{"id":10931,"date":"2021-01-22T16:22:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T21:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=10931"},"modified":"2024-07-24T13:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T17:27:08","slug":"for-churches-the-pandemic-has-helped-wipe-the-slate-clean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/for-churches-the-pandemic-has-helped-wipe-the-slate-clean\/","title":{"rendered":"\uad50\ud68c\uc758 \uacbd\uc6b0, \ud32c\ub370\ubbf9\uc73c\ub85c \uc778\ud574 \uc0c8\ub85c\uc6b4 \uc2dc\uc791\uc744 \ud560 \uc218 \uc788\uc5c8\uc2b5\ub2c8\ub2e4."},"content":{"rendered":"

The pandemic has given church leaders \u201copportunity at a very strange time,\u201d the Rev. Jessica Vaughan Lower said during her Facebook Live conversation Thursday on leading congregations in 2021. The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director for Theological Funds Development for the Committee on Theological Education at the \uc7a5\ub85c\uad50 \uc7ac\ub2e8<\/a>, appeared with Lower as part of the twice-monthly online conversations he hosts with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders from around the country.<\/p>\n

The pandemic \u201chas brought us closer, and opportunity comes with that,\u201d Lower said, referring to the staff, ruling elders, members and friends at the church where she serves, San Marino Community Church<\/a> in Southern California. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to be scared, but what did we hope the church would be doing in 20 years? New troubles come with a clean slate \u2014 that mission trip you wanted to take, that partnership you wanted to start, that small group you wanted to lead. People want something that brings them life.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo those things,\u201d she suggested, \u201cthat bring you life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she completes here doctoral studies, Lower said one thing that\u2019s caught her attention is how anxiety functions in organizations like churches in much the same way it functions in individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe forget the organization itself produces, retains and magnifies anxiety,\u201d she said. \u201cThe way it functions, it can create a feedback loop that causes the anxiety to intensify.\u201d<\/p>\n

While anxiety can create positive opportunities including \u201cthe necessity of urgency,\u201d it can also \u201csuck the energy out of a room,\u201d she said. Church members and friends might react by stepping away from ministry they\u2019ve been doing and cite reasons including \u201cI\u2019m getting older\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m too busy.\u201d That can create even more urgency, she said.<\/p>\n

A favorite phrase on the topic of organizational anxiety, she said, comes from Dr. Scott Cormode<\/a>, the Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development at \ud480\ub7ec \uc2e0\ud559\uad50<\/a>: \u201cWe serve the never-changing gospel in an ever-changing society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can cause whiplash,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ten months into offering prerecorded and livestreamed worship services online, Lower and her colleagues at San Marino Community Church have worked \u201cto create rituals even though we are at a distance,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to take note of the way the pandemic shapes us. We can\u2019t ignore it, but we can\u2019t always preach about it. There is good news, but it\u2019s most noticeable when everything is very, very dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by Hinson-Hasty to deliver a blessing and charge, Lower relied on one of her go-to benedictions, Paul\u2019s advice to Timothy found in 2 Timothy 4:5: \u201cKeep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the conversation between the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty and the Rev. Jessica Vaughan Lower \uc5ec\uae30<\/a>. See past episodes of Hinson-Hasty\u2019s Facebook Live broadcast <\/em>\uc5ec\uae30<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic has given church leaders \u201copportunity at a very strange time,\u201d the Rev. Jessica Vaughan Lower said during her Facebook Live conversation Thursday on leading congregations in 2021. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":10932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46740,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931\/revisions\/46740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}