Church 21…Digital, Hybrid, Blended and Confused…

Check phone battery…balance phone on tri-pod…on landscape…check background against what I am wearing…check lighting…check hair one more time…deep breath…reach forward…press red button…here we go… For many of us this is something of what Sunday church 2020 has become. We have gone online. We have pre-corded\gone on zoom\webex\Facebook live\Youtube. We have had to change. We have learnt new skills. We have filmed ourselves. We have bought new kit. We have had to change our expectations about what church looks like. We have had to think differently. Church is different. We are different. Now the end is in sight. The vaccine has arrived. We look forward to meeting again and we are asking questions: • Will it be the same? What does church look like going forward? What is hybrid\blended\brick and click church? Do I have to do that? What do Sundays look like? Will it be safe? Can I really take my mask off and sing…?! These questions and others are occupying church leadership teams up and down the land. Here are some thoughts about 2021 church: 1.Remember the Mission. The Mission comes first. It hasn’t changed. The Main Thing is still the Main thing. Preach the Gospel, make disciples, worship God, pray, build relationships, practice community, be on Mission. Timeless message, timely method. 2. Meeting together trumps Digital Church. There is no substitute for meeting together – physically. Pyjama church is convenient but is not church. Church shopping and hopping is not a Holy Spirit community. Meeting face to face, hugging, asking each other good questions, accountability, serving on teams, praying together, worshipping together, having communion…expressing Ekklesia…there is nothing like it. Nothing in all the world. 3. What is God saying to you? Just because the church down the road is going Hybrid (physical and digital), does not mean you should. What do you have faith for? What do you have capacity for? What do you feel as a Team? 4. Release the next generation. Online church does present a good opportunity to involve and release the next generation. It is intuitive for them. They live in a digital world. Click, no brick. What do they think? What skills do they have to offer? How can they shape Church 21? 5.Seek help and advice. There are places to go for help and advice. Learn from other churches (don’t feel you have to copy them). Digital Church Toolkit offer a free 30 minute consultation to help navigate our way through unchartered online waters. https://www.digitalchurchtoolkit.com/ 6.It really is Jesus. The issue is not hybrid or not, zoom or not, livestream or pre-record? The issue is still a Person. Still Jesus Christ. Does what you do reflect Him, express Him, glorify Him, please Him and introduce a lost world to Him…? 7. Pace yourself as a leader. Leading through Covid has been demanding. Leading out of Covid will be demanding. Create space to think and plan but also to rest, replenish, restore, refresh. 2020 has taken its toll, leaders need to be in good shape for2021.