This workshop offers a guide to uncharted territory. For many of us, the pandemic has been a dream killer. It began by cutting us off from our relatives and work-friends. Then came anxiety. Would COVID kill a loved one? What if I suffer an extended hospitalization? What will be the pandemic’s effect be on my long-term health, mental state, and relationships? Meanwhile, the churches that we serve are facing a double whammy. The loss of trust that in our polarized fellowships that preceded the coronavirus and the strange new world that awaits us after the current crisis. Bill Kemp’s response is to focus on five basic paradigm shifts that are both personal and corporate. For the sake of your own soul, there are five things you must take to heart. For the sake of your congregation’s future, there are five paradigm shifts you must lead. The shifts are: From denial to acceptance of the current reality, from anger to the formation of a new identity, from bargaining to a saner decision-making process, from depression to self-care, and from passivity to actively planning for the future.
