This video message from Brian Wallace and the Pittsburgh Presbytery—in its entirety—is worth listening to.

Some takeaways:

We've lost momentum: a train can take a mile to stop and a mile to get up to speed. Children and Youth Ministry thrive on the momentum created by regular gathering and that has been lost. They also thrive on big events like retreats and activity nights  --which have been seriously impacted by the pandemic and attendance trends. Kids have lost two years of consistency and thinking of the church as part of their routine.

We need patience and time to get up to speed and develop good habits. It may be 3 to 5 even 7 years for the effects of the pandemic to ease in our children and youth ministries. Why? Because the two years that were lost to a 6th grader, now as 8th and 9th graders they live in a different world, even a different body.

We need flexibility. Things won't bounce back like they were. Instead of trying to revive something that used to work, maybe it's a time to innovate, to create new habits and expectations.

Scripture teaches us that we are at our best when we look forward to where we are going than when we look back at where we have been.