Endless Summer? The time to move forward is NOW.

Summer is ending (or is it?) and Fall is almost here. Congregations are now entering their “regular season” and soon will leave summer behind. Most years this means increased engagement through more ongoing ministries – things like choirs, Sunday School classes, etc. Some of these we may be able to replace with online tools but others will be harder.

For example, what are you going to do to engage your musicians? These are groups of people who provide music in bands, choirs, praise teams, etc. but for whom gathering to practice every week with fellow musicians is also their support system and social connection with the body of Christ. Without a plan for engaging these people, many of them could move from feeling significant and connected to feeling useless and disconnected very quickly. In most congregations, there are other people and ministries in the same boat. 

In every system there are things that happened naturally in our previous way of working. Due to the pandemic, some of these dropped early (ending in Spring instead of Summer). But people simply went with the flow – in a sense Summer arrived early. But now, some of these activities aren’t coming back and may not be back for many more months (or longer). For some ministries we are entering a dangerous state: endless summer. That means leaders need to be communicating, asking, and imagining new ways of doing ministry and new ways of engaging large numbers of our previously engaged people.

If we do this well, Fall will be a time of innovation and reconnection for many of the people who have moved closer to the sidelines. If we do it really well, it will also provide a doorway for new people to join in and connect with these new ministries too. A church with endless summer isn’t likely to flourish. But a congregation that can get out of summer mode and lean into Fall will find itself with important creative opportunities in the coming weeks.