The blue screen of death: we’ve all experienced it. You’re plugging away on a paper or trying to load a website and whammo, your computer is toast. A few minutes and a hard restart later, you are back up and running, but not without consequences. You might have lost your train of thought or part of what you wrote. Ironically, I experienced the blue screen of death writing this post!

COVID-19 was a cultural blue screen of death. Work, school, and church rhythms were all disrupted. And all of them have changed as a result. People’s connection to church has changed. Nearly every pastor I’ve spoken with affirms that church attendance today is lower than it was 18 months ago.

For some, having the blue screen of COVID hit made them re-think how important church was for them.

More than a handful have decided that other spiritual practices can take the place of church. Jen Hatmaker recently shared about a conversation she had with her therapist where she came to the realization that “Church for me right now feels like my best friends, my porch bed, my children, and my parents and my siblings. It feels like meditations and all these leaves on my 12 pecan trees. It feels like Ben Rector on repeat. It feels like my kitchen, and my table, and my porch. It feels like Jesus who never asked me to meet him anywhere but in my heart.”