The Pandemic Pivot

This Thanksgiving season, I am grateful to God that I’ve finally accepted the reality that we’re not going back to normal. From 2017-2019 I led our “World Impact 2.0” project. In 2021 we turn 50, and we asked the rhetorical question “What does God want us to focus on for the next 50 years?”  

We pursued the answer to this question by following the concept of traditioned innovation. I don’t believe there needs to be a war between, “We’ve always done it that way,” and “The future is best.” There is a middle ground that honors the past and brings improvement to move towards the future. It required searching for opportunities both internal and external within World Impact. So, January 2020 was a big deal, because it was the end of the project in my mind.

We had brought clarity to who we are, who we serve, why we serve them, what we do, and how we do it. Yet when the pandemic hit it became evident that the 2.0 project was chapter one of a much longer book. We had to urgently pivot and redesign, because you can’t wait for a pandemic to pass like a rainstorm, or even a hurricane. Whether we like it or not, this once-in-a-100-years event will impact our lives and mission for years. There is a new normal which required us to make three strategic pivots.

1. We became laser focused on being an urban church builder. 

We desire to see a healthy church in every community of poverty. As documented by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, an astounding 95% of pastoral leaders have no formal training—this is especially true in communities of poverty. Therefore, without valuable training, building healthy churches within these communities is practically impossible.  

In our nearly fifty years of mission experience, we’ve seen countless stories of how targeted, effective, and measured investment in a God-called, respected leader can literally be all the difference in winning believers to Christ—making an exponential impact in their communities and developing disciples who bear witness to their families, friends, neighbors, and associates. 

This realization required us to reorganize our resources around chasing the vision of building healthy urban churches. Emotionally it was difficult, but we decided to not reopen The Oaks Campground and Morning Star Ranch. We are in process of finding a new home for Los Angeles Christian School and the Wichita Thrift Store. 

2. We committed to crossing the digital divide. 

A few years ago, one of our staff, while presenting at a conference in Bangkok, was challenged. A pastor from Kenya held up his phone and said, “We want your training, but it must be on THIS,” and literally thrust his phone in the face of our staff member. With the passion expressed by both he and many others, we know the time is now to provide digital access for our five programs.

The tough reality faced by pastors and church workers serving in urban communities is scarcity. Money and time are simply too scarce and too short for these valiant leaders to engage in a long, traditional-structured study while devotedly serving God in poor neighborhoods. They do extraordinary work, often while holding down a full-time job and growing ministry.

We noted a digital divide at the start of the pandemic, as many of our partners were not familiar with how to effectively operate online. Thanks to your help, we raised and distributed over $95,000 to churches within our network to give them digital access and direct aid. And we immediately began running programming via Zoom as a temporary solution.

We are on the verge of a permanent solution for us, launching World Impact U, which offers all core training programs online via our new Learning Management System. This will exponentially expand our reach and affordability of training for urban church workers globally. When available, we will be positioned to go to the next level of urban church leadership development. 

3. We raised our voice. 

Besides advancing our theory of change that the poor can own and lead ministry, we’ve realized we’re pretty unique. Most Christians and ministries when doing poverty work see it as charity only. We understand how to move beyond charity by doing redemptive poverty work.  

The mindset of redemptive poverty work is one that believes poverty is a condition, not an identity, and that God is bigger than any circumstance and is the One who does the rescuing. We play our role in the process of redemption in humility, with an understanding that we are no better or worse than the people we serve. Therefore, we practice creative restoration through sacrifice in our life and work.   

This concept is in the developmental stages. I’ve done a series of blog posts on the topic, and my new book Uncommon Church is an expression of this mindset of poverty work. The book came out October 13th and I’ve already been notified that there will be a second printing. There seems to be an audience that wants to learn more.  

The biggest thing we’ve learned this year at World Impact is to embrace the unknown of how long the pandemic is going to last. We are in uncharted territory for purposes only God knows. Join us to build urban churches as best we can for the glory of God.  

Read more from President and CEO Alvin Sanders.