Thom Rainer, Founder and CEO of Church Answers, shares where he sees opportunities for the church to stay on mission post-coronavirus, including:

This is not a time to panic. We should be concerned, but the church has historically been through a lot of difficult times. It is a new missiological opportunity for the church.
Our Western churches have primarily been vertical, meaning that they’ve grown through large mega churches. Now, we’re seeing more horizontal growth where there’s multi venues, and maybe even micro-sites now.
Some churches have found that during quarantine, the church members have connected with community members better than they had before the pandemic.
It’s a great time to rethink and re-engineer. This is an opportunity to make the necessary changes that you should have pre-pandemic.

Thom Rainer

Founder and CEO of Church Answers
Served as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources
Served for 12 years at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he was the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism.
He has been a pastor of four churches and interim pastor of ten churches.
Graduate of the University of Alabama, MDiv and PhD degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Written over 30 books, including three bestsellers: I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, and Simple Church.