Pivoting
to Our Next Hybridized “Normal”
Thanks to the pandemic, we’ve been forced to reimagine
just about everything in our world—and without the chance to do so at the kind
of measured, thoughtful, cautious pace we’d normally prefer. No wonder we’re exhausted as we feel the
pinch of what renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm has labeled
“pandemic fatigue” plus “pandemic anger.”
Such fatigue+anger is emerging because the pandemic
doesn’t “stay in its lane” (whatever that might mean)—but relentlessly spills
over into every facet of life. No wonder
it’s so hard to pause and catch our breath.
I’ve been pondering how the pandemic has been
affecting churches in my part of North America. I do so from the vantage point of having
served on the staff of three “middle judicatories” of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA)—most recently as interim bishop of the Eastern North
Dakota Synod, ELCA (from January 15 to October 31 of 2020).
I had served in this temporary role for less than two
months when the pandemic hit. And
shortly thereafter, in rapid succession, three other “pandemics” piled on: civil unrest in the wake of George
Floyd’s murder, environmental chaos reflected in a staggering succession
of “extreme weather events,” and an economic recession triggered by all
four “pandemics.”
How have faith communities responded to this
unprecedented cascade of crises? Three
phrases—questions, really--capture what I’ve been observing from my unique
perch:
Are
we…
·
Pining for our old “normal” or pursuing
our next “normal?”
·
Creating new tools or pivoting with
existing tools?
·
Focusing on a singular mode of
response or envisioning a “hybridization” of responses?
Old Normal…New Normal…or Next Normal?
Quite soon after congregations closed the doors of
their buildings and made provisions for fulfilling their primary functions via “virtual”
means I was struck by how quickly church members started articulating a desire
to “return to normal.” Such expressions
of impatience with the conditions forced upon us by the coronavirus struck me
as strikingly premature.
What surprised me even more was my own kneejerk
response to such grousing: “We won’t be
returning to normal anytime soon—and even when that happens we’ll notice that
the old ‘normal’ we hanker for no longer exists.”
As someone who usually avoids brash pronouncements, I
asked myself why—in this instance, at least--was I going out on such a limb? The answer:
glib talk about “returning to normal” seemed to be seriously
dishonest. Those who started
complaining—so soon!--about the emergency closure of our church buildings appeared
oblivious to the deadliness of the pandemic itself.
In short, many of us quickly came to regard March 11,
2020[1] as a date that would
henceforth mark one of the great “continental divides” in world history. Others weren’t so sure the pandemic was that
big a thing, and some (as we learned during the election of 2020) even harbored
the conviction that it was nothing more than a clever hoax.
So instead of pining for a speedy “return to normal,” some
of us talked about anticipating a “new normal.” We did so, convinced that the “normal” we
once knew—the “old normal” in which the possibility of a viral pandemic never even
crossed our minds--was gone for good.
Henceforth, whatever awaits us, we will live into a world that realizes
viruses like Covid19 can appear out of the blue, at any time.
So when I heard persons wishing out loud for a “return
to normal,” I started speaking in terms of a “new normal.”
And that lasted for about one day!....
….because if the vaunted “new normal” we longed for
allowed us—even for a nanosecond—to lower our guard and settle into a fresh
experience of stasis, such a “new normal” could prove to be as dangerous as our
old normal.
It was at this point that I decided to speak, instead,
about the “next normal”….a chance to catch our breath and recuperate
until the next big global challenge comes along and calls forth the sorts of
concerted, focused, imaginative responses that we’re witnessing day by day, all
around us.
And such talk about a “next normal” applies not only
to the public health issue of the coronavirus pandemic. What about those other “pandemics” that have
come after us this year? If “returning
to normal” means making peace with systemic racism, snoozing while global
climate change takes its toll on our precious environment or looking the other
way while economic injustice gets by with murder—then I want nothing to do with
such an “old normal.”
And I trust that I’m not the only one who sees things that
way!
So please, let us set aside all the silly talk about
“returning to normal.” Let us, instead,
pray and plead and work for the next normal that will surely prove to be a
gracious gift from God.
Creating from Scratch—or “Pivoting” With What’s
at Hand?
When the news media began paying attention to the
pandemic, reporters often stressed that we were facing a novel
coronavirus, i.e. a new virus for which no treatment or cure existed. The resulting terror that gripped us was
compounded by the fact that this virus was airborne, making Covid19
astonishingly easy to contract.
Christian congregations were especially vulnerable,
given the fact that, as Bishop N.T. Wright has noted, “Christianity is a
team sport. It’s something we do together. Think of the fruits of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, graciousness, gentleness, faithfulness,
and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). All of those are things we do together. You
can’t be practicing them apart from one another.”[2]
As scientists were racing to create a new vaccine to
combat a new virus, churches also hastened to create—seemingly “from
scratch”--new ways of “doing church” under the difficult conditions created by
the pandemic. How could we still
worship, extend care for one another, teach the faith, organize ourselves to
serve God’s mission in a new environment in which simply being in close
quarters could kill us?
As sobering as that challenge seemed to be, church
folk responded with amazing speed and imagination. As we
did so we discovered that instead of “creating from scratch” the novel
tools we’d need, we already had many promising resources in our “toolkit.” We didn’t need so much to create, as we were
being called to “pivot” with approaches that were already in use.
Case-in-point:
the rapid, widespread embrace of corporate worship using digital/electronic
means like Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube,
etc. Fortunately we had many
congregations that were already live-streaming their worship services, and
these early adopters quickly became teachers and examples to the rest of
us. Better yet--some of our finest resource
persons turned out to be younger believers—those in the first third of life!
In a similar vein, “virtual” meetings soon replaced
in-person gatherings such as church council discussions, congregational
meetings, and in eleven of the ELCA’s 65 synods, all-digital synod assemblies
complete with elections of new bishops.
Hybridizing Ways of “Being Church Together”
As I write this blogpost Americans are basking in
early, positive reports about potential vaccines for the coronavirus. Such promising news not only cheers us up,
but also points us ahead to a time when the coronavirus will no longer be first
and foremost on our minds—when the pandemic will cease to cause sickness and
premature death.
When that much-anticipated time comes, what will we do
with the new tools for ministry that helped us weather the pandemic? Tuck them away in mothballs, in case we ever
need them again?
I don’t think so.
I foresee churches moving ahead with various “hybridizing” arrangements
that wed familiar ways of ministering in-person with one another with the
emerging remote or virtual tools that have helped us survive the pandemic. For example:
· Live-streaming
public worship services will become more common, making it possible for those
who can’t attend worship “in-person” on a regular basis—whether because of
health concerns, inclement weather, living in remote areas, tending sick family
members—to still worship via digital means.
· Deliberative
bodies within the church will continue to “meet” in-person and/or via virtual
means—reducing travel time and expense, drawing in members who maintain dual
residences (e.g. “snow-birds” from the Upper Midwest who spend their winters in
warmer climes), and not allowing inclement weather to postpone vital
opportunities for corporate decision-making.
·
Opening up church-based classes, forums,
discussion groups, or gatherings for inquirers/seekers/religiously
curious folks to be offered via both in-person formats and digital formats
could actually attract persons to explore the Christian faith and consider
joining a congregation.
Above all, whenever this current pandemic is history, I
pray that churches across the world will set aside time for prayerful
reflection and earnest conversation about what we learned about “being church
together” in the year 2020.
Lawrence
R. Wohlrabe
November
13, 2020
Moorhead,
Minnesota
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