paul and the others went out looking for people to serve, they sought those who didn’t yet know the Good News of Jesus Christ.

They knew what they were about and why.

This is the perfect time for parish retreats—to listen and discern who have they been? Who are they now? Whom are they called to serve?

With the needs of the world so vast and deep, the hard part is not going to be figuring out the choices to serve.

The hard part is going to be narrowing it down.

Before rushing into never-ending to-do-lists that are simply reacting to the loudest voices, you might plan a series of parish listening days to rest, pray, reflect, and ponder together.

“Normal” is Normal Only Because it Works—For Some

If the last eighteen months have shown us anything, it’s shown us the fissures in our society.

The cracks in our justice system that many in the dominant culture thought were just that—cracks—have been more accurately exposed as crevasses that are miles wide and deep. What we thought were flaws in our “justice for all” system that would be healed in a matter of time (after all, we did have an African-American president, the thinking went), turns out will require back-breaking, decades-long, risk-taking effort—on all of our parts.

In other words, should we even try to go back to “normal?”

What if “normal” were reimagined?

What if “normal” looked a lot more like loving our neighbors, upholding their dignity, and laying down our lives for them?

Before rushing backwards to embrace a nostalgic past because it made us feel safe and secure, what if we stood still to imagine a different normal altogether: one with justice and liberty for all?


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