Coronavirus: Relaunching church

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:08

Welcome to the unfiltered podcast. My name is Lee Stevenson, executive director of church planning with Converge and also local church planter in Orlando, Florida, and my co host here.

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:18

I'm Danny Parmelee and I oversee church planting for Converge Mid America.

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:22

And we started a series of podcasts just talking through. Through the COVID coronavirus pandemic and lessons learned and different things that the church needs to pay attention to right now.

And this podcast episode, we want to take some time and just talk about what do we do in preparation for the church when we actually get to go back to normal and if there is such a thing as normal. And so, Danny, as you're interacting with church planters, specifically in the Mid America part of the country, what are your recommendations like?

What are you telling them to do or be prepared for when it comes to relaunching their church and trying to capture momentum?

Danny Parmelee: 00:01:06

Yeah, well, I think the first thing that I've been trying to communicate is just the mentality of relaunch and to understand it. I think you mentioned this in the last episode, that it is a sort of blessing. You're getting an opportunity.

And we all know that launch was, or hopefully was a great thing for you. And if it wasn't a great thing for you, well, this is you, your kind of second chance at doing it.

And when things launch, you get an opportunity to reach new groups of people. So from a mentality standpoint, that's. That's the biggest thing. So with that, it means that you do need to have a plan. This is not okay.

Well, we've been going for a while, so relaunch means we're just going to pick up right where we left off. You have to put your thinking cap on, work with your leadership team, work with your volunteers, and begin to just start asking some questions.

Who are we going to try to reach and how are we going to try to reach them? So that means putting together a plan, looking at your marketing, you know, all of those different things to kind of do it.

The other big thing, of course, is, I mean, there's still so many. There's so many unknowns. And so you need to be probably thinking through a very, very long checklist of things that you just normally did before.

Everything from greeters and handshaking to, you know, people that are in the parking lot to kids ministry. You know, all of the things that are now going to be changed because of CDC is definitely kind of a. Kind of a starting point.

Lee Stephenson: 00:02:37

No, I think that's fantastic. So when you when you think of relaunching, let me kind of break it down into pieces. What are you encouraging or what are you even sensing?

Our good sermon series, once the church can kind of begin to meet again, that you're, you know, that pastors are creating or thinking about creating conversations to have.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:01

Yeah, well, obviously it depends somewhat. I mean, we've got certain, you know, planters that are topical. We've got others that are, you know, expository.

I think that either, either direction that you go on that understanding that people have been through a lot, especially in the area of just job loss, there's no doubt that there's been stress on relationships, stress on marriage, stress on finances. So if you're an expository preacher, this might be your time where you've got to spend some time in Philippians instead of revelation type of thing.

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:39

Exactly.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:40

Just need a little boost of encouragement to kind of ease into it, you know, that type.

I guess you could go the revelation if you want to, you know, grab the, the, you know, fear, you know, the people that are kind of just fear and think this is the end of the world type of thing. But so I think you have to do that.

And definitely, if you're going topical to think of some of those needs to be able to use scripture to really meet people where they're at. Because there are people that are asking questions now that they weren't asking when life was, was smooth sailing.

Lee Stephenson: 00:04:10

No, I think that's great. And I, I'm encouraging churches to have a communication plan even now in prepping the groundwork for when they actually get to relaunch.

And I think that will help them build momentum.

And I'm encouraging pastors, like, here's some key questions that I think you need to process and you need to, as a team, whether or not that's an elder board or staff team or leadership team, work through, come up with a game plan, come up with the answers, and then begin to communicate these ahead of the relaunch phase. And I think it'll make your job a whole lot easier.

So, for instance, what, what kind of adjustments are going to be made when it comes to communion or baptism? When it comes to the ministry, are we going to still pass the elements? Are we going to have people come forward? If so, what does that look like?

You know, do we have social distancing in the way that we do communion?

What, what are you going to do if initially we're limited to less than 150 people or 250 people, and you're a larger church setting when it comes to how you operate the service, how do you do offering? Are you going to pass a physical plate or is that gone? Is that a thing of the past?

I think you also need to communicate, like, what are you going to do to actually sanitize and sterilize the church in real time? So if you have. Because of the. We're limited numbers of people and.

And we may have to offer extra services to host everybody, what's our cleaning protocol going to be in between services? Do we have a coffee station or do we get rid of the coffee stations? Are we going to continue to offer virtual church experiences or not?

The list goes on and on and on.

But I think the more that you can get ahead of the game, thinking through these questions, the easier it's going to make your relaunch experience happen.

Danny Parmelee: 00:06:08

Yeah. And I think too, that pastors and church planners need to be prepared that not everyone is going to respond in the same way.

I think there's these different kind of categories of people. They're the people that are like, oh, this whole thing, this whole Covid thing's overblown. I'm not wearing a mask. I'm not doing anything.

As soon as church starts back up, I am there. I am front row. I'm shaking hands, hugging and kissing people.

And then you're going to have the people that are maybe slower, they might come to a service, and maybe it's just one person in the family that kind of comes to kind of kind of check it out and see how safe things are, see if the adjustments, you know, feel good. And then maybe you know, both adults come and, you know, keep the kids with them.

And then eventually kids ministry to then those that probably for a long period of time will not return to church because the risk for them, it's just one more thing that they can, you know, minimize what, you know, the risk that they're feeling and will continue to do online. Which I think. And this is. You maybe were alluding to this a little bit, but I think any relaunch should be careful of just. All right.

Well, we did online and, oh, that was a necessary evil. You know, throw it in the trash. You know, get. Get people just coming back. Because I think you're going to miss out on a lot of people if you do that.

Lee Stephenson: 00:07:32

Absolutely.

And I think even what you're bringing up the point that I think it'll be a slow trickle back in even if we do our best work of trying to relaunch the church physical Location experience. I think there's going to be a dip in volunteerism. And so pastors need to be thinking ahead of the game even as they're prepping for relaunch.

What if we have 50% of our children's ministry volunteers don't come back right away. How are we going to operate our children's ministry in that given context?

Danny Parmelee: 00:08:06

And I think with that too, thinking of ways that you just shift volunteers. So the church plant that I'm a part of here in the Nashville area now, there's just a need for more people to be doing the online services.

So, you know, interacting.

up of people that's doing the: 10:30

But that there is this interaction, there's answering questions, there's meeting new people. So think of how you can shift people around as certain, you know, volunteer things are shut down.

Like you said, maybe there's no more coffee and handing out donuts anymore. So now what are you going to do with that person? Is that person still willing to do something and. And maybe potentially doing it better area.

Yeah, to able to do that. So. So, yeah.

So again, the other thing is, I mean, for pastors and this, you know, myself as a, as a pastor and church planner, just always worried so much about numbers not to go there because it is just. It will kill you.

And to adjust your expectation that when things open back up, you might be very excited to be back to church and back to normal, but not everyone else will be. And to be okay with that and mentally prepare yourself and just.

Pastor people do evangelism, do discipleship, be faithful to preaching, be innovative, try different things. But it's not going to be normal.

Lee Stephenson: 00:09:47

No, no. And I would encourage, like when it comes to relaunching, pastors and teams need to be flexible.

That's just, that's going to be the next couple years, I have a feeling. And so have a game plan for what is phase one, phase two, phase three, you know, all those phases going to look like.

So that way you can kind of go back and forth on a dime if necessary. And then my, my biggest thing is, as you're relaunching pastor, you know, pray, maximize what you can to create as much momentum in the community.

But don't moralize people's decisions if they decide to stay home. Yeah. You know, there are people that are have autoimmune situations and issues that they're dealing with.

And the last thing we want to do is moralize the decision as to, you know, people that have to make the choice to stay home. And so just be careful with that.

Danny Parmelee: 00:10:44

That is excellent. I mean, I, I think to even you were talking about a communication plan to be so explicit about that.

Hey, those of you that are willing to come back, we're excited. Those of you that are staying home, thank you so much for continuing to engage with us. Whatever you do that. Exactly that.

That you're not better or worse for which decision you make. And I think that's going to be really, really important.

And even the stuff that you're posting on your social media of what you think about this whole pandemic and which politicians are doing a good job and who's gone overboard and who hasn't, I understand that people will feel judged depending on what you say. So you have to be very careful during this time to be able to do that.

Lee Stephenson: 00:11:28

Yeah, 100%. Well, well said.

Well, Danny, I appreciate the conversation and the insight that you have as you're talking with church planters, you know, in mid America. And just what is it going to take to relaunch? And in the reality, it's going to take it probably even more than any of us ever expect.

But it could be a massive, massive reach for the local church in the community. And I'm praying for you pastors and planters, as you're thinking through this and creating a strategy. And we'd love to be able to walk with you.

If there's anything we here at Converge can do, feel free to reach out to us as well. So this has been the unfiltered podcast, and again, it's been pleasure having real conversations and specifically in this Covid world.

And so until next time, keep it real.