{"id":6273,"date":"2020-06-23T17:04:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/?p=6273"},"modified":"2021-10-18T18:13:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T18:13:55","slug":"so-what-is-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2020\/06\/23\/so-what-is-church\/","title":{"rendered":"So what is church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the world turns upside down, the world heads to church.<\/p>\n

It happened after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. And it happens on a smaller scale in local communities after events like mass shootings occur. But what happens to that instinct to go to church when a pandemic shuts down towns, cities, entire nations? The answer is inspiring faith leaders who are working to help congregations navigate the COVID-19 crisis that\u2019s circled the globe since the beginning of the year and crippled the United States since mid-March. Amidst all the fear and sorrow the pandemic is creating, it may also be responsible for giving rise to an ecumenical evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally believe this is the greatest opportunity the church has ever had to reach the people the church was designed to reach. Our church too often reaches the people who are already here,\u201d said Hans Dahl \u201905 M.Div<\/strong>. \u201cI think the greatest mistake the church has ever made is referring to \u2018church\u2019 as the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dahl pastors Calvary Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Minnesota. He and his wife, Katie Dahl \u201905 M.A<\/strong>., the coordinator of congregational ministries at Calvary, were both students and staff at Luther Seminary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope after this we never say \u2018I\u2019m going to church.\u2019\u201d Hans Dahl said. \u201cThis pandemic has forced us to make that a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katie
Katie Dahl \u201805 M.A. and volunteers prepare to distribute face masks outside Calvary Lutheran Church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alternative worship is the new normal<\/h2>\n

The congregation has adopted weekly online services, but staff members also encourage virtually connected groups that include six to 10 people who agree to meet regularly in small faith- and life-sharing circles. The church community enjoys fellowship via events like virtual bingo, and Dahl and the leadership team create what they call \u201cThe Daily Dose,\u201d video segments shared five days a week offering songs and short messages on faith and encouragement for different audiences within the congregation.<\/p>\n

While not an entirely seamless transition, the harder challenges of the pandemic changes may reveal themselves when coronavirus restrictions are eased, Katie Dahl said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many people that would not have come through the door of the church, who are hearing the invitation to join us,\u201d she said, for worship and service opportunities.<\/p>\n

People who were entirely unchurched or who hadn\u2019t engaged in church, sometimes for decades,\u00a0 are checking in to the community\u2019s Facebook Live video streams, or responding to calls for fabric or other materials for mask-making efforts. Now the congregation has to consider how to sustain that energy.<\/p>\n

“I want people to understand the church is not a building, and spirituality is not about a physical location.\u201d\u2014Salim Koderbhai<\/strong>, M.Div. student<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of people asking that question in our congregation,\u201d Katie Dahl said. \u201cWhat will we grow, knowing we can\u2019t go back to things as \u2018normal?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Forward to \u2018who we are\u2019<\/h2>\n

In Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Niklaus Schillack \u201915 D.Min.<\/strong> shares the Dahls\u2019 thinking. The pastor and his team are working to make sure that church gets redefined for the congregation at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church is now forced to be and to do what we have been saying for years. It\u2019s almost like God has called the question and said \u2018OK, put your money where your mouth is. You\u2019ve been saying the church isn\u2019t the building for years\u2014do you really believe it?\u2019\u201d Schillack said.<\/p>\n

Schillack said Scripture readings are divided up between different families, who record the segments in their homes or backyards for inclusion in the weekly services. Communal prayer services are offered semiweekly, and twice each week Schillack sends Beautiful Savior Updates\u2014emailed missives designed to buoy readers that start with a pastor\u2019s short message,\u00a0 offer ideas for family fun virtual events like the Panda Cam at Zoo Atlanta, and include calls to action for service opportunities like phone trees connecting church members with others who may not be in a faith community.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we go back at this point?\u201d Schillack mused about what his community has learned through online worship services. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing who we really are and who we\u2019re really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy desire, and I\u2019m seeing it happen on a constant basis, is that the church comes out of this time with a more clear, passionate understanding of who we are, having been created in the image of the Trinity. I don\u2019t want us to forget how much we all need each other. Society has sold this lie that we can do it on our own and we don\u2019t need anyone, and it took only a couple of days for that lie to be shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hans
Hans Dahl \u201805 M.Div. delivers pizza to a family participating in an online church gathering.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A very different future<\/h2>\n

Dwight Zscheile<\/strong>, vice president of innovation and associate professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary, said the pandemic isn\u2019t only inviting deeper reflection around what church is, but it\u2019s also challenging faith communities to adapt more rapidly than they might otherwise would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, on the other side, there is a time of reconstruction, when the community rebuilds its life out of the ruins of what was. For many churches, the future will look very different than before this crisis. COVID-19 will accelerate (by years even) trends of institutional fragilization and demise. Yet there will be a time to build, to discover new forms for Christian community spirituality is not about a physical life and witness amidst the collapse of the old,\u201d Zscheile wrote in a blog post for Faith+Lead,<\/a> the seminary\u2019s digital resource hub that helps leaders address challenges facing churches in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

In rural southwest Minnesota, where former M.Div. student Salim Kaderbhai<\/strong> pastors two small community churches, that idea Zscheile describes is particularly timely and challenging. One of the congregations Kaderbhai oversees recently voted to\u00a0close because the ministry could no longer be sustained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely hard as a pastor. I want people to understand the church is not a building, and spirituality is not about a physical location, so that idolizing the building doesn\u2019t blind people to what true faith is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaderbhai said too often people can be talking about \u2018my church,\u2019 and they really are thinking of the building and land\u2014how well-kept are the grounds, and is the paint fresh inside the fellowship hall? But he said it\u2019s also painful after people have come together, sometimes for decades, sharing their lives and worshipping in one space, to not be able to say goodbye to that structure, literally and figuratively. It\u2019s a different kind of void left for those parishioners.<\/p>\n

So Kaderbhai said his goal is to help people in both communities find new ways to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two kinds of churches: Those that are meant to be a church and those that are a museum. Is it a place to preserve history, or is it a place to live out your faith? This has really forced people to reevaluate what their priorities are,\u201d Kaderbhai said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a pastoral perspective, my hope is that they all understand how we all need not only the God who created us and forgave us, but the community that God gave us. I want people to understand the importance of meaningful, transformative relationships with God and each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaking off muscle memory<\/h2>\n

That challenge is exactly what Katie Langston \u201921 M.Div.<\/strong> and others at Luther Seminary are helping faith leaders navigate with the resources and community of Faith+Lead.<\/p>\n

COVID-19, said Langston, director of digital strategy and executive communications specialist, \u201cis stripping away the muscle memory of what church is.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the default is gathering together on Sunday to display membership, or if attendance at a particular service is church, she said it will be much harder for a faith leader to sustain that congregation through this current\u2014 or any other\u2014crisis the church community is likely to face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pandemic is causing people to reflect deeply on the questions of what church is and what it means to be church,\u201d Langston said. \u201cIf, as a leader, you haven\u2019t answered that question better than \u2018It\u2019s the building,\u2019 when we are able to gather together again you will have far fewer people, because people will have figured out they can do without church.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it\u2019s not a question of simply taking what\u2019s done in person and plopping it online, but instead it will require \u201cimagination and deep theological consideration of what we are doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langston and other members of the Faith+Lead team are helping pastors and leaders ask the right questions so they can find the answers that best fit each unique spiritual community.<\/p>\n

She encourages faith leaders to \u201ctake the opportunity now to be intentional in your discernment of what God is saying\u201d so they can clearly define what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

That intentionality is guiding Nathan Strong \u201911 M.Div.<\/strong> as he serves his congregation at Grace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, Texas.<\/p>\n

Strong said there\u2019s a desire, as a community\u2019s pastor, to feel like all the answers have to flow through him. Instead, he said, he tries to keep everything in perspective by gathering smart people around him who can determine what the community wants to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pandemic felt like someone slammed on the brakes of life for all of us,\u201d said Strong. \u201cNow that we are slowly moving, we can figure out what is important, where we are going, and more importantly, that everyone matters to God, so they matter to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The global COVID-19 pandemic forces faith communities to grapple with big questions that may revolutionize how congregations worship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[108,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-listen-campaign","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"issue-summer-2020","10":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSo what is church? - Luther Seminary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2020\/06\/23\/so-what-is-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So what is church? 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