It’s not just us. Covid’s full effect remains to be seen, but it may well intensify decades-long declines in church membership and giving. The result, at best, is a need to reduce staff. Worse, many churches are going without pastors or closing their doors.

It’s a bleak picture. Our first impulse might be to recruit volunteers to fill gaps created when staff leave, but most of us were already having trouble recruiting sufficient volunteers, so that strategy is doubtful.

But if a crisis has an advantage, it’s that it forces us to rethink everything and to refocus on what’s important. How does this apply to church staff and church volunteers?  Read more