The gray zone

A few years ago I was leading a seminar for Church of the Nazarene pastors in Michigan. When I finished my presentation I opened the floor for questions. One young pastor asked what I thought the future of the church might look like. I admitted that I didn't know because we are going through a time of transition in the church today. There is no doubt that God is doing a new thing in the church, but no one really knows all this might entail right now. After sharing some of the new things happening in the church I admitted to this young pastor that I envied him and his age group because they would see what the church would look like on the other side of the transition. I probably would not.

A book I'm currently re-reading is A Non-Anxious Presence by Mark Sayers. He describes this time of transition as living in the gray zone. He writes, "Gray zones exist in the overlap between the passing era and the era to come. One can be fooled that the old era is still dominant." While the gray zone contains the influence of more than one era, the fact is that the new era will eventually break through the gray zone. The old era is gradually losing ground even if we don't see it right away.

The pandemic was a good example of this. Everything changed overnight. Suddenly, churches were closed, businesses shut down, we were asked to stay in place and not travel. Masks were required if one did venture out. Stores controlled the number of people allowed in the store at one time. One of the constant questions often heard was when would everything get back to normal. While some things may have returned to some sense of normalcy, the truth is that we will never return exactly to the way things were before the pandemic. We know now that much of what we were being told during the pandemic simply was not true. Whether that was intentional or because we truly didn't know enough about Covid-19 and how to respond to it is beside the point. Distrust of governmental agencies and those in authority is part of the new normal after the pandemic.

Many, especially our older members, have not returned to church services since the pandemic and are unlikely to do so. During the pandemic many pastors became televangelists overnight! Churches scrambled to broadcast their services online through Facebook or YouTube. Others hurried to get a website to keep their members connected with one another and to provide a means for people to contribute financially. It will be important for churches to maintain their Internet connection to their members and to use it to reach out to unchurched people. I am convinced that connection will be vital to churches as we continue through the gray zone.

For several years we have seen an upsurge in the number of new churches. We are likely to see even more in the future. The reason for this is simple: new churches reach new people. Many, if not most, of our traditional churches are stagnant and/or dying. The population is growing much faster than these churches are reaching people. God is in the business of transforming lives, and if the current churches are not engaged in that, He will raise up new churches who will be. According to Lifeway, in 2019 3,000 new churches were started while 4,500 existing churches closed. I think it's safe to predict that we will see even more new churches in the future.

Many other changes will be seen on the other side of the gray zone. Some will not like many of them, and some churches will resist them. Such churches are not likely to survive. When God is doing a new thing it is not wise to resist Him. 

What can existing churches do during this gray zone? There are really only two choices. They can keep doing the same thing they've always done until the last person turns off the lights or they can open themselves up to what God is doing. This will require a new vision, a lot of courage, and a willingness to replant themselves as a new church for a new era.