Ridgell's Originals

But let me say one more thing first.  I am not advocating a "right" or "wrong" answer.  And different churches will do things in different ways.  And I do know some churches are doing amazing ministry even during this time.  Nor do I think I have all the answers.  I am thinking about these things and a couple of them are things I have been concerned about for a long time.  Some of them I am not even sure how I feel about them.

So...

Buildings.  Why do we have them?  Are they worth the resources expended on them?  What are the alternatives?  Multiple house churches under one eldership?  Is the cost/benefit ratio for buildings a wise use of God's resources?  Are there better alternatives to being able to meet together?  Our buildings are generally designed around the ability to deliver a thirty minute sermon.  Is that the most effective design?

Staff.  Preachers.  One thing this whole shut-down has done is let many of us hear lots of different preachers.  Is video here to stay?  Could preachers make more videos that are not congregation specific?  I started a YouTube channel (blatant ad here -- please subscribe) because I guess that is what traveling preachers do when they cannot travel.  I have found out these have been used for communion thoughts, discussion starters, and intros to house church worship.  Is there a way to continue this?  

Is it time to employ more elders?  With so many people struggling with addictions, depression, relationships... maybe it is time to ask some elders to resign their jobs and work for their flock.  How about evangelists?  Is this the time to support/hire more evangelists?  If God is opening doors to make disciples, shouldn't we be ready to go thru them?  

What about Youth Ministers, Children Ministers, Education Ministers?  Is it time to rethink these positions?  

What about programs?  Most churches are heavy on organized, structured programs for service, benevolence, spiritual growth.  We can't do many of those programs right now.  Is this a time to think more creatively about how to motivate, equip, and inspire our people to do more unstructured ministry.  More of see the need, meet the need personally.  Less admin and organization.  More doing.

Finally, what about budgets?  Most of our budgets are dominated by building and staff expense.  What happens if we empower our people not to give all their donations to our budget?  What if we turned them loose to give personally.  Buy groceries, pay a bill, fix a car, help on a funeral.  

Would it change everything if instead of dropping money into a plate (or in these times, drop it online), our people saw their money being dropped directly into people's lives?  

I do realize that our church culture is so set and ingrained in most of us that it would take a radical disruption to think outside the box like this.

Maybe the time is now.