Wading into the “new normal,” have people become less committal?

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Kenneth Bailey tells the story of teaching some short courses at the Lutheran Church of Latvia. While there, he observed the interviewing of prospective students and inquired of the interviewers what questions they asked. They said, “The most important question is, ‘When were you baptized?'” And he asked why is that so important? They answered, “If they were baptized during the period of Soviet rule, they risked their lives and compromised their futures by being baptized. But if they were baptized after liberation from the Soviets, we have many further questions to ask about why they want to become a pastor.” And then he writes, “The Master challenges His servants to live boldly and publicly as His servants, using His resources and unafraid of His enemies, confident in the future as His future.”

Making bold commitments is something we heard and read about in the “old normal,” we may have even observed them or perhaps made a few bold commitments ourselves. But making or keeping commitments as we continue to wade further into the “new normal” seems to be something many people are at least hesitant to do.

It’s probably still too early to say with much accuracy what the post-pandemic “new normal” will really look like, but there’s one sign that might be disturbing.

At least on the surface, there seems to be indications that people have become less committal than they were in the “old normal.” Here are just some of the signs that people are increasingly hesitant about making new commitments — or keeping old ones — as they shape their new normal:

Questioning relationships – Many couples and families have reported their relationships improved during the pandemic due to having more time at home together. But that’s not the case for many others, who report an increase in marital and family conflict, going as far as to question whether they want to stay in the relationships they are in. For some, the answer to that question remains unsettled.

Disengaged from friends – A lot of people talk about being very happy to be able to fully engage in person again with their friends, many of whom they distanced themselves from during the height of the pandemic. But there are still a lot of people yet to fully re-engage with those friendships even though there are no longer any type of government restrictions to inhibit them from doing so. For many people, some old friendships have all but disappeared and haven’t resumed yet.

The Great Resignation – Seeing transitioning life from an “old normal” to a “new normal,” millions of Americans concluded they no longer wanted to “settle for” what they considered the “lack” in their old jobs. As a result, more than 4.5 million Americans resigned from their previous jobs, thinking the “grass was greener” in a different pasture of employment. However, a recent Harris Poll showed that about 72 percent of those people who quit their jobs as part of “The Great Resignation” now regret doing so, saying their new jobs are different from what they were made to believe they would be. So, not only did these people drop any commitment to their old employers, they may not be very committed to their news ones, either.

Changing environments – The pandemic brought a massively expanded opportunity for people to work from home, which for many also meant they could then live anywhere they wanted. As a result, many people did decide to change their environment; for some, that might have meant moving out of the city, for others it meant relocating to a different state, because they reasoned that they no longer had commitments “holding them down” to where they had been living.

Church members not returning to church – Even though churches have now resumed their in-person worship services and meeting, many people have not returned to their local home church, and many of those people say they may not return at all.

The Great Reshuffle – Of those people who have returned to church, many have not returned to the church they were members of prior to the pandemic but have used the time to “church shop” and are choosing to go elsewhere, resulting in a “reshuffling” of Christians to different local church homes.

Not committing to serve in church – Many church leaders are reporting they are having difficulty recruiting people who have returned to church gatherings to make a commitment to serve in various “volunteer” capacities.

People “deconstructing” their faith – There have been increasing reports of people “deconstructing” their faith, deciding to change their commitment to what they previously claimed to believe about God. This includes multiple well-known church leaders or Christian “celebrities.”

Pastors wanting out – One study reported that in 2021, at least 38 percent of pastors had considered quitting vocational ministry; they were unsure of their ongoing commitment to their calling or their local congregation they were serving.

There hasn’t been much research into why so many people seem to be becoming less committal, but there are some reasons I’ve gathered from observation:

    • Afraid of an unknown future. “Tomorrow” was an unknown in the old normal, just as it is moving into the new normal, but it seemed and felt safer.
    • Not yet believing that “things have settled” enough to make decisions about how to move forward into their new normal.
    • Long wanted changed that is still incomplete. Many people have wanted change of different kinds for a long time, and now that change is happening but is still incomplete, they’re hesitant to make commitments until they see how much more things may change.
    • They weren’t fully or sincerely committed even before the pandemic and that is now being revealed.
    • They’re still holding out for something better to happen before they settle on committing to things or people.

The challenging part of trying to shape a “new normal” in a post-pandemic world is that not much happens without first committing to something, or someone, and especially when it comes to walking with God through life. Some commitments are for life, and forging needed new frontiers begins by committing to something and/or someone.

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you,” Psalm 37:5.

“Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed,” Proverbs 16:3.

“But Jesus told him, ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God,'” Luke 9:62.

Scotty