Category: Church life

Creating Space and Time

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that we are busy people compressed into densely populated cities. Often our church gatherings have replicated that. We’ve squeezed people into our buildings, crammed a lot of content: songs, notices, mini-sermons, main sermons into them, rushed them through to back halls for cheap coffee and cheaper… Continue reading Creating Space and Time

Updated data and thoughts for church COVID risk assessments

As promised here’s an update on where I think we are in terms of COVID-19 and its impact on our return to in person church gatherings. First of all, here’s an update on the data. The first important graph is the one showing case growth. As you can see, we saw a return to positive… Continue reading Updated data and thoughts for church COVID risk assessments

Was the reported fall in COVID cases real? And why does this matter for churches and church leaders?

You may remember that I wrote this article last week following some suggestions that we could not rely on the COVID-19 data being shared from the official website. The argument was that whilst Lateral Flow and PCR tests results were showing a drop in the number of cases, that couldn’t possibly be true. This linked… Continue reading Was the reported fall in COVID cases real? And why does this matter for churches and church leaders?

Positive reasons for the cautious to return to in person church

Over the past few weeks I’ve been updating readers about what we are seeing in terms of the COVID pandemic (my reporting here is UK specific). My reason for doing this is to help church leaders and trustees plan carefully in order to move increasingly towards full re-opening whilst minimising risks associated with the virus.… Continue reading Positive reasons for the cautious to return to in person church

COVID data tracking for church risk assessments

I hope that your first Sunday after the lifting of restrictions was encouraging and that you had more freedom to gather for worship inline with your context and tradition.  I’ve been arguing for a cautious but optimistic approach to in person re-gathering following the lifting of lockdown and I’ve argued that we need to be… Continue reading COVID data tracking for church risk assessments

COVID trends update for church risk management

Over the past couple of days we’ve seen the first fall in the daily figures for new COVID cases by reported date for a long time. Now, we need to approach the data with some caution recognising that The reported date is not the same as the actual specimen date when the test was taken.… Continue reading COVID trends update for church risk management

COVID risk assessment update

Here’s my regular update on the COVID data.  My purpose in sharing these updates is to help churches keep a view on what is happening as they make plans and risk assessments for re-opening.  The risks that we have to consider include objective risks in terms of the potential to create a super spreading context… Continue reading COVID risk assessment update