The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Advent During Covid: Thinking Ahead

By Mary Frances, FaithX Senior Consultant

Ever since the first Christmas in my first call, I have had the urge to downsize Christmas.  The hustle, the bustle, the ever earlier decorating and store sales always feel like too much distraction from the reason for the season.  And yet, the Church has, for centuries, had a built-in time of prayer and contemplation to counter the commercialization of Christmas.  Advent, started in the middle ages and associated with the second coming of Christ, was more like Lent for Christmas.  Fasting, prayer, and silence were hallmarks of this pre-Christmas season.  The emphasis of Advent has shifted to a time of preparation for Christmas, a time of holy waiting for the Christ child.  We wait to celebrate the birth of Christ; we also wait for all that is yet to come.  When we jump past Advent to rush into Christmas, we skip over the invitation to look deep into the darkness of our world, of our lives, before we embrace the light. 

It’s okay to admit it, there is a lot of darkness right now.  Nothing is alright and nothing is easy.  Sending our kids to school is fraught with danger, going to work can put you on the front lines as an essential worker, and to think of going over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for the holidays is just about out of the question.  Fights over mask wearing, racial tensions, protests, violence and counter violence.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died.  We are not alright.  So maybe what we really need right now as we look to the holidays is less Christmas and more Advent. We need to take time out to acknowledge the darkness that surrounds us, we need to look deep into the darkness and own our part in it.  We need to grieve – the loss of loved ones, the changes in our world, the chaos and the confusion.  Not for the first time in our history but definitely for this time in our history, we need space, we need silence, we need time to mourn before we take time to celebrate.  What if we didn’t push it all aside for the sake of Christmas but instead we embraced it and reflected on it because of Christmas, because of the reason for the season, because God so loved the world…that he sent his son….for us.

What does it look like to truly practice Advent?  Certainly, Advent will look different for each community but here are a few ideas to get you started:

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Public Health Expert on Tap: What’s Ahead for Congregations

by Mary Frances

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed last week and came upon a congregation having a midweek service. The camera angle was from the back of the congregation and the quality wasn’t great but I could still see what was going on. People looked kind of spread out around the space. A few were moving around. I didn’t see anyone wearing a mask but some with their backs to the camera might have been. A worship leader was standing in front of a microphone at the top of the center aisle. She spoke about a song she wanted them to sing during Sunday worship and was going to teach it to them right then, let them practice it. I was so surprised! I felt like I could have been watching a super spreader event in action, somehow complicit by just watching. I quickly moved on.

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Combating Clergy Burnout in a Pandemic

Mary Frances
FaithX Senior Missional Consultant

It’s become a regular refrain lately from my coaching clients:  This just isn’t what I signed up for.  I don’t recognize ministry anymore.  I don’t know how to do ministry anymore. Maybe it’s just no longer my call.

The spring flush of the Covid-19 crisis has turned into the late Summer dog days of ministry.  Let’s face it, back in March when we all locked down, no one believed for a minute that we would still be here. According to recent research from the Barna Group,  

What Clergy Are Reporting

47%
struggling with ministry to children and youth

44%
struggling with a hybrid model of ministry

46%
facing challenges to maintaining growth and momentum

35%
fear they are nearing personal burnout

90%
concerned that outreach efforts will be disrupted by the pandemic

100%
concerned that fall worship will be disrupted by the pandemic
and that there is nothing they can do about it.

Barna Group (August 2020)

Certainly, this is a time of uncertainty and change.  Going back to the way things used to be isn’t really an option.  If you are among the 40% of churches open for worship, you know that it doesn’t look or feel the same as it did back in February.  The longer this goes on, the harder it is to imagine what the future will hold for congregations, for denominations, for faithful people.  It is precisely in this kind of uncertainty that we need to grow our resilience muscles.  

I never thought much about resilience in my life until I was preparing for ministry.  When I received the results of my required psychological exams, there was a whole section on my high level of resilience.  I had sought support during my divorce.  I went to counseling when faced with life’s challenges.  I had a mentality of picking yourself up by your bootstraps.  But, in the years since I received that report, I have, of course, faced other adversities.  And in the back of my mind, this little voice reminds me that I have a high level of resilience.  And another voice says, “it sure doesn’t feel like it today.”

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Church in a New Reality: Now What?

by Mary Frances

This post is part of our Keeping Congregations Connected series and includes information on our upcoming webinar: Reopening Church in a New Reality: Re-Visioning in a Changing Context.

We used to say “The more things change, the more things remain the same,” but in 2020, that old saying has been turned on its head.  Today the one thing that remains the same is change. We live in a new reality. Each day we turn on the news or look at our social media feeds to find our way of life challenged as never before.  In the midst of so much change, how do we move forward? How do we think about thriving as the church rather than just surviving?

In the weeks after Covid-19 hit, churches across the country pivoted from in-person worship to online worship in the blink of an eye. I’m not sure the church has ever seen such a rapid change without major resistance! There were no committees, no focus groups, no church council discussions. It just happened. And it was good. Churches adapted to their new reality.

Then we began to address what other essentials needed to change.  Online giving took priority, new ways of doing pastoral care, phone trees were initiated, and members were contacted one by one.  “Are you okay?,” we asked.  “Do you need anything?”  “Can I pray for you?”  All was well.  Congregations were now safely ensconced on Zoom or Facebook Live.  Whew!

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Looking Toward the Future: How Your Judicatory Can Help

by Mary Frances
Judicatory

This post is part of a blog series on
“Keeping Congregations Connected in the Face of COVID-19”
Click here for the previous post

In our last blog post I wrote about the amazing ways that judicatories have stepped up in the face of these unprecedented times.  Today I want to consider how your judicatory can help you as you look to the future of your ministry.

Here at FaithX we work with judicatories all around the country to help them identify growth and define areas in their geographic region and key demographics to target as well as community issues and partners.  Combining data with anecdotal information has perhaps never been more important.  We support this work in several ways:

MapDash for Faith Communities Subscription
MapDash is a powerful missional assessment and planning platform with interactive demographic map layers and analysis tools to identify the “real world” make-up of your communities.  If your judicatory has a MapDash subscription, ask them to help you identify key demographics for your community.  If they don’t have a subscription, there are helpful alternatives such as the ones below…or you could encourage your judicatory to get a MapDash for Faith Communities subscription to support all the ministries of your judicatory.

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