As Indiana is one of the first states to give churches the option of reopening, pastors across the country have contacted me about what we are thinking, what resources we have generated and collected, and what our process has looked like. My hope is that this page would be a resource for pastors and churches as their states begin opening up.
On May 1st, Indiana Governor Holcomb released his Back On Track Indiana plan to reopen Indiana. This plan allowed for churches to begin gathering for worship beginning May 8th as long as they adhered to the special guidelines for places of worship. The following outlines our the process and resources used to make plan for our church’s reopening.
Our process
Our church is governed by a board of elders and deacons known as a consistory. Prior to Governor Holcomb’s release of the state plan, our consistory empowered a team of people to explore what reopening the church for worship might look like. This team included:
Two elders
Two deacons
One young single
One elderly individual
One individual new to the church
With a diverse cross-section of the church represented we hoped everyone in the church would feel their perspective was represented. This group also ensured a broad range of ideas and approaches to meeting the spiritual, relational, and physical needs of our congregation were considered.
At our first meeting, our team discussed the task before us and determined that I would put together a rough skeleton for opening the church. Prior to this meeting, I was creating a list of questions for us to consider. Those can be found here.
Daryl Cripe of Amplio is a friend someone who has helped our church with its vision. He shared with me a document he put together after his conversations with pastors around the country and his years of experience. Daryl graciously allowed me to share it here for anyone who is interested. (I wholeheartedly recommend Daryl. You can contact him directly at daryl@amplio.group)
Before our team’s meeting and Governor Holcomb’s release of Back On Track Indiana I put together this document for our team to consider.
With the possibility of opening before us, our team considered not only what would need to happen in order to keep people safe as they came into the meeting, we also discussed what it would feel like. Sterile. Cold. Rigid. These are not words we want associated with the Body of Christ. We all desperately want to gather again to fellowship, join our voices in singing, see our children grow, and come to the table together. But none of these desires would be met trying to do church the way we did three months ago while adhering to the state’s guidelines. So we made the decision to not gather.
Instead, we decided to try and brainstorm new ways of gathering that would satisfy our desires. We are moving towards an increased emphasis on small groups, a move towards house churches, drive-in/lawn church, and neighborhood activities. These initiatives will roll out as state guidelines and church capacity allow us. The high-level plan looks like this:
the plan
Some details
Individual churches will need to tailor their decisions to their people. Demographics play a huge role in this. Here are some keep features of our congregation:
About 15% of our congregation is over 65.
We have a number of people younger than 65 with underlying conditions (diabetes, immunocompromised, heart conditions, etc.).
Most people have internet access—2 that we know of do not have access.
We have a lot of families with kids.
Small groups and house churches would meet in person to watch the worship livestream together. We are also exploring the possibility of them watching online together via Zoom or some other platform.
Communication
Finally, we needed to communicate it to the congregation. Video works well for us and we can disseminate it on social media, e-newsletter, and our church website. Here’s the video that went out to our congregation.
What’s next?
We work the plan. Currently, we are moving towards Stage 2. Do make that move we are encouraging folks to sign up for small groups, communicating with all our current groups to find out what they need and want, building our capacity as a church to support groups in a more concentrated manner, and building the systems and structures necessary to move to the next stage of the plan.
And I’m sure that along the way we will have to change somethings. After all, change is the new normal.
other resources
At the end of April, I hosted two Zoom conversations with pastors from around the country about “What’s Next”. Those can be viewed here:
Jim Herrington and Trisha Taylor of The Leader’s Journey help church and business leaders grow in their capacity for adaptive leadership. I was on their podcast sharing about what I’m learning during this pandemic. You can listen here.
VanderBloemen probably has the most extensive archive of resources for churches regarding what to consider when reopening. Except it is so much content that it is a bit overwhelming.