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The pandemic has taken a toll on the Church. 

“Churches initially lost 50 percent of their congregations,” says pastor, author, and podcaster Dr. Desmond Barrett. “Since that time, 75 percent of it has come back, but there is a quarter of the population that has not come back to the church.” 

Barrett serves as the lead pastor at Summit Church of the Nazarene in Ashland, Kentucky and writes and podcasts on the topic of church revitalization.  

“It’s an opportunity to become the Acts-driven church. We cannot go back to two years ago. We cannot go back to the ‘glory days,’ whenever they were in the local church,” he says. “We have to focus on the season that we’re in here, today.”  

For churches that once focused primarily on programming for the people in the pews, Barrett sees this as an opportunity to look outward to those who live in the shadow of our steeples.  

“God has called us to minister to those people,” he says. In order to do that, “we have to become a praying people.” 

And if you’re a church leader discouraged by empty chairs, Barrett assures us that God is not surprised by the pandemic and its effects. He can use it all to revitalize His church.  

“Stop focusing on what you did yesterday or even what you’re going to do tomorrow. Because when you do that you realize that God is in the midst.” 

Listen to our 15-minute conversation to hear Desmond Barrett’s strategies for emerging from the pandemic and hear how many congregations are returning to a focus on prayer. 

Dr. Desmond Barrett is the author of Revitalizing the Declining Church: From Death’s Door to Community Growth, and Addition Through Subtraction: Revitalizing the Established Church.

You can find the article that inspired this conversation here.