A few months ago I upgraded my phone. For years I had been using an iPhone 7 and was perfectly happy with it. Sure, I had storage issues and I had stopped doing the software updates years before, but I could live with that.

What I couldn’t live with was the battery life. It had gotten worse and worse to the point that I was having to charge every 3-4 hours.

So, I upgraded…to a refurbished iPhone 8 Plus.

For those who may be reading this in the future, the iPhone 8 Plus came out in September of 2017, and it’s currently August of 2020. Since the iPhone 8 came out, Apple has went on to release the iPhone X in November 2017, the iPhone XS September 2018, the iPhone XR October 2018, the iPhone 11 & 11 Pro September 2019, and the iPhone SE April 2020.

So, why not upgrade to a newer model?

1. Cost. I could’ve upgraded to a newer model and paid for it interest free for the next 24-30 months, but it’s really hard for me to justify spending $800-$1200 on a phone.
2. The Home Button. The iPhone 8 is the last iPhone to have a home button. The newer versions did away with the home button to make room for a bigger screen. Now, you just have to swipe your finger to get out of apps, and I don’t like it.

So, what does this have to do with reopening your church? More than you think.

Chances are you’ve already went back to having in-person services again. And chances are you’re doing the exact same things you were doing before, albeit with some more safety measures in place.

Which makes sense? It’s what we’re comfortable doing.

The danger I’m seeing in my own church, as well as others, is that the church we’re going back to looks almost exactly like the church before the pandemic.

So, what’s the problem?

The church hasn’t changed very much, yet the world has changed drastically.

Many of us have been so busy trying to hold on the last few months, we never took the time to ask ourselves what was really worth holding on to.

And now that our buildings are open again, I’m afraid we’ll never answer that question.

Most of us will be satisfied with our iPhone 8 church, now with Facebook Live.

And a year or two from now we’ll find ourselves in need of another upgrade because the version of church we have is already out of date.

The pastors who are going to succeed in this season, are the pastors who are going to take the time to figure out what the newest version of the church should look like.