What does America need for its post-COVID “new normal”?

Are you one of those people who watches a movie over and over again?

I’m not.

In fact, I rarely watch any movie more than once.

But there are exceptions.

The greatest exception for me takes me back to when I was a kid in fourth grade. I still remember riding my bike from our house on Willetta Street in Scottsdale, Arizona over to Los Arcos Mall.

I secured my transportation in the rack out front and hurried to the theater inside. The premiere showing of “The Poseidon Adventure” would soon start. I excitedly bought my ticket, purchased a soda and some popcorn, then settled into my seat.

That’s where I would remain transfixed for the next hour and 57 minutes as I watched a gripping story unfold about a luxury ocean liner full of passengers that was capsized by a tidal wave.

One minute the passengers were eating, drinking, and dancing, the next minute their world was upside down.

Literally.

How would they survive? Would they survive? If they did, how could life ever be the same again?

___

A scenario similar to that occurred off the screen and all around the world early in 2020.

People were eating, drinking, dancing, and otherwise living their “normal” lives. The next minute, a novel coronavirus broke out and a pandemic, like a towering tsunami, turned the world upside down.

How would we survive? Would we survive? If we did, how could life ever be the same again?

___

Well, congratulations, you have survived a global pandemic. Not everyone made it, but most of us did.

Life, however, will likely not return — at least not fully — to the “old normal” we experienced prior to the onset of the pandemic.

And, truth be told, for most of us it shouldn’t.

It certainly shouldn’t for much of Christ’s church.

I understand not everyone will agree.

When the pandemic first hit, we were all shocked and surprised, but initially thought it probably would be little more than a short-lived inconvenience.

As the pandemic lingered on, it was common to hear people (and especially church leaders) talk about how they couldn’t wait for “things to get back to normal again.” Going back to the “old normal” was priority one for many.

Now, more than two years since we first started taking note of the coronavirus, COVID-19 still lingers and many local, state, and national jurisdictions still have not officially declared the pandemic to be over yet.

If it isn’t, one thing that is over is the “old normal.”

Like it or not, we are already more than ankle deep into the “new normal” that has been a matter of great curiosity and speculation for people around the world.

If we can’t, or won’t, or shouldn’t return fully back to life as it was prior to the pandemic, what will the “new normal” look like? How will it be different? What changes that occurred in the pandemic should we keep? What from the “old normal” should we hang onto? How should we attempt to shape life moving forward from here?

___

You can’t make wise decisions about moving forward if you aren’t honest about where you’re coming from. The truth is, the “old normal” wasn’t nearly as “good” for people, or the church, as many like to remember it as.

And it’s all much worse now.

Prior to the pandemic, it was common for people to reduce their interactions with other human beings — including family members and the closest of friends, to text messaging. People commonly asserted, “If It can be sent in a text, don’t call.” That at a time when nations of people were reporting an epidemic of loneliness.

Before the onset of COVID-19, we had a pre-existing mental health crisis in America. Now, according to Dr. Tim Clinton, President of the American Association of Christian Counselors, that mental health crisis has morphed into a mental health disaster.

Before COVID-19 became a household name, not only were we mentally and physically unhealthy, we had significantly spiritually atrophied as well, and it’s getting worse.

In an effort to get a measure of what’s happening to us spiritually, and to Christ’s church, there has been a string of studies, surveys, and other research efforts, and the data collected isn’t good news. Some of the data being reported includes news that is nothing less than shocking. One researcher claims “We’re experiencing another reformation, but not in a good way.” Here’s some of the most recently gathered data garnered from people who self-identify as Christians:

• • Only six percent hold a biblical worldview.(1)
  • Only 37 percent of pastors hold a biblical worldview. (2)
  • One survey, which included more than 3,000 Americans between age 18 and 55, revealed that born-again Protestants experienced the greatest level of decline in Bible-based beliefs from 2010 to 2020. During that decade, the percentage of people who agreed with core Christian doctrines fell from 47 percent to 25 percent.(3)
  • 62 percent say the Holy Spirit isn’t a real, living being.(4)
  • 61 percent say all religious faiths are of equal value.(5)
  • 60 percent believe if a person is good enough, or does enough good works, they can earn their way into heaven.(6)
  • 35 percent believe in karma.(7)
  • 42 percent believe “having faith” matters more than which faith you pursue.(8)
  • 75 percent argue people are basically “good” rather than basically sinful.(9)
  • 43 percent believe Jesus sinned during His time on earth.(10)
  • 52 percent don’t believe in objective moral truth and the authority of the Bible.(11)
  • 44 percent believe Bible teachings on abortion are ambiguous.(12)
  • 34 percent don’t believe marriage is between one man and one woman.(13)
  • One study found significant minorities of those who identify as “evangelical” don’t confess their sin daily, don’t worship God daily, and don’t pursue God’s will for their lives.(14)

One study stated that 28 percent of people who attend evangelical churches are not born-again Christians.(15) With views and percentages like those noted above, I think 28 percent is likely a low number!

The news is worse for churches.

A study conducted in 2018 revealed that 51 percent of churchgoers stated they had never heard of the Great Commission.(16)

Now that churches are once again gathering in person, many churches are reporting that 30 to 60 percent of their congregation have not yet returned, and they may not return at all.

One study reports a median decline in overall church attendance of seven percent between 2015 and 2020. Half of the estimated 350,000 congregations in America had 65 or fewer people in attendance on any given weekend (in 2000, that number was 137). (17)

Part of what is at the heart of the problem is that 65 percent of church leaders say evangelism has not been a priority for their congregations for the last several years. Only nine percent said it was a high priority for members to share their faith.(18) The church has been in decline for a very long time, largely because it has turned inward rather than outward.

The impact of the pandemic, which has seen unprecedented levels of strife and criticism from congregations toward each other and specifically toward their leaders, has resulted in 38 percent of pastors saying in 2021 that they have thought about quitting vocational ministry within the year (19), and that has increased to 42 percent of pastors thinking about quitting in 2022 (20).

Can it get worse?

Here’s some startling news — according to Thom Rainer, founder and CEO of Church Answers, “Between 6,000 and 10,000 churches in the US are dying each year. That means around 100-200 churches will close this week. The pace will accelerate unless our congregations make some dramatic changes.”

Rainer also claims the impact of the pandemic on churches in 2022 could be at record level: “We estimate that as many as 15,000 churches will be confronted with the choice of closing or being adopted.”

It wasn’t as good as you might remember before the onset of COVID-19, and the impact of a global pandemic has made many things worse.

___

So, what do we do?

The answer isn’t to go back to the “old normal,” that was unhealthy by almost every measure.

The answer isn’t to create a “new normal” because we can’t make all things new, only Jesus can do that, and that’s what He will do when He returns.

Is there an answer for now? For the ankle-deep “new normal” we find ourselves already wading into?

Yes. As people, as church leaders, and as Christ’s church, we need to recalibrate.

The original downfall of humanity began by an evil serpent whispering a lie to a woman in a garden, suggesting that if she acted just slightly out of calibration with what God said, she could be like Him (Gn. 3:1-7).

Eve’s acting on that deception would lead to all of humanity being “out of calibration” with the will and Word of God.

Recalibration couldn’t fix that level of brokenness.

Instead, God Himself worked throughout human history to bring us a Redeemer, the only one who could pay the cost of our rebellion, set us free from sin and its consequence of death, and reconcile us to God:

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift of God, who brought us back to himself through Christ” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.

But as we look back at the “old normal,” things weren’t as good as we like to pretend they were. That’s because, once again, we had deceived ourselves and fallen out of calibration with the will and Word of God.

This time, we don’t need a new a Savior, we need to “recalibrate” our lives to the will and Word of God, and then diligently strive to maintain that right setting.

What does it mean to “recalibrate”?

Recalibrate means to correct a measuring process by checking or adjusting again in comparison with a standard. It’s about tweaking something that appears to be working just fine — or that we claim to be working fine.

But in the “old normal” we claimed what we valued (what we worshiped) was fine … but it wasn’t.

We claimed how we were doing relationships was fine … but it wasn’t.

We claimed how we were “doing church” was fine … but in most cases, it wasn’t.

It all needs to be recalibrated to the will and Word of God.

Nothing could give us more hope for the “new normal” than to launch out into it with our lives, our marriages, our households, our church leaders, and our churches recalibrated to the will and Word of God, making that our standard and the sure setting for living in this world.

Scotty

Notes:
1. “Only 6% of Americans have a ‘biblical worldview,’ research from George Barna finds” by Michael Gryboski, May 26, 2021, The Christian Post.
2. “Study finds 37 percent of pastors have biblical worldview; Spiritual awakening ‘needed in our pulpits’” by Anugrah Kumar, May 16, 2022, The Christian Post.
3. “Survey Finds ‘Remarkable and Devastating’ Drop in Biblical Beliefs of Born-Again Christians,” by Stephanie Martin, August 23, 2021, ChurchLeaders.com.
4. “Most adult US Christians don’t believe Holy Spirit is real: study,” by Leonardo Blair, September 10, 2021, The Christian Post.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. “Barna: We’re Experiencing Another Reformation, and Not in a Good Way,” by Jessica Lea, October 8, 2020, ChurchLeaders.com.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. “Ever Heard of the ‘Great Commission’? 51% of Churchgoers Say No.” by Bob Ditmer, March 29, 2018, ChurchLeaders.com.
17. “The Real Reason Churches Are in Decline,” by James Emery White, November 5, 2021, ChurchLeaders.com.
18. Ibid.
19. “38% of U.S. Pastors Have Thought About Quitting Full-Time Ministry in the Past Year,” unattributed, November 16, 2021, Barna.com.
20. “More pastors say they have considered quitting, site stress, loneliness and politics,” by Leonardo Blair, May 4, 2022, The Christian Post.