You are leading in a time when tension, complexity, and uncertainty seem to lead the way.

It’s difficult to get in front and lead when circumstances and culture change so rapidly. Yet, leadership is our responsibility, and now more than ever.

• Racial injustice has reached a tipping point.
• COVID-19 continues to increase our economic challenges.
• Re-opening the doors to churches continues to bring more questions than answers.

Plus, the problems you faced before more recent events and cultural impacts.

With all this, as leaders, it’s up to us to bring hope, seize opportunities, and point the way.

No small task, right?

I’ve been a runner for decades, well, more like a jogger. I don’t run far, I don’t run fast, and I don’t run pretty, but it’s 3.1 miles every day.

One thing I’ve learned is that I don’t run well on an unstable surface.

Jogging in beach sand, rocky surfaces, or a potholed grass field doesn’t work for me. It destabilizes my footing, and I feel off-balance the whole time. 

It makes me run in a tentative way.

In this COVID season, the same thing happens in leadership.  

The sustained disruption in so much of the life and ministry of a local church has many leaders off-balance, and we can end up leading tentatively.

Who is coming back to church, and when?

Then again, is it really about “coming back?” 

In principle no.

Most of your congregation never left. Most are with you online. And the church is not about a building; it’s about the impact of Jesus in the community.

In practice, yes.

We all know what we’re talking about.

The return of the church to physical buildings post COVID, and we are very much in uncharted waters.

People will come back; that we can know with confidence.
What we don’t know is who, how many, and when.

So, let’s be candid. There is more we don’t know than we do.

But isn’t that what we as leaders are called to do —  lead into the unknown?