“You probably don’t have as many people in your church building as you did a year ago.”
Speaking at the Illinois Leadership Summit Jan. 19, Dave Rhodes (right) acknowledged one of the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a chief cause for pastoral anxiety. Leaders might feel the church is in jeopardy, said Rhodes, a leadership consultant and pastor in Atlanta. But the future of the church was never dependent on churches getting bigger, he said.
Rhodes spoke to leaders gathered in Springfield and around the state for the multi-site summit broadcast online and at 17 regional satellite locations—a delivery system designed to allow more participants to attend while allowing for social distancing. Along with Rhodes’s sessions, Illinois pastors led 16 breakout sessions during the summit, which focused on the future of the church after COVID-19.
To determine the direction of the future church, and to see it come to fruition, Rhodes said, leaders should look back to Jesus’ example. Preaching from Mark 3, Rhodes identified Jesus’ “big move” that shifted his ministry from one of influence to one of impact. The big move, Rhodes said, was the calling out of disciples to engage in the process of making more disciples.
But today’s churchgoers often get stuck between parts of the process, Rhodes said. They’re in the “lower room” of the church, focused on programs and personalities. Too many people get stuck there, he said, and the problem was compounded by COVID-related shutdowns of regular church programs. The “upper room” is focused on purpose, and the future of the church is built on building a staircase between the two rooms.
To shepherd their people to the upper room, Rhodes said, leaders must “move the finish line” from regular assimilation patterns like small group attendance and volunteer service, to participation in the ultimate purpose of the church—making more disciples.
“Our primary problem in the world today as people who are leading the church is that too often we are faking disciples instead of making disciples,” he said. “We become slaves to the ‘functional’ Great Commission: Go into the world and make more worship attenders, baptizing them in the name of small groups and teaching them to volunteer one or two hours a month.”
Pastor Rob Gallion’s church was moving toward new strategies in leadership development when COVID hit. They had started a weekly men’s group and were building momentum before the pandemic forced a shutdown of most church activities.
“I like the idea of the movement,” Gallion said during a summit break at Western Oaks Baptist Church in Springfield, one of the regional satellite locations. “Not just bringing people in to be participants, but thinking more about how we train these guys to really become leaders who within a year or so will be able to lead their own group.”
That movement toward multiplication is crucial, Rhodes said. Jesus desires believers to make their ultimate contribution to the world by living life as true disciples, and making more disciples.
“The future of the church was Jesus’ investment in the upper room.”