Blog Posts

Matthew Fleming 10/21/21 Matthew Fleming 10/21/21

What I Learned from Attending Church in the Pandemic

My dear friend and colleague, Rev. Natalia Terfa, wrote a brilliant piece naming the feelings that so many feel as they have discovered new space and freedom in life away from church.

If that is you, I see you and I hear you.

After someone on the interwebs mentioned how much they have valued the practice of attending church through this time, I wanted to share a bit of my own story as well, as a pastor, father of two young children, and spouse to someone who draws great inspiration and promise from attending church.

When church closed, we loved the novelty of Sunday mornings in our jammies, tuning in online, but of course something was missing.

As soon as church opened, we came back, nervously, a bit uncertain and afraid. But in this year of pandemic church, my kids have experienced some amazing happenings. They saw those first people returning to the building with tears in their eyes, just to be among the people, smelling familiar scents of carpet and brick, hearing organ and the voice of a preacher not filtered through tinny computer speakers.

Our kids were there when we had Christmas Eve services with no more than fifty people in a barn of a building, hearing carols sung, and once again the tears of elders seeing part of tradition that has persisted through challenging times and has continued since.

Our eldest was thrilled when it was her turn to carefully take down her mask if only for a moment to read the lesson of the day, rehearsed over and over again in the car, hearing her little voice boom in the loudspeaker.

There were many weeks throughout the pandemic that we only attended church. It was our only outing, our only encounter with real faces and voices and eyes. Over other exposure, we chose church because it grounded our family in a rhythm that was beyond what we were experiencing.

We chose church over soccer, over activities, over restaurants and vacations. We chose church. Actually scratch that self-righteous baloney. We just didn’t know any other way. So we went, week after week after week.

We often spoke of the image of the bank; that we all have so much risk that we have and we all choose to spend it differently. Church got more than a tithe.

We missed many friendships and throughout the past weeks and months it is like homecoming after homecoming, seeing people tentatively emerge through the doors, glancing around to make sure it is safe, to hear the stories that we missed, see the new babies born, celebrate the accomplishments, mourn the losses.

Even more, what I found was a pattern to life that grounded the way I interacted with everything that this season has thrown at us. We found ways to sing, with little masked groups separated by huge distances, something that I find essential to my wellbeing. The music kept me breathing in unison with my neighbors and creation and perhaps the divine.

If staying home is right for you, we believe you. You don’t need to explain a thing. We promise to keep holding a virtual spot for you at the table.

If you’ve been here every week, online or in person, I see you, and I am so glad you’re here.

If you’re tentative or are waiting until your kids are vaccinated or are still not ready, I get it. I wasn’t ready either.

We eased in at first but every step along the way we were greeted with grace.

It’s like putting on an old sweater that doesn’t quite fit. We’re trying on relationship and belonging. We aren’t sure it fits anymore.

But in the end, I hope you will come to church when the time is right for you.

Because I believe something has been lost in our time away from together.

I can see it in the fissures of our neighborhoods, the pitch of our echo chambers, and the clamor of our discourse.

Have many churches failed us in these spaces? Sure. But I believe God is up to something new in these imperfect institutions.

Natalia said it best: God has always and will continue to meet you where you are.

And I think the church has learned a thing or two from God and even the psalmist this year.

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)

God searches and finds us wherever we are. But God also gathers us, shepherds us, gets us closer to people we couldn’t imagine sharing life with.

Because we need it. We need one another. Perhaps God is gathering us together to be this something new, to be a people who can break down barriers to belonging.

Because the church is us.
It isn’t an abstraction, and it isn’t a building.
It isn’t a theology or an ideology.

It’s you and me, our hopes and fears and dreams and longings, our failures and disappointments and anxieties. And God is still moving this imperfect institution, still calling us forward, and still doing something wonderful in these walls, through our bandwidth, in the woods, and in the workplace.

But isn’t it better to see it all together?

Rev. Matthew Ian Fleming

Matthew Ian Fleming is a recovering evangelical who opens up his Bible bruises with curiosity, wonder, and a fair amount of irreverence. He is the founding director of Church Anew, an international platform equipping church leaders to ignite faithful imagination and sustain inspired innovation. With four colleagues, Matthew launched Alter Guild, a podcasting network with over 350,000 downloads that now features four shows including Cafeteria Christian with Nora McInerny and New Time Religion with Andy Root. Matthew is ordained in the ELCA and serves as teaching pastor to St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. At home, Matthew sings unrequested car-duets with his spouse, Hannah, jams on banjo with their two daughters, and religiously bakes sourdough bread.

On-Demand Access

Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.

As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.

Church Anew 9/3/20 Church Anew 9/3/20

Being Church Today: Leadership and Resiliency

As we face crises of public health, racial inequality, and economic turmoil, Church Anew sought to help pastors, church leaders, and congregation members harness resiliency to respond to the immediacy of these issues.

We asked ourselves, “How can we set the table for mutual learning in this moment?”

We found an answer in our first virtual event, Being Church Today, presented online on Monday, August 17 and now available through on-demand access. The event gathered a diverse set of nationally-recognized thought leaders that gave personal, action-inspiring seven-minute presentations from their own homes on the most pressing issues of our time. Over 1,500 clergy, church staff, and volunteers registered for this event, looking for guidance, dialogue, and community in a digital environment.

Award-winning author and speaker Diana Butler Bass opened her presentation with a question:

“What do we do? How do we lead? What is that authentic place of leadership? I've wondered about this in my own life. And I've thought a lot about different verses that have framed my understanding of who I am as a Christian, and they have served as powerful guides when I have felt lost or needed something to lean into as a leader.”

Dr. Butler Bass cites Galatians 3:28 as her verse of guidance: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

This creed and statement of faith was about the struggle of the church against bigotry, slavery, and sexism. It affirmed the identity of the Christian community as people who stood against barriers of class division, ethnicity, and gender.

Likewise, Dr. Joy Moore, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean of Luther Seminary, referenced this passage in her talk as well:

“Paul begins to dismantle the very systems of the ancient culture, the caste system, the class system, slave and free, ... the only thing that matters is this lasting mandate that humanity is created to bear the image of God.”

Being Church Today also featured speakers such as Rev. Emmy Kegler of Grace Lutheran Church in Northeast Minneapolis who spoke about complacency in the church, particularly in leadership:

When we are unwilling to be uncomfortable, we perpetuate violence against those on the margins. We teach girls to be quiet about their abuse. We refuse to be the one person who can make a 29 percent difference in trans youth suicidal ideation. We raise and confirm Dylann Roof.

And with that recognition came a challenge:

“So for a moment, I want you to reflect: how are you willing to be uncomfortable? Then I want you to hear, don't do that. Because we have been following our wills and where we are willing to be uncomfortable for far too long. Instead, the question I want to commission you with is: where does God's world need you to be uncomfortable?”

Church Anew hopes to help congregations thrive today and in the years to come by investing in sustained involvement in the communities they serve.

By being a voice for justice both in the church and out in the streets, pastors, staff, and volunteers can lead with their actions and actively encourage understanding and inclusion in their congregation members, engaging new people along the way.

Nationally-renowned author and friend of Church Anew, Brian McLaren, called on us to be more inclusive, to push boundaries, and care for our earth:

To be church today means to rediscover the revolutionary message of Jesus for people in a catastrophic situation. Not an evacuation plan about leaving earth or heaven when you die. But a transformation plan about loving God, yourself, your neighbor, and this precious Earth.

Referencing the late John Lewis, McLaren encouraged attendees to make “Good Trouble” and included people on the margins.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church sought to answer the question: What is the specific contribution of the church in this moment?

“What can churches do in such a time as this? Churches can bear witness to the fate they hold in the way of Jesus of Nazareth, his way of love, unselfish, sacrificial love, as the way to the very heart of God, into each other's hearts as the way to life.”

Paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop Curry cautioned us:

“We will either learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will perish together as fools. The choice is ours: chaos or community.”

Maybe you are inspired by the words of these speakers, but wonder how to sustain momentum. Tyler Sit, church planter of New City Church in Minneapolis, reminded us there is resilience in nurturing the energy necessary to bring about positive change in your community:

“What we wanted to prevent was this bump of reactive energy that fizzled out and then everyone just went back to normal … Christians are particularly positioned as people of resurrection to have a hope that on the other side of discomfort, there's a new world that God is making for us.”

Another six distinguished speakers as well as local Minneapolis artists and leaders spoke to the challenges we face and the actions we can take in this moment. The event also featured a live chatbox where attendees connected and shared the communities they came from, how the presentations challenged them, and what they will bring back to their own congregations.

Church Anew is drawing upon the wisdom and mutual learning from our communities to forge resiliency and the courage to take action.

By equipping leaders and community members with tangible ways to address grief, division, and uncertainty, we can move closer toward God’s beloved community.

This only scratches the surface of the practical and thought-provoking content offered in this event. On-demand access to the recording is still available for $49. Keep an eye out for upcoming virtual conferences as well as the Church Anew Blog to strengthen our relationships with each other, ourselves, and God.