How the Pandemic Impacted Planting Churches

7 Counterintuitive Ways to Interpret Reality

By Phil Claycomb

I’ve coached, mentored, and trained church planters since 2001, so I’ve been involved in many different crisis situations. I’ve sighed deeply and asked, “OK, what just happened?” more times than I care to remember. I’ve brainstormed through a host of “where do we go from here?” discussions. I’ve rolled up my shirtsleeves and jumped in to help “pick up the pieces and move on.” And I’ve discovered that while the causes of crises may vary, and churches are amazingly creative at finding ways to get into trouble, the one thing leaders must always do early and often in crises is to define and interpret reality.  

When a crisis hits, a leader instinctively starts acting on the basis of assumptions. Time and energy rarely go to testing those assumptions. Good leaders eventually learn to both trust and distrust their initial thoughts. They welcome having assumptions challenged. It’s awfully hard to pin down the true reality when everything is in turmoil. A good leader takes the time to challenge assumptions, conclusions, and instincts.

So, when the coronavirus hit and our new churches were being told to shut down services, our first assumption was that it was going to devastate our young congregations. But I have good news: Our new reality is not nearly as dreary as anticipated. I suggest our new reality includes the following truths:

• New church offerings have not plummeted. A quick survey of Nexus churches reveals that two-thirds have seen their offerings either increase or plateau during COVID-19, with the remaining one-third reporting decreases. The mission support sent to Nexus, which is based on a percentage of the supporting church’s weekly offerings, has not dropped during the crisis. Offerings have largely stayed level or even increased.
• COVID-19 has blessed many new churches with a small financial boon. Since a high percentage of new churches meet in rental spaces, most did not pay monthly rent while shut down. Many of our churches invested the rent money in new video, sound, and computer equipment. Some simply (and wisely) set the funds aside and have built-up savings.
• The coronavirus has prompted many church members to begin online giving. The result has been regular and consistent giving patterns as fewer people are dropping checks in the plate and more are using automatic online transactions. One new church reported that 90 percent of their giving is transacted online. An unexpected benefit of COVID-19 is that it has done more to promote good stewardship habits than all previous sermons and campaigns combined.
• Our bottom line—“making disciples who make disciples who start churches that start churches”—has not been threatened by the crisis. We are still interviewing prospective planters, pulling together new partnerships, and providing “leader care” (coaching, mentoring, training, community, and accountability). We have funds in hand for multiple church-planting opportunities. We’re ready to pull the trigger. We’re just waiting for the church-planting leader to emerge.

So, how do we evaluate the coronavirus crisis and its impact on new church planting? I suggest seven counterintuitive interpretations as healthy ways to view our new reality.

Because of COVID-19 . . .

1. You Can Launch Again!

Most new churches get just one shot to “launch” in their community—one opportunity to make a good first impression. That was true, at least, until COVID-19. Thanks to the crisis, all of our new churches are “launching again”! And this time they have a team, which is something they didn’t have the first time. We expect big results. When launching for the first time, church planters are often still forming their team. They’re pulling everything together on a shoestring. But not this time. These relaunches will be done by teams, partners, and collaborators.

2. You Can Reinvent Yourself!

COVID-19 has been tough on hard-driving, type A leaders who have a plan for everything. The coronavirus trashed their plans; it made timelines obsolete. Good plans turned out to be bad guesses. But that’s OK, as most church planters are visionary leaders. Right now is a good time for these leaders to trust their God-given ability to envision, dream, and rewrite their church’s next chapter. It’s a perfect time to toss out those old plans and come up with something new. Dream new dreams, set new goals—and consider doing it with a team this time. Visionary gifting partnered with the explosive power of a shared vision can make for an awesome next chapter.

3. You Can Identify New Leaders!

It’s been said that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” It’s possible, even likely, that this crisis will reveal emerging leaders. Don’t mope around and fail to notice this. Who is stepping up to help during the crisis? Since leaders attract leaders, you should expect potential leaders to emerge around you. So, select a few coronavirus-related problems that you firmly resolve not to fix yourself. Talk about those problems, highlight their challenging features, and then watch and wait to see who tries to be part of the solution. The person or people who step forward are potential leaders. Don’t let this crisis go to waste; instead, let it reveal the emerging leaders God has placed around you.

4. You Can Create Community!

Alan Hirsch compares doing church during COVID-19 to playing chess without the queen. The queen is the most versatile piece on the chessboard. Take away the queen and a player’s game is handicapped. In the same way, COVID-19 has deprived most of us of our favorite ministry tool—the Sunday-morning gathering. We have been forced to get things done through other means.

The good news is that people crave community and are willing to try new ways to find it. All of us know older people who instantly learned the Zoom platform because they crave community. Actively create community by offering small groups—even accountability groups as small as two or three people. Set the table and let community break out all around you. The coronavirus is creating an appetite for community. Give people options beyond Sunday morning.

5. You Can Meet Tangible Needs in Equally Tangible Ways!

A lot of people are hurting due to this pandemic. Even more are frightened about career and employment prospects. The church has the opportunity to re-earn the right to be heard by our culture by being the best neighbors ever. Let’s train our people to respond to COVID-19 with a prayerful SANMAN (See A Need—Meet A Need) lifestyle. We may not be able to gather as we have in the past, but we can still love people one at a time!

6. You Can Slay Some Sacred Cows!

Just between us [shhh, let’s lower our voices], COVID-19 has handed us a potentially low-drama opportunity to kill church programs that need to go away. Start by identifying the programs you want to disappear. Then simply let them die through neglect and starvation. Don’t fix their problems or talk about them. Just ignore them. Walk away and let nature do its thing.

I know of a church that entered 2020 with 74 ministry programs running. (It makes you tired to even think about it.) Today the same church is running just 7 programs. COVID-19 rewrote the rules! The amazing—though, perhaps, not surprising—thing is this: The church is more effective with 7 programs than they were with 74.

So, my advice is this: Identify sacred cows and let them die of neglect. Then blame it all on the coronavirus. You know you can do this (and you might even enjoy it)!

7. You Can Refocus on Job 1—Disciple-Making!

According to Jesus, the No. 1 mission of churches is making disciples. But way too many churches behave as if hosting events and meetings is their No. 1 job. This epidemic has provided a great opportunity to change this. It’s an invitation for us to refocus. We can’t get our crowds into a big room for a one-size-fits-all attempt at pseudo disciple-making during this crisis. Perhaps God wants us to try ministry the way Jesus and the earliest followers did it. Wouldn’t it be just like God to use the coronavirus to refocus us on making disciples?

I asked one of my church planters how they were responding during this pandemic. He said he was following his dad’s advice about handling intractable problems. That advice? “If you can’t fix it, feature it!” Since COVID-19 isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, that advice would be to “reinterpret reality and find a way to make use of it.” Slow down and question your assumptions about COVID-19’s impact on you and your church. Give yourself permission to consider counterintuitive interpretations of reality.

The coronavirus might be the worst thing that happened to the world in 2020, but it could also be the best thing that’s happened to Christ’s church in a long time!

Phil Claycomb serves as executive director of Texas-based Nexus Church Planting.