Be Ahead of COVID: Are you Ready?

Over the weekend, I had numerous people connect with me about how to address a potential second wave of COVID, how to respond to it, and what to do next. If you are thinking the same things, here are some thoughts for you:

Be Ahead of COVID.

As leaders, it is important to respond and react as needed. This includes crisis-management, relational needs, and pastoral duties. With that said, another important area of leadership is strategic action.

The ONLY way to be ahead of COVID is to be strategic. Are you?

Develop a Collaborated Plan.

Second, develop a collaborated and contextualized plan for your ministry/organization. Bring in your key people on how to respond to COVID. This should include your key leaders, staff, and/or volunteers. Ask these questions/benchmarks to focus on:

• Worship - how will we gather and worship?

• Evangelism - how will we offer and train our people in reaching culture digitally?

• Community - how are we staying connected that is being bombarded by content? ***In my relational network, this is the biggest NEED to be addressed in intentional ways.***

• Discipleship - how are we offering way(s) for people to GROW in their faith/relationship with God during these days

• Ministry - how are we mobilizing our people into effective and contextualized ministry?

Think in Stages

Third, think in stages. YET, take action ONE stage at a time. For my context, we have thought in this manner:

• Stage one (week one-four) - respond to urgency and need,

• Stage two (week four-eight) - respond by meeting needs,

• Stage three (week eight-twelve) - respond by adaptation (with new guidelines coming from governments) and ongoing needs,

• Stage four (week twelve-onward) - respond with options to urgency, need, and adaptation.

Implement the Plan, Immediately.

Fourth, take action. NOW.

Be willing to experiment. Try new things. Get creative. Be willing to fail. I find it interesting some leadership teams are NOT willing to try new things because they need to know all the details to make it fail-proof. This is important, of course, but NOT always. Why? Because we are in a COVID-cutlure. We are living in the urgency. We need to be willing to try new things because NOTHING is fail-proof.

*** If you are the key leader and reading this, the BEST way to lead your team is to help them realize that it is OK to experiment. When you use the word, “experiment”, “pilot project”, “try”, this helps your leaders/teams process positively. They think it is OK to fail when they “experiment”. Of course, don’t put all your eggs in one basket when you are experimenting, but, please, try! Take action.***

When I have used the word, “experiment” with other leaders/teams, in small and large projects with thousands of dollars at stake, it has helped leaders and teams to positively think and take action rather than fall into inertia.

Discern and Adjust

Fifth, discern. Share the wins. Adjust the fails. Keep moving forward. How do you discern? Here are some things I have used:

• Feedback from trusted leaders/mentors/key volunteers in ministry and/or my organization,

• Engagement trends,

• Focus on the benchmarks (as above),

• Pray + ask the Spirit to guide,

• Evaluate + debrief often (once a week with your team), and

• Adjust your plan in each stage.

Enjoy the Journey

Last, embrace the journey. Walk humbly. Take care of yourself. Be patient. Trust in God. Learn to give up control. Be kind to others. Learn. Unlearn.

Of course, all these principles above are BIBLICAL too. If you read through Nehemiah, the life of Jesus, and the book of Acts, you will find these leadership truths. I hope these truths will help you lead well in uncertain times.

How have you been ahead of COVID? Feel free to add to the conversation.

***If you are looking for coaching options, feel free to contact DUCO here.***