For those who cannot attend in person church

I believe that Christians should seek to gather as best and as maximally as possible. This means that when the pandemic happened and many churches relied on things like Zoom and Facebook, I argued that this counted as the church gathering.  I do believe that where possible, we should seek to meet in person, embodied,… Continue reading For those who cannot attend in person church

They are not coming back

This is the difficult conversation that if we are honest, we don’t want to have.  It’s a long time since I wrote anything about church life post pandemic but following the pandemic I wrote about the long journey in terms of people coming back to church. I’ve not done any measuring of things for a… Continue reading They are not coming back

How’s the post COVID replanting going?

For many years, my wife had an orchid plant I had bought her. Neither of us are particularly green fingered but out of all the plants we ever tried to grow, this one seemed to survive and thrive. Each year we would have to repot it to allow for new growth.   Having spent some time… Continue reading How’s the post COVID replanting going?

COVID Spring 2022

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about COVID-19 however, I thought it might be worth a little update. Since I stopped updating charts daily, there have been substantial changes to testing and reporting including the ending of free Lateral flow tests. For that reason, I am not going to report on positive test… Continue reading COVID Spring 2022

Should I give up on seeing people coming back to church?

It varies from church to church but most churches even if they’ve experienced growth through new people joining appear to have lost some people from in person attendance during COVID. I was arguing back in the Autumn that those who had not begun to re-join your gatherings or at least make active preparation probably would… Continue reading Should I give up on seeing people coming back to church?

Post pandemic pastoral conversations – don’t forget those who have returned

The parable of the Lost Sheep is a wonderful exposition of the Gospel. It points us to the God who passionately pursues the lost. It challenges the legalistic pride and insularity of the Pharisees and it convicts our hearts -do we have that same concern for those who are lost and wandering.  It’s not a… Continue reading Post pandemic pastoral conversations – don’t forget those who have returned

Post pandemic pastoral conversations – those who haven’t come back

As we return increasingly to normality following the pandemic, I suspect that the vast majority of people who are intending to return to in person church attendance will have done so by now.  If the majority of your church are not yet back in person then you may have to have some searching conversations together… Continue reading Post pandemic pastoral conversations – those who haven’t come back

COVID-19 update”after plan B”

Today sees the lifting of the additional COVID measures brought in for England in response to Omicron. Scotland has also seen some restrictions around events and gatherings lifted this week. The big change in England is the removal of the face mask requirement for indoor venues. Last week I updated my risk management assessment and… Continue reading COVID-19 update”after plan B”