There is ample evidence that 2020 was a difficult year for the church. Moving from on-the-ground to online has been a lot of work and with the pandemic rising in most parts of the western world means this is lasting a lot longer than any of us were emotionally prepared for. People are tired and they are starting to struggle in deeper ways – the adrenaline has run out.

At the same time, this is not God’s first pandemic, nor the church’s. Throughout the centuries the church has encountered plagues and pandemics and God has led the way through. All of us grew up in a post-pandemic church. We just hadn’t had to think about it so it was an invisible truth.

But now that we know that even with a vaccine sometime in the next year, we are looking at changed gatherings, masks, increased distancing, etc. for a while. We also know that being online is not only a stop-gap measure anymore – it is a permanent part of the landscape for many of us. And it is time to be seriously thinking about our 2021 budgets and how will we do ministry differently in next year’s pandemic situation, since this year we have notice: there will be a pandemic in 2021.

All of us need to use this time to pray about God’s leading in this. How are we to more than keep the flock together and re-engage in mission in new and effective ways? How will online worship be better in November 2021 than it was in November of 2020? How will our pastor(s), office staff, musicians, youth leaders, etc. do their work differently and do we have the tools, infrastructure and support they need to more than get by but to really dig in online?

Various leaders across the church spectrum are suggesting these kinds of changes in our work for next year. Since everything either stopped or is being done differently because of the pandemic, all of us have a real chance to use the Fall to rethink, reframe and reallocate what we have to work with in ways that will make us effective in this everchanging landscape where we continue the ministry of Jesus.

And because we have the chance, we don’t want to miss it by simply flowing from 2020 into 2021. This is the chance to ask, “Now that everything is different, what story does God want our congregation to write in the next five years?”