The Church Answers Podcast
Four Indications That the COVID Reset Is Over
Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast, presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. May I share with you my virtual cookies, my virtual ice cream, my virtual... whatever it is that makes sounds like that. And we are celebrating, "Yes, this is big." Is there anything that we can do with those effects here? I know that you can do some things on here. It's just not happening. This is our 200th episode. I mean, Church Answers Podcast just started in this episode number 200. Hey, I think you were talking about the thumbs up. I think we can do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I'll give 200 episodes of Thumbs Up. So you are on episode number 200, Jess. I'm honored to be here. Wow. That has gone so quickly. Now, I know that we did through a week. So by the time you've done a year, you've done over 150. So it can go pretty quickly, but it's really, really going fast. Hey, thank you, Chaney & Associates, for being the accounting firm for the church. Thank you for being the sponsor. Thank you for paying the bills that allow us to get this ministry and this message free to those who are watching it on YouTube, to those who are listening on your favorite podcasting app. Hey, you YouTubers, thanks for subscribing to us. Just go down to that button and subscribe right now. You'll be getting a regular feed of this and I'll send out a message to other people that this is available. For those of you on the podcast that are podcasting out, give us some good rating and a good review. Same thing will happen. All right, maybe people are tired of COVID, Jess, but a lot of data is coming in that the COVID reset is over. Now, the indication for this has come primarily from the mental health experts. Okay. And the mental health experts and we have one article is called the mental health toll of COVID-19 appears to be fading. It's in the show notes so you can look at that. That's one of many, but what has happened is there's no longer an increase in the number of cases of mental health challenges as measured by those who come in for help and there's the sources are in that article. I'm not going to try to bore people with that. But it's now stabilized, but just just a word to all of those who are listening, stabilized means it says a new normal that's not that good for mental health, right, so the amount of people coming in is still great. It's just not increasing. So, so we're at a new new normal. Now, you, you were asking this question and I didn't give you a good answer because you asked it three times. The practical implications for the church and I just say, well, there's a new baseline, the same principle applies that whatever, whatever your decline is now, the COVID effect is over. Should be, should be over. You say, well, so what does that mean? That's what you said when you kept on, when you kept on asking the question. It's basically a planning. It's basically a strategic issue. If you know you're not fighting uphill against one thing, you can fight and you can battle and you can do spiritual warfare and other things. Is that practical enough for you. It's a mindset shift is what you're saying like it's. Obviously the implications of 2020 as a whole, you know, we saw the massive spike and anxiety and depression. You're right. It is lower than what it used to be, but it's still higher than it was before 2020. So the problem is, it's challenges still there, but at least what I hear you saying now is that as a pastor. I can, I can kind of go, this is the new reality. This, this is where we can begin to function. We can't, can't stop looking back stop trying to figure out what happened and understand regardless of what happened, this is our reality. We can begin to move forward. And so they're in our conversation. There's some key things that that I hear you saying that have led to this that we're able to kind of say, all right, why is that true. And so in church decline, what we know now churches are still declining. You're still have more churches declining the growing, but the rate of church decline is not a state because the COVID effect is now kind of settled out. And so what is the COVID effect, just I was talking to your, to your mother and my wife about someone we hadn't seen at our church or where your pastor in some time. And I said, you know, that was one person that stopped coming during COVID and never came back and every church has so many of those people. I don't know if they get out of the habit or they just were fearful of coming back to a gathered place. I don't know. Whatever happened, they're not back in that routine. Every church has a lot of those. So that that reason is going away. Your church may still be declining, but it's not because of COVID effect anymore. Right. And COVID made it a sharper decline. And now it's just not as pronounced. It's not as steep of a decline. That makes sense. That's good. Yeah, that's a good indicator. So if if we say that you're a new normal as a pastor, what does that mean for you that, okay, wherever we are right now is probably your base with a non color effect to start moving forward with that moving forward means crow or decline. It's a lot of other factors, but you know what does it mean to adjust to a new normal as a pastor. Yeah, I mean, you could put some very specific things on it. You know, they're used to with 80% rule. You know, that feels like it's now a 60 70% rule 80% rule. If like if you walk into a church facility, 80% it feels like if there's 80% people, it feels 100% full. You know, people kind of there's new norm culturally like the whole six foot thing. It created this new norm. It's like, well, you got to live in that now, you know, for you introverts, you know, you love that six foot role and you still try and abide by it. But it's things like that that have become that we introduced to have become more normative. I'll watch this past Sunday, by the way, what's that. You watch how far away you were from people. Now I watched people come in. You know, I went to both services last Sunday. So I went to the nine o'clock in the 10 30 service. And so I'm standing in the back at the 10 30 service I'd already heard you preach once which your mother said I had to listen to you again. So, it's been something you really need to hear. She always thinks that I'm in the back and I'm looking real carefully because I want to make sure I find her and that somebody else and accidentally sit by someone I shouldn't sit by. Thank you. That's another story and another episode, but I'm watching people come in. And that service was really full. And we were they were bringing in other chairs, you know, just because there weren't enough chairs. I watch people go by rows. And if, if they looked at a row and there weren't two or three seats available, even if it's just one person. They kept on looking because they're used to the space. They didn't find it, but they're used to the space. Yeah. So that's what you're talking about. And that's, that's just one example. You, there's there's benefits to this, you know, last night I did, I did a zoom call for the church in different ways like there's things that brought into our culture from COVID that we can introduce from, you know, positive negative that we can begin to utilize them to reach people. One of the factors that is not positive is the level of urgency is not as great. There was a period coming in COVID and off of COVID where you could, you could, it was an opportunity. Now we were telling people at church answers. So that's a change better change it now, because this, this window is open for just a season. And that urgency is now gone so at least COVID related urgency is gone. So there's, there's not the receptivity to make the changes that you need to make. There's not a prescription for that just to let you know if it feels like you're pushing uphill a little bit more than you were a few months ago, you are. That's easy. Yeah, that ability to enact change has has become more difficult as well, because people are getting back into these new normals, these, these new routines. And so, you know, we're not too far removed from it so there's still opportunities but yeah that that it that makes sense that the decline is less. The idea of, of there's a new normal that set in the level of urgency has decreased, but then also creates the opportunity to create urgency. And so it's, it's all that mindset of, are you looking back, are you looking at your present, you're looking forward. What are you doing as a church leader. Excellent points, excellent point. And we've already mentioned that anxiety and depression are down from their peak. But they're up from where it was before COVID is still and it's to say it's an epidemic that may not be the right sociological medical term to use. But it's not as epidemic as it wants wise but it's still a serious problem that churches will continue to deal with. So, yeah, you see it, you know it's there. And I think, you know, coming out of COVID this was something that churches become more aware of, of, of the mental health challenges that exist, and the reality of them and how the church can respond to them. You know, we've got a taste of how to begin to do that, but also we're seeing that the needs still there. You know, there's this idea of anxiety continues to grow. I think it's an opportunity for the church. It's a whole other topic for another day. So I'll stop there. It's a book that I'm writing to, but we'll talk about that more at another time too. Thanks for being a part of the church answers podcast on behalf of Jess Rainer. I'm Tom Rainer and to Steve Chaney and Chaney Associates. Thank you for being here. And we got one more episode, you know, we download upload. Every time, three at a time, three at a time, this next one is on the 2024 election. That may mean that you don't even want to come to this because so many people are just sick of politics. But we want to talk about maybe why the 2024 election won't be as volatile as the 2020 election. So, yeah, we've, we still got the same two primary candidates got a stronger third party. There's so many things there, but we're going to talk about the 2024 election compared to the 2020 from the perspective of the church. Thank you as always for being a part of the church answers podcast. We'll see you in the next episode. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)