Compassionate Accountability: Everything Has Changed

Remember when telecommuting and “work from home” were novelties? During the COVID-19 pandemic, we discovered that remote work was a necessity, not an option. There certainly were both positive and negative aspects to this situation. Working from home was a challenge if you had children who were also doing remote learning. A good internet connection was mandatory and there were often connection glitches. But few people missed commuting, dressing up every day, and spending hours on the road or on a plane to attend meetings.

Remote employees functioned so well in many situations that some companies decided that they didn’t need people concentrated in buildings anymore. A regional insurance company that has been a mainstay in our community for over 60 years sent all of their employees home and they have never come back. The building is up for sale. The work got done without everyone being in the same physical space. In some instances, workers have decided they like working from home and are seeking employment that allows them to continue that approach.

We have learned a lot in this transition about teleconferencing, teamwork through online platforms, connecting remotely, and supervising remote employees. We still have much to learn.

This has been particularly interesting for church staff. Whether the laity will admit it or not, many have been concerned that if the pastor and other staff members were not in their offices in the church building for specific hours, they weren’t doing their work. If a congregational member dropped by the church, the expectation that the ministers would be there. Pastoral staff have long pushed back on this, pointing out that ministry takes place in the community and any minister worthy of his or her calling had to spend significant amount of time in the community.

When pandemic arrived, clergy found that they could no longer be in their offices or the community, so how were they going to serve both their congregations and the larger community? Some were troubled that the congregation might wonder if they were doing their jobs.

These significant changes offer us an opportunity to rethink how work is done. In the next several blogs, I hope to address how everything about work has changed with specific application to clergy and others who are employed by the church to facilitate its ministries. The pandemic accelerated changes that were already on the horizon related to location of ministry, support of ministry staff, and outcome achievement. We now have the opportunity to apply what we have learned—but will we?

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