7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church

Some of you are on the verge of destroying the future of your church.

I realize that sounds like one of those silly, bold statements people make to get your attention. Perhaps it is. Possibly restarting the ministry of your past is exactly what your community needs today.

I doubt it.

I’m skeptical because:

1. The pandemic changed things in our world and our communities. 
2. Much of what we were doing in 2019 wasn’t working in 2019. 

The fastest way to destroy a church is to build a ministry on an outdated model. And that’s what too many church leaders are doing today. Taking old methods and deploying them in this new time.

The reason: We remember our 2019 ministry models with rose-colored glasses. It’s human nature to romanticize the past, but in the case of church leadership, attempting to implement a ministry model that wasn’t working in 2019 in 2021 is a death wish.

In this NEW POST, I give leaders 7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church.

Answering these questions will help you more accurately remember the past while making decisions in your present.

Two Scary Reasons Church People Aren’t Coming Back to Church

If you’re a pastor or church leader, I completely believe this is worth reading.

I’ve been watching our church attendance and engagement throughout the pandemic, paying special attention to the trends after we opened our building for in-person services in February.

And I’m terrified by one trend. It’s an alarm bell that we must address right now.

Some people are coming back. Some will come back in time. But there is a group, and it may be a significant group, who aren’t coming back — not to your church or any church. They are the churched people who are about to be fully de-churched.

Why? Possibly because they spend the better part of the last year not engaged with church and their life isn’t any worse.

THIS SHOULD BE A WAKE-UP CALL FOR US ALL.

Life inside the local church should be distinctly better than outside. I’m afraid that hasn’t been the case for too many.

In this NEW ARTICLE, I dig deeper into who these people are and what we need to do in our church to help ensure it never happens again.