Through the COVID-19 pandemic, churches have grappled with their purpose in a world undergoing a seismic shift. Digging deep into the meaning behind the mission and ministry of local congregations — from bucolic one-church towns to justice-hungry urban streets — was the central work of the United Church of Christ’s virtual national summit, “The Space Between: The Emerging Church in a Post-Pandemic World.” The online event, September 19-21, drew more than 150 participants.

Many of the questions and concerns they wrestled with are old. But the pandemic has injected them with new urgency:

• How to build community through authentic relationships — both online and onsite.
• How to incorporate technology into the most sacred spaces.
• Where to heal widespread trauma — sometimes caused by the church itself.
• How to do justice work.
• How to engage the community.
• Who is and isn’t a part of a faith community.
• And, above all, what it means to be church in this moment in history.

The summit, held via Zoom and Frontline Faith, explored many avenues. Prerecorded “provocateurs” let participants chew on profound theological challenges. Small-group breakout rooms contemplated real problems facing churches in a world of hybrid worship and online engagement. “Unpacking” sessions wove together threads of conversation into possibilities for the church’s future.

And in it all was an acknowledgement of the pain, the uncertainty and the hope that the pandemic has brought. During the first day, participants shared what they believed churches had learned during the pandemic. In particular, they considered how COVID-19 revealed churches’ resiliency and fragility.

Participants answered on virtual sticky notes an online whiteboard program. Here are some ways they described churches’ resiliency:

• “Our churches discovered capacity for change they didn’t know they had.”
• “The congregations who kept their children and youth through the pandemic were the ones who had already established strong relationships pre-pandemic.”
• “I have noticed that even the most senior and tech-shy folks can learn how to Zoom, and how to take ourselves off of mute.”
• “It took a village to get it to work.”
• “We had to embrace that God and the Holy Spirit does not live only within church walls.”
• “The congregations with a fierce determination to connect with and care for one another were more likely to think outside the box.”
• “The commute to Zoom church is really easy.”

And their fragility:

• “Rejection from sacred spaces is particularly difficult on people who have been traumatized by rejection from the church.”
• “The reality and depth of human loneliness — we still struggled to care for individuals alone at home who felt completely cut off.”
• “Rural churches lived through double challenge of poor internet connections and a wider community who often didn’t support COVID precautions (or reality).”
• “We need rituals to process grief.”
• “We are still struggling with the reality of many immuno-compromised folks who are still in a pandemic, and others who feel like it’s ‘over’ and we need to return to ‘normal.’”
• “Early on, the inability to visit people in-person also had a grave impact on clergy who were asking, ‘What is my job now?’”
• “There has to be an understanding that those who are worshiping through Zoom are not second-class members!”

The Rev. Traci Blackmon, UCC associate general minister, spoke during the second day about ways the church is changing and how that affects the relationship between church and community.

“Change can be frightening, as we heard yesterday,” she said. “… But here’s the thing: We can be fearful and faithful at the same time. It’s not faith if the outcome is known. So stop waiting for fear to dissipate. Because faith means doing it scared. And remember that even in the midst of some chaos, God still creates.”

Courage can be compassion, Blackmon said. And church is not the number of people who show up, but the impact it makes in a wider community. That’s how Blackmon described the church she sees emerging from this time. “I see a church where relationship and empathy, listening, serving, are the essential elements of our being,” she said.

Other small groups dug into the meaning of church membership. Questions about online-only church attendees got particular attention. One of these groups was led by the Rev. Adam Ericksen, who described how his church set up worship to include online church members. He added that his church, physically located an Oregon suburb, includes online attendees from Toronto and Michigan, among other places. And some of them aren’t traditional churchgoers.

“They have never entered into a church (or) they haven’t entered into a church building in years because of church trauma,” Ericksen said. “But they are perfectly happy to be in their living rooms and help lead worship for this church just outside of Portland. So it’s a way of bringing folks together who would never enter into a church room.”

Click here to read more topics and highlights of the summit.