4 Hopes For The Post-COVID-19 Regathered Church

As COVID-19 continues to significantly impact our lives with no known end in sight, we continue to adapt and figure out ways to move forward during this pandemic.

A lot of things are and will change as a result of this massive interruption, and in some ways, it makes it easier for us to try new things.

So whenever we get past the worst of COVID-19 and can live our daily lives with more normalcy, my hope is that the Church would regather again in new in better ways.

Below are four positive changes in particular I am hoping to see in our churches post-COVID-19.

1. We would see the importance of local church involvement

Previously I wrote about how "going to church” doesn’t make someone a Christian. However, my fear in the sentiment behind sayings like that is how much it downplays how vital consistent involvement in the local church is for our faith.

Some statistics point out that the average church goer might attend a church service once every four to six weeks.

My hope is that post-COVID-19, those who are followers of Christ would possess a renewed sense of belonging to a faith community. Not for the sake of going to church more to check some sort of spiritual box, but for our own good. There are many benefits of consistent local church involvement (you can read about four of them here), but they can only be experienced if we prioritize our faith community.

We weren't created to do life alone, and COVID-19 has shown us just how much we need relational connection. This means local church involvement cannot be something we do only if we have no other plans, but should we something we plan around if we want our faith to be best encouraged by it.

My hope is that COVID-19 reveals to us what has always been true; local church involvement is the best thing we can do to encourage and grow our faith.

2. We would become more authentically multiethnic

Many people want their church to be a multiethnic church. We understand that this is what heaven is and will be like and we want our churches to better represent that reality. Given all the racial injustices coming to light in 2020, many followers of Christ would like to see more multiethnic churches become a reality with greater urgency.

The problem is, many predominately white churches who may say they want a multi-ethnic church really want to continue have "white church" that minorities come to.

What I mean is that we want the music to stay the same, the preaching style not to change, the response to preaching and worship to remain unchanged, and generally keep our churches functioning the exact same and hope that non-white people show up.

But to be authentically multiethnic means that those of us in the dominant culture have to be ok with doing things differently. It even means being uncomfortable at times as we adjust to doing things that allow our churches to be truly multi-ethnic.

My hope is that in a post-COVID-19 world, those of who are white church leaders leading predominately white churches would do a better job at taking intentional steps, no matter the cost, to make more multi-ethnic churches a reality.

3. We would extend more grace to one another

Every single one of us needs grace. Grace, however, is not something that seems to be part of the vocabulary of our culture today. The rise of "cancel culture" means one mistake can lead to huge, long-term negative impacts.

This isn't to excuse bad behavior, but to recognize that when someone truly repents, we need to do our best to do what Jesus has done for us; give grace.

In a public discussion involving a white pastor on race relations, this well-known white pastor made a comment that was clearly insensitive toward African-Americans. Understandably there was pushback online against his comment, and this pastor owned up to what he said and publicly apologized for the hurt he caused.

In response, Christian hip-hop artist Kevin Burgess (known as KB) tweeted,

This is the church. We will rebuke you when you are wrong. We will forgive you when you repent. But we will not cancel you when you are down ... for Christ will not cancel us. “Cancel culture” is not kingdom culture. We don’t just applaud the righteous, we restore the fallen.

While the Church often gets a bad wrap, in my experience many of those in the church genuinely do practice grace and forgiveness well. Given all that is going on in our world, my hope is that our world will see just how powerful grace can be and that the Church leads the way in modeling what it looks like.

4. We wouldn't settle for just "preaching the Gospel" in predominately white churches

"Just preach the Gospel" has long been the cry for maintaining the status quo. When we perpetuate the false dichotomy that God only cares about our souls and that pursuing any type of pursuit of social justice is only a distraction, it allows us "preach the Gospel" without allowing the Gospel to actually challenge and confront us.

History clearly shows us that simply preaching the saving message of Jesus without working out its implications leaves us with a shallow understanding of who God is and what he wants to do.

Chattel slavery was created and expanded in the United States by white Christians, churches, and preachers who were preaching the Gospel. Jim Crow laws where created and expanded in the United States by white Christians, churches, and preachers who were preaching the Gospel.

Scripture is emphatically clear that God cares about the poor, marginalized, and mistreated. Not only that, but it teaches us to prioritize those who are being mistreated.

And we know God's future kingdom of which all believers will be a part won't have any lying, tears, cheating, or death. In other words, it will be a place where our physical needs are taken care of to the same degree as our spiritual needs.

The Gospel compels us to do what Jesus did for us, take action. My hope is that those of us in and even more so those of us who are leading predominately white churches will see this more clearly post-COVID-19.