The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

You Can’t Go Home Again: Leading a Hybrid Congregation

by The Rev. Ken Howard

This blog post on leading a hybrid congregation includes registration information for a webinar of the same name

Click Here for Webinar Information

You can’t go home again
because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory
– John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley in Search of America

I recently watched a YouTube video of “The Dancing Priest” performing a parody of the popular Broadway tune, “You’ll Be Back,” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play, Hamilton. 

Right from the start it was good for laughs watching an Anglican priest sing and dance this number, especially since we know that George III was not only King of England but also Defender of the [Anglican] faith. And it’s so easy to see the parallels between the original and the parody.

You’ll be back – wait and see – just remember how it used to be.
You’ll be back – time will tell – when we kick this virus back to hell.
When we finally open the door, we will get back together even better than it was before.

The humor in these lines is real. But they are often poignant when you think about them a little in light of the possibility of instituting a hybrid congregation. Because at the same time it helps us yearn to believe those words, it also reminds us that our wishes to return to our pre-Covid ways are no more likely to be granted than those rebellious colonies were to return to the “loving” arms of Mad King George.

No. We can’t go home again. It is time we look at what’s necessary to lead a hybrid congregation. Of course, we may eventually return to our buildings. But while they may look the same and evoke fond memories of a feeling of being home, it will never feel the same. It can’t. Because as individuals and as congregations, we have changed. In many ways for good, both literally and figuratively.

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Upcoming FaithX Webinars (and a discounted offer for attendees)

As we all navigate our way through the perfect storm of the COVID crisis, the systemic racism crisis, and the economic crisis, FaithX has been working on low-cost ways to help faith leaders and their congregations respond nimbly in the present, while preparing effectively for the future. One of the ways we are doing this is through our new monthly webinar series.

These 60-90 minute webinars are designed to provide you the necessary knowledge and practical resources to ground your discernment and ministry planning in data. The following is a list of our upcoming webinars, along with a special discount offer for attendees on FaithX services.

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Webinar (June 17) – Reopening Church in a New Reality: Re-Visioning in a Changing Context

Reopening Church in a New Reality: Re-Visioning in a Changing Context

6/17/20 (Next Wednesday) | 1:00pm-2:00pm (ET)

Webinar Description:

Before we reopen our congregations in the wake of COVID-19, we have to get clear about the “WHY” of our congregations, so that we may adapt our ministries to the needs of our new contexts without losing our reasons for being. Come and explore with us what needs to change so the really important things can “remain the same.”

This webinar is the first in a 3-part series entitled: Reopening Church in a New Reality. The next two webinars will be:

  • 7/18/20 – Considerations for Leading a Hybrid Congregation (online and in the building)
  • 8/12/20 – Discerning Your Congregation’s Post-COVID Calling

Webinar Hosts:

  • Mary Frances, FaithX Senior Consultant (Host)
  • Steve Matthews, FaithX Senior Consultant (Co-Host)
  • Ken Howard, FaithX Principal Consultant (Co-Host)

For More Info: mary@faithx.net

Click Here to Register

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Repeated by Popular Demand! Before You Go Back to the Building: Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19 (a free webinar)

FREE WEBINAR
(Repeated by Popular Demand!)
Before You Go Back to the Building:
Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19
May 19, 2020 | 3:30-4:30pm | On Zoom
click here to register

It’s fair to say that our ideas of how to be and do Church have been turned on their heads over the last several weeks, and many of us are just starting to think about what it might be like to return to some semblance of “normal.”  Some churches may have found new opportunities through online gatherings, but most of the people we have spoken with are anticipating being with their community in the church building again. Some judicatories have advised their congregations they can go back in early May, others at the end of May, while still others want to wait and see. The wisdom of any of these ideas remains to be seen, as does the question of whether the new normal will be anything at all like the old normal. As the old saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans,” but sooner or later we will be able to come out of isolation and have the opportunity to gather our communities in person again. 

So wouldn’t it would be a good idea to go back with a plan in mind: a plan based on a vision – a plan imbued with flexibility, a plan that is sensitive to a greatly-altered context, and a plan that is based on discernment grounded in data?

We want to help you with this. 

In this webinar we will provide you with tips on how to use demographic and analytic data to maintain context awareness as you develop your plan to make it through the transition into whatever our new normal will be. We will provide you access and orientation to a free tool (MapDash for COVID-19) that will ground your discernment in that kind of data. Data that can help you help your people and your neighborhoods survive and thrive in new ways in the aftermath and recovery from COVID-19.

click here to register for the webinar

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Keeping Congregations Connected: Creating Neighborhood Community in the Context of COVID-19

by Mary Frances, FaithX Senior Consultant
Creating Neighborhood Community

The post is part of our “Keeping Congregations Connected in the Face of COVID-19” blog series.

Click here for the previous post.

What opportunities for connection, joy, support, love, collaboration, and ministry in your neighborhood are just waiting to be noticed, named, and nurtured?  

This strange time we are living in seems to be a time of dichotomy.  Social distance but stay connected. Protect yourself for the sake of others.  Find unity in the diaspora. Celebrate life while we sadly count the deaths.  Yet the church was created for a time such as this.  Today the most pressing question in the church is how do we stay connected while we are all at least 6 feet apart?  How do we go about creating neighborhood community from behind our computer screens?

I think we find the answer in shifting from our well-worn model of large group gatherings to something smaller and closer to home: house churches, neighborhood groups, small groups, or fractals.  Call them what you will, but small groups of people gathering around the gospel are the very foundation of the church.  We find examples of them in the New Testament and more recently in the growing Christian church in China as well as the house church movement all around the world.  In 1950 the Christian church in China was close to 4 million people.  Today the church in China boasts over 67 million people.  And yet the church is still often underground, persecuted and unable to meet in groups of more than 10 people.  Ten people.  That number sounds so familiar.  It’s the number many states are using when they talk about lifting restrictions and allowing small groups to gather again with social distancing.  More dichotomies…gather at a distance!   

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