COVID-19 is blamed for a lot of bad things, but there is one good thing it’s done for us: it forced us to stop everything and re-evaluate. Our healthcare system … government … business … schools … and even church.  Almost two years after slamming the church doors on us, we’ve had time to re-evaluate what we really miss … and perhaps also what we really don’t miss.

Now churches are re-opening again, and some people are cheering and straining forward to get back to what we used to do.

Some, not so much.  They got used to lazy Sundays … longer weekends … and enjoying church from the comfort of their sofa with a coffee in hand. All the benefits, without …

Other people stopped going to church long before COVID, often because of a faith crisis, but kept it percolating in the back of their mind (“scratching the itch”). And now they find themselves ready to carefully begin re-exploring that part of their identity.

Both groups are now coming at the same question … “why should I go back to church?” … but from very different angles.

We talked to people.  All kinds of people. Regular, steadfast churchgoers, who you’d think would be relatively comfortable in their faith. Members of our private Facebook Discussion group, a majority of whom are seriously re-thinking many things about their spirituality. And pastors, who are seminary-trained and, frankly, have some “skin in the game.”  And we asked them all that same question: “Why go back to church?”  You might be surprised at how some of them answered.

One word that came up in almost every response was “community,” or other words very much like it.

Which prompted us to ask a follow-up question: “what is a church community?”  If people regularly gather at a coffee shop, or a pub, in each other’s living rooms, or through some kind of on-line group, and talk about theological/spiritual things, and care about each other, can that substitute for church?

Again, you’d be surprised what some of them said.  Especially the pastors!

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