Newsletters
Home Blog Page 831

The Wonder of Marriage: Celebrating the Benefits of a Lifelong Love

By
Gary Thomas
-
communicating with the unchurched

It’s time to celebrate the wonder of marriage and the benefits of a lifelong love. Britney is in her early thirties and has mostly married friends. As a single, Britney told me she sees marriage from the perspective of what you gain, but almost all her married friends see marriage from the perspective of what they have lost. They seem frustrated with what their marriage isn’t, while Britney sees so much of what their marriage is and provides.

“When I get married,” Britney told me, “I hope I can remember that it’s such a blessing just to have someone who is there for you. He might not parent your child the way you want him to, but at least he’s having a child with you. He might not help clean the house as much as you hoped he would, but he’s there to get it dirty! He might like to occasionally go out with his friends, but he comes home to you at night. When you’re single, you’re all alone all the time. I hope I can remember what this feels like, that it would be such a blessing to have someone who wants to do life with me.”

It’s so helpful for me to talk to people like Britney because I’ve never really been single. I got married when I was twenty-two so I never had an independent “adult” life without a spouse. If Britney had been my friend back then, she’d probably have seen in me what she sees in her friends now—someone who takes the benefits of marriage for granted while complaining about the biggest frustrations and losses to my single friends.

Marriage is a wonder. The personal benefits of marriage are enormous. For me, I’ve seen how marriage has helped me in three particular areas: personal healing, happiness, and growth in holiness.

The Wonder of Marriage: The Healing Power of Acceptance

The spiritual art of “accepting” each other is one of the best and most healing aspects of marriage; it’s also a biblical command: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7).

Lisa and I met two friends for dinner after work. I arrived first, and then the couple; Lisa came last since she was traveling from home. When my wife slid into the restaurant booth, she snuggled up right next to me, giving a little exclamation of delight.

“Are you cold?” asked the young woman.

“No,” Lisa said. “It’s just that he’s been gone all day. I haven’t seen him yet. I miss him.”

Her comment, thirty years into our marriage, made me feel like a king. She missed me.

One of the most healing aspects of marriage for me has been the fact that I live with a woman who knows me better than anyone else ever has or ever will and yet she still likes me. She even respects me. Even with all my particularities, bad habits, and weaknesses, she truly wants to be with me.

That brings a lot of healing to a basically insecure man (and says some even more marvelous things about the graciousness of my wife). When Lisa married me, I was the player who was second or third-string on every team he played on until he started running cross country. The only job I had was part-time and my prized possession was a ten-year old Ford Maverick Grabber. I had a college degree in English Literature which meant my first job offer after four years of study was as a busboy–not even a waiter, a busboy!

But Lisa chose me and continues to choose me. I’m in a world where everything I do gets evaluated; every sermon, every book, every blog post. But no matter how poor the sermon, how misguided the blog post, or how boring the book, Lisa’s going home with me.

Shannon had a “colorful” background as a single woman before she became a Christian, which was about a year and a half before she met Jason. Jason had been a committed believer his entire life, was raised in a homeschool, and his regular prayer since the time he was twelve years old was that God would provide a “godly virgin” for him to marry.

As they got to know each other, Jason told Shannon about his early prayer, not knowing anything about her past. Shannon wondered if she should end any romantic hopes right there. But the rest of the relationship seemed so good that eventually she took a deep breath and told Jason that before she became a Christian, she had been with…several…men.

Jason smiled—he smiled!—and said, “Of course you were. But none of those men will love you like I will.” Jason’s acceptance of her past told Shannon, “You’re not damaged goods. You’re the woman I want to spend my life with.” Shannon found great healing from past shame, proving the sweetness of that Scripture we have already quoted, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7).

Zoom or Facetime? Choose Your Video Calling Solution Wisely!

By
Nick Nicholaou
-
communicating with the unchurched

The coronavirus (Covid-19) has many staff working from home, and there are a number of things worth considering as you manage the ‘brand’ of your church in a distributed work environment. It’s important to select a video calling solution or two the church believes will serve its needs well while also protecting those in the video calls, and then requiring the team to use that/those solution(s).

Video Call Solution Standardization

That may seem obvious, but most are not doing that strategically. And left to choose whatever they want, many church team members are choosing a common video platform that falls significantly short: Zoom. It has vulnerabilities that could compromise and embarrass call participants and the church. Consider, for instance, if on a church small group video call, the participants were shocked when a bad actor crashed into the call and began showing unwelcome things via their webcam. This is happening so often that it’s even been given a name: zoombombing!

There are a number of video calling solutions that work well, and may not even cost the church to use. Here are my preferences:

  1. If everyone on the call— or in the small group— has an Apple iPhone, use Facetime! It’s safe, and there’s probably no learning curve for the participants.
  2. If you’re an O365-using church, use Teams! You already have it— probably for free since Microsoft wants to work with the church. And it can be extended to include those you want in calls that aren’t in your domain, or tenant.
  3. GoToMeeting is also a good solution, and they offer it free for 30 days! Each call can have up to 250 participants.

Appearance Standardization

Does your church have a dress code? If so, publish to your team a reminder of it, or policy relaxation guidelines. The video calls team members make from home still represent the church, so let them know if wearing their bathrobe in those calls is acceptable. Set minimum guidelines.

Also, what minimum It’s important to select a video calling solution standards do you have for the environment they’re working in? Some things to consider include the background (Teams has the ability to blur the background!), pets and children, breakfast bowl in front of the camera, and so on.

Care of/Provision for Employees

We care about the members of our team. What if they don’t own an ergonomic desk and chair? Or don’t have appropriate lighting? Or A/C if it’s getting warm? Or poor bandwidth? Identify in advance what you’re willing to do to help, which will aid in responding fairly to all requests.

Workspace Concerns

Perhaps you’ll let employees take their church work chair home, or desk lamp. A/C installation, however, may be more than the church is willing to improve.

Bandwidth Concerns

Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are willing to increase the contracted bandwidth (speed of the internet connection) for those working from home for awhile at no charge! But not all, so I suggest that if a team member requests a bandwidth increase, tell them to contact their ISP to see what can be done. If there’s going to be a monthly increase, add it to their base pay (rather than a pay stub separate line item which says the church is paying for it). Be aware, however, that increased bandwidth may not help video call quality if there are others in the home who are playing video games or streaming since those services will often expand their bandwidth consumption based on total availability.

Lord willing, the church will get through the Covid-19 pandemic, and come out of it even stronger than we were going in! My personal prayer is that this will be the beginning of a revival!

Should Pastors Try to Reunite a Church Split?

By
Brian Croft
-
communicating with the unchurched

One of the most painful and heartbreaking times in our church’s 80-year history was the church split that took place in the early 1980s. The pastor at the time took half the church and planted another church just a few blocks from our church.

Church splits are very unfortunate and painful experiences anytime they happen, but what made this split that much more tragic was the reason for the split.

One of the main issues I have been told that caused the split was disagreements over spiritual gifts. It is important that we realize that our church is not the first to be divided over spiritual gifts, as this was the reason Paul wrote a portion of the letter of 1 Corinthians to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 12-14). As the stories go, I am told the split at our church was so nasty and painful that families even divided.

That was 30 years ago. …

Although these gifts can divide, God in his sovereign grace has his ways of doing what Paul says to the Corinthians these gifts should actually do—unite God’s people.

After half the church left, our church continued on and the church that split off began that new work just down the street. About five years ago, the newest pastor of that church and I, in God’s kind providence, became friends.

We began to discuss the histories of our two churches and wondered if we now had a responsibility to get these two churches back together since they split over something that was supposed to unite. We determined for different reasons that bringing the two churches back together as one would not be the best thing to do, but we did decide to have a joint service together as a symbol of that unity that is supposed to exist and could now still exist among our two churches.

About five years ago, the church that split off from us came to a joint Sunday-morning service at our church. The new pastor from that church and I led the service and we asked Don Whitney to come and preach. It was an amazing moment. We watched people who hadn’t seen each other for 25 years embrace and reunite. It remains a highlight for me as a pastor and for my ministry at our church.

The church that split off from us continued to decline and all that remained was a few older members and a large building largely unused.  A few months ago the church that split from us joined with a healthy and growing church plant in the area. This church plant had a thriving young, internationally diverse congregation, but no older people and no building. The church that split from us had a few elderly members left and a good-sized building. As a result, the split of our church over 30 years ago is no more.

It is now a part of this church plant that is a strong, healthy church led by a faithful pastor who is taking great care of those few faithful elderly members that remained. Now all of those folks, old and young, diverse in many different ways, are being united around a love for Christ and a love for each other. What a powerful display of the gospel and God’s kind providence to God’s people.

May the wounds continue to heal. May these churches never divide again over that which should unite. May the gospel be displayed in the multigenerational, multi-ethnic congregation that now meets at that same place—just down the road from us.  

Mobilizing Teenagers (Even in a Pandemic) to Lead a Movement

By
Stephanie Martin
-
communicating with the unchurched

Not only is youth ministry possible during this pandemic, says Greg Stier, but youth workers can unleash teenagers to be part of a massive global awakening. Stier, founder and CEO of Dare 2 Share Ministries, addresses this during the new evangelism webinar “From Apathy to Action: How to Mobilize Your Teenagers to Lead a Movement.” 

In the one-hour webinar, available on YouTube and at dare2share.org, Stier uses a training philosophy based on Luke 10, when Jesus sends out the 72. Four steps to activating disciples include:

  • Why? (the inspiration)
  • What? (the information)
  • How? (the application)
  • Now! (the activation)

Spurring Young Evangelists to Action

With many Americans still under stay-at-home orders, Stier says, youth workers can do much more than use Zoom, social media, and texting to stay in touch with teenagers. He urges church leaders to get on their knees and wrestle in prayer, as Epaphras does in Colossians 4:12. Stier also points to missionary giant Hudson Taylor, whose most fruitful time stemmed from fervent prayer while being “quarantined” to bed with a spinal injury.

With the foundation of prayer, the first step—“Why?—involves inspiring and motivating kids, says Stier, the father of two teens. During this pandemic, apathy can set in as students are stuck in their rooms and on screens. But through real stories and raw truth, leaders can reach students’ hearts and set the pace for life transformation.

Next is the informational step, or “What?, which works best when concepts are reduced to powerful, easy-to-remember, easy-to-share sound bites. That’s followed by the “How?”—or application. In Luke 10, Jesus provides practical do’s and don’ts, and young evangelists need similar advice. For tips, prayer prompts, and accountability, Stier recommends Dare 2 Share’s recently updated Life in 6 Words app, which soon will offer virtual-sharing options.

Finally comes the activation step of “Now!” Kids need experience getting out of their comfort zones and becoming real-life evangelists, says Stier, adding that they, like Jesus’ disciples, will return excited and ready for more.

Greg Stier: Pandemic Is a Generational Marker

Implementing this strategy during coronavirus-related lockdowns will have profound effects, says Stier, especially once society opens up again. Kids will be looking for something, and when they gather again they’ll share stories and tell why they had hope amid the uncertainty.

“I believe this pandemic is going to mark this generation,” Stier says, “and if we pray for them now and give them [these steps]…students will be unleashed to share the hope of Jesus Christ with their friends.” This societal marker, he adds, “could kick off the greatest awakening in the history of humanity.”

Stier also shares details about Dare 2 Share Live, a nationwide broadcast from the ministry’s Denver-area headquarters on October 10, 2020. On that “10-10” date, the focus will be John 10:10 and the abundant life Jesus offers. Until May 31, the flat per-group fee is $99, which includes training curriculum. Last year’s event reached youth groups in more than 120 cities.

The push to reach people for Jesus, Stier concludes, isn’t about Dare 2 Share but about “a movement rising up” and about “capitalizing on the current situation.”

4 Steps to Equip Your Church to Be Good Neighbors During COVID-19 and Beyond

By
Jason Daye
-
communicating with the unchurched

Social distancing is our current reality, but that should not keep our churches from embracing the Great Commandment and living on mission. In fact, now is the perfect time to encourage our people to demonstrate compassionate care to their neighbors. Good neighbors doing good works leads to goodwill which opens the door for the Good News! Here are four simple steps to mobilize your church attendees to be good neighbors:

4 Steps to Help Your Members Learn to Be Good Neighbors

Step 1: Cast the Vision

In difficult times, people can drift toward turning inward. Without a doubt, there are real needs among those who call your church their spiritual home. We do not want to dismiss these needs, so please practice appropriate pastoral care for your people.  However, we definitely want to help our people move beyond being reactive to this crisis and begin praying for God to show them ways to be proactive. The Church has always stepped up during times of crisis and this is an opportunity for your church to be the hands and feet of Jesus right in your community. So cast this vision.  Each of us could spend every waking moment reading, listening to or watching another news report on COVID-19. Help your people resist this temptation and begin carving out time to make a difference during this crisis.

A great resource to help you cast the vision is the free Sermon Starter available from the Neighbors Helping Neighbors movement. Churches across the country are encouraged to share this message based on Jesus’ Great Commandment. The Sermon Starter also includes an engagement activity to invite the people in your church to take action right in their own neighborhoods. 

good neighbors

A full training video is available to walk you through these steps and give more context and ideas to how you can encourage your church to embrace this opportunity to be good neighbors and extend the love of Jesus.

good neighbors

Step 2: Lead by Example

As ministry leaders there are times we lead from behind, encouraging our flock as they grow. There are other times when we lead from in front, setting the pace and providing models to follow. In activating our people to be good neighbors, we definitely need to be leading by example. If, based on your current health, you are able then make the time to reach out to your nearest neighbors and check in with them, letting them know you are available to help with whatever needs they might have. There may be some neighbors on your block or in your building that you have not yet met. This is a great time to connect with them and let them know you care. 

Share stories with your church, either by live streaming online or via email, about your interactions with your neighbors. Invite them to pray for Greg and Connie next door or Mr. Owens across the street. Demonstrate what it means to be a good neighbor and invite your church to join you. Be safe in your approach… there are ways to be a good neighbor without endangering yourself or your neighbors. In fact, that takes us to the next step: provide ideas, tools and resources.

Step 3: Provide Ideas, Tools and Resources

To really increase the engagement of your people in serving their neighbors you must provide some ideas and tools to help them take action. The key is to offer ideas that can be implemented from a safe distance, if necessary. A great resource for your church is the Neighbors Helping Neighbors kit which includes a sermon starter that focuses on the Great Commandment, door hangers that your people can place on their neighbors’ doors when they are out walking the dog or getting some fresh air, a pdf guide with a number of ideas to compassionately care for their neighbors, and an engaging exercise that every household can use to reach their neighbors called the Dozen Door Challenge.  The door hangers have space to write your name and contact info so neighbors can reach out if they need assistance, prayer or just someone with whom they can talk.  You can even get yard signs that your people can put in their front yard to let their neighbors know they are available to help. Thousands of churches are joining in this neighboring movement. Imagine tens of thousands of homes reaching out to their neighbors all across the country!  

good neighbors

Step 4: Pull Together as Needed

As your people connect with their neighbors new opportunities might arise where your church can step in and serve in a bigger way. Perhaps someone has a neighbor who has a local restaurant that is struggling.  You can encourage your church to order meals from that restaurant and bless that business. Maybe there are nurses and doctors who are in your members’ neighborhoods. Families in your church can make up care packages for the healthcare workers and you can organize a way to distribute them. Ask your people to share any larger needs and prayerfully consider how your church might be able to step in and serve.

BONUS: Celebrate Stories

Don’t forget to invite your people to share stories of being good neighbors so you can celebrate them with your church family.  It is always encouraging to hear how others are serving their neighbors and to pray for people across your community. You will likely see more opportunities to lift people up in prayer, people with whom your members have developed a personal relationship. Make the time to celebrate what God is doing and remind your people what it means to be the Church!

These are truly challenging times, yet God is at work in the midst of this crisis. Let us resist the temptation to only focus inwardly.  May we open our eyes to what God is doing and join him as we seek to make an impact for the Kingdom. May we plant seeds for the Gospel as we mobilize our people to live out the Great Commandment and connect with neighbors across our communities. This is the time for us to be the Church!

Police Threaten, Arrest ERCC Members on Easter Sunday

By
Jessica Lea
-
communicating with the unchurched

The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from persecuting Christians in general, and it has not stopped the CCP from oppressing Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) in particular. Authorities arrested several of the church’s members as they were participating in an online service on Easter Sunday.

“At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing,” an ERCC member told International Christian Concern (ICC). “I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our coworker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”

Early Rain Covenant Church Members Arrested 

ERCC is a house church located in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. The church’s pastor, Wang Yi, is currently serving a prison sentence of nine years for charges including “inciting subversion of state power.” The ERCC church member who spoke to ICC said that some of those who were arrested on Easter received phone calls that the police were coming for them, and one of the members had his electricity cut off. 

Church Guide to Coronavirus 1

Besides Wang Jun, those arrested included Guo Haigang, Wu Wuqing, Jia Xuewei, Zhang Jianqing, and Zhang Xudong. Police told Zhang Jiangqing, “Don’t participate in already banned [religious] activities anymore! Don’t listen to Pastor [Wang]’s sermons anymore! If you do this again, we will deal with it seriously and take you away!” 

According to a report from Radio Free Asia (RFA), police arrested eight Early Rain members, not six. One church member told RFA, “We haven’t met in person since the raid of Dec. 9, 2018, and also because of the epidemic. We have been holding our services online.” The member added, “The brothers and sisters of our church were taken away from their homes. Several people I knew were taken to the police station, where they took statements from them, then released.” RFA says that the officials’ actions were part of “a simultaneous operation targeting church deacons, ministers, volunteers and regular members.”

A post on the Facebook page, Pray for Early Rain Covenant Church, states, “A number of Early Rain Covenant Church members were visited by police at their homes this Easter morning and many of them taken to the police station for interrogation. After being threatened and ordered to stop meeting together, they were released. Pray that God would continue to protect their church and grant them courage and resolve in the face of persecution.” ICC says that members’ electricity has been turned back on.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu tweeted about the arrests, asking for prayer.

ERCC was not the only congregation the government targeted on Easter. Fu tweeted that a church in Qinghai province that was over 20 years old was demolished that day. 

As ChurchLeaders recently reported, one of the ways the CCP is persecuting Christians during the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns is by shutting down online broadcasts of worship services.

Early Rain Covenant Church Pastor Wang Yi

Pastor Wang Yi has been imprisoned ever since he was arrested along with about 100 members of his church in a raid in December 2018. While many of the members have been released, the CCP has been persistent in its persecution of the church since then. Authorities recently sentenced elder Qin Derfu to four years in prison. At the end of December 2019, officials held a secret trial for Pastor Wang, after which they sentenced him to nine years in prison. The most recent available photo of Wang shows him looking significantly thinner than he does in pictures taken before his arrest.

The Pray for Early Rain Facebook page has posted a video of Wang Yi preaching a sermon in April 2018 a couple weeks after Easter Sunday that year. “I’ve been thinking about the Lord Jesus walking the road to Golgotha,” he said. “There were no flowers or applause along the way.”

“I’ve said before that I’m also willing to walk the road to Golgotha,” said Pastor Wang. “I’m willing to suffer for the Lord. All these years, I’ve always thought I was willing to suffer for the Lord. But I cannot bear a road with no flowers but only spit. I cannot bear a road with no praise but only doubts, betrayal, and slander. But one day, the Lord suddenly said to me, ‘This is the true meaning of Golgotha! What you wanted to walk before was a runway.’” 

The pastor went on, “Golgotha is not about a road. Golgotha is about the spit, the doubts, the betrayals, the injuries, and the slander you encounter on that road. This is the road to Golgotha.”

‘Christ Over COVID’ Calls for Global Prayer As Coronavirus Ravages Russia, Former Soviet Nations

By
Slavic Gospel Association
-
communicating with the unchurched

Editor’s Note: This article concerning Slavic Gospel Association and the Christ Over COVID Prayer Initiative was provided by Eric Mock, Vice President of Ministry Operations for SGA, who travels to Russia several times a year to serve with local missionaries and churches.

With on-the-ground reports indicating Russia’s coronavirus peak is less than two weeks away, a pioneering ministry to the former Soviet bloc today launched a global campaign–“Christ Over COVID:  Much Prayer, Much Power”–calling for prayer and urgent relief for orphans, widows, and families.

“Right now, God is using COVID-19 to open hearts like nothing we’ve seen since the fall of the Iron Curtain,” said Michael Johnson, president of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org)–an evangelical organization that has led the way in supporting local pastors and churches in this region for 80-plus years.

For decades, SGA founder Rev. Peter Deyneka–a Belarussian immigrant to the United States known as “Peter Dynamite” because of his dynamic prayer life–fought communist oppression on his knees in prayer. His rallying cry, “Much Prayer, Much Power”, is the title of his 1958 book calling Christians around the world to intercede for their “suffering brothers and sisters.”

Today, says Johnson, prayer warriors are needed more than ever as COVID-19 spreads across Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and other Slavic nations–as well as threatening the Russian-speaking community in Israel.

Dire Straits

As Americans cope with the economic pain of widespread lay-offs and unpaid furloughs, millions of people in Russia and neighboring countries are in dire straits, with no safety net or stimulus package to help them. Even in normal times, the average monthly salary in Russia is about $500, with many surviving on much less.

Most of the former Soviet bloc is on lockdown–with martial law in some areas of Georgia, extended quarantine measures in Ukraine, and potential imprisonment for quarantine violators in Russia, where tankers are spraying disinfectant over Moscow’s streets. Russia expects its infection rate to peak in about two weeks, and reports suggest the eventual death toll will be severe.

“People in the villages are saying, ‘only your church helps us’,” said Johnson, whose Illinois-based organization supports a grassroots network of evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across a 4,170-mile landmass–stretching from Eastern Europe to the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska.

‘In God’s Hands’

“Everything is in God’s hands,” said Stas, an SGA-supported evangelical pastor in Russia. “We are trusting in the Lord, that he will not abandon us.”

Despite their own financial hardships, evangelical church members in Russia are sacrificially setting aside funds to help their neighbors in the days ahead, said Pavel, a local pastor. “With each week of this quarantine, there will be more homeless and hungry people,” he said.

Faithful congregations supported by SGA are delivering food packages to their most needy neighbors and the homeless, but they admit if the crisis lasts more than a month “we just don’t know what to do.”

SGA-supported pastors are keeping in touch with their quarantined church members over the phone and online, recording messages and sermons, and encouraging elderly shut-ins and people with disabilities who are among the most at-risk.

Amid the widespread fear and social restrictions, evangelical church leaders in Kazakhstan, central Asia, say there’s a new openness to the Gospel. In state-run orphanages, the children and workers are eager to hear about God.

“The children are praying like never before, singing Christian songs, and memorizing the Psalms,” said an SGA-supported missionary.

“I know that as Christians in America, we have a lot to deal with right now,” said Johnson, “but this is a breakthrough moment for the Gospel in the Russian-speaking world–and our church family is believing that ‘much prayer means much power’.”

Go to www.SGA.org/COVID to sign up to pray and receive updates about how God is working through evangelical churches in Russia during the crisis.

Craig Groeschel: How to Lead Effectively Through the COVID-19 Crisis

By
Craig Groeschel
-
communicating with the unchurched

This is a very real global crisis. It’s not the first in the history of the world and it won’t be the last. We will get through this. Will it be hard? Yes, it already is. Will things be different? Likely so! Will we get through this? Eventually!

It’s important to remember that while every major crisis creates unexpected problems, it also creates unprecedented opportunities. So, while we have more and different problems today than a month ago, there are more and different opportunities than we had a month ago.

What Kind of Opportunities Might a Global Crisis Present?

There are three different types of opportunities we should be looking for:

  1. Practical – now you have an excuse to make some changes you should have made before
  2. Financial – those who can see needs and respond quickly can create value, build businesses and develop ministries
  3. Missional – people are more open spiritually than they were a month ago; it’s an opportunity to speak into their lives

Now that we know how to look for the opportunities, we must clearly define the problems we are facing. Some leaders just start diving in without clearly defining the problem, but it’s important to step back to be proactive instead of reactive.

We see at least four different problems with COVID-19. These are different for all of us depending on what country, state or industry we’re in, but there are some similarities. The virus itself is the first problem – we don’t want people to get sick. The second problem is fear or panic. Cascading economic impact is the third problem, and finally, public perception that may not mesh with reality is a real problem. Make sure you are clearly defining the problems that you and your team need to address.

Next we must set priorities and it should become clear that there are only a few things that really matter. These four tiers of effectiveness can be a good guide:

Four Tiers of Effectiveness:

  1. What is mission critical?
  2. What is strategic and important?
  3. What is important but not essential?
  4. What is externally initiated?

Clearly define your tiers. Keep focused on tier one and tier two priorities right now. Focus on mission critical activities. You’re going to be tempted to do lots of things. Don’t. Everyone is going to have ideas—good ideas. Focus your energy toward the biggest priorities.

Create a plan around these mission critical things.

Communicating During a Global Crisis

When it comes time to communicate, there are three things you must do:

  1. Communicate Empathetically

Unfortunately, most of your team members’ first thought isn’t about your business, your nonprofit or your church. By nature, they are asking, “How will this impact me? My family?” They are understandably afraid.

You will want to acknowledge their fears and speak to them. Help them know you understand what they are feeling. Don’t be afraid to say what people are thinking. Do everything you can to value your employees. They won’t follow you if they don’t believe you understand. Help them know you genuinely care about them!

  1. Communicate Truthfully

Tell the truth, even when the truth is negative, uncertain or scary. This is so important.

As leaders, we don’t motivate through a crisis, we lead through a crisis. This is not a time for motivation, this is a time for wise decisions, and leading through the crisis. Be realistic and truthful.

So, tell them when you don’t know or when you aren’t sure. The only thing you want to promise them—whatever you decide—things will change. So, adjust. That’s why you speak confidently, but not definitely. You are certain your team will make wise decisions as you know more, but you don’t know enough to project way into the future today. We’re not making promises. We’re confident, calm—we’re leaders.

  1. Communicate Frequently

You cannot over-communicate. Every day, things are changing, sometimes by the hour. Every day, your team will have new questions, concerns and fears. Our various campus staff normally meet all together four times a year. Now we are meeting online every week—sometimes twice a week. Our church normally worships on the weekends, but we also added a midweek online service and our normally monthly communication is now weekly. Our campus staff team is calling every member of our church asking them if they need prayer or assistance. We’re increasing the frequency of communication.

With every communication explain “why” as often as possible. People will go along with the what when they understand why! You’re going to make a lot of decisions based on the information you have, but your team might not have all that information. That’s why you need to be clear about the why before the what.

Finally, some practical advice:

  1. Cut any unnecessary expenses. Cash is king during a crisis. We have no idea how long this will last or how bad it will be. Cash to your business is like oxygen to your body. If your team is going to need to make sacrifices, you go first, and you sacrifice the most. If everyone is taking a 10 percent pay cut, you take 20 percent.
  2. It may seem obvious—take care of yourself! Like many of you, I haven’t had a real day off in weeks! So I’ve scheduled time to rest and recover. Sleep, unplug, walk, laugh, see your kids! Put your own oxygen mask on, and then put it on others.

On Becoming Conservative Liberals

By
Scott Sauls
-
communicating with the unchurched

I love being a pastor for many reasons and one of those is because of tolerance in our community.

In more ways than I am able to count, our community at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville is a wonderful representation of God’s kingdom—a sweet manifestation of the aroma of Jesus. In a world of outrage, judgment, fear, posturing, and caricature, I especially appreciate how our community embodies love across lines of difference.

This excerpt from our Vision Statement tells the story best:

We will celebrate our diversity—opening our lives and hearts and homes to sinners and saints, doubters and believers, seekers and skeptics, prodigals and Pharisees, Presbyterians and non-Presbyterians, young and old, married and unmarried, leaders and followers, famous and infamous, our own races and other races, happy and depressed, helpers and those who need help, creative and corporate, conservative and liberal, American and international, affluent and bankrupt, public and private and home schooled—and all others who enter our doors. We will aspire to expand our “us” by carefully listening to, learning from, and being shaped by one another’s unique experiences and perspectives.

I guess you could say that we are advocates, as much as we are able, for the properly-defined gospel virtues of diversity and tolerance.

My former colleague and mentor, Tim Keller, says that tolerance does not require us to abandon our convictions. True tolerance, he says, is revealed by how our convictions lead us to treat people who disagree with us.

Tolerance that “tolerates” only people who think, believe, vote, earn income, and live like us is not tolerance at all. It is covert prejudice at best, and thinly veiled contempt at worst. It is scorn covered with a mask of insincere niceness.

For our Christian witness to be taken seriously in the West’s increasingly pluralistic and secular environment, Christians must learn the art of:

  • Remaining true to our beliefs and convictions;
  • Genuinely loving, listening to, and serving those who do not share our beliefs and convictions; and
  • Consistently doing both at the same time.

If we do not value this combination, then instead of being a light to the culture, we risk becoming products of it.

If we cling doggedly to our convictions but fail to love, listen to, and serve those who do not share them, we become products of a moralistic Pharisee culture, which is not gospel culture.

If we do the opposite, we become products of a capitulating Sadducee culture, which is also not gospel culture.

Truth without grace is unwelcoming and shaming. Grace without truth is cowardly and enabling. Only when we combine grace and truth do we rightly embody the gospel.

Effective Christian witness—especially when the prevailing tone in virtually all public discourse is outrage, not civility—requires Christians to adopt an irenic tone that is counterculture.

For example, there are plenty of places in Scripture where God’s people move toward and even cooperate and partner with people who do note share their beliefs:

  • The Israelite spies came alongside Rahab, a working prostitute, to advance the work of God’s kingdom.
  • Joseph served alongside Pharaoh, Nehemiah alongside Artaxerxes, and Daniel alongside Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Jesus, a Jewish male, received a drink from a promiscuous Samaritan woman.
  • Paul, a Messianic Jew, affirmed secular poets and philosophers as he quoted their works from memory to Athenian intellectuals.
  • All these were devoted, noncompromising people of faith living in deeply secular, pluralistic environments, who prioritized both grace and truth.

Should We Keep ‘Baptist’ in the Church Name?

By
Brandon Park
-
communicating with the unchurched

I have the privilege of serving a wonderful church that has been in the suburban Kansas City area for 175 years called First Baptist Raytown. My family has been here for nearly five years now and it’s been exciting to watch God work. This year was a pivotal moment for us as we became one church in two locations. We have merged with another church, in nearby Lee’s Summit, Missouri, which will become our first satellite campus. So this exciting venture leaves us with a very real dilemma? What do we do about our church name?

The Issues with Our Church Name

We can’t be First Baptist Raytown in Lee’s Summit. And we’ve been advised countless times not to use two different names for our two locations as it 1) doesn’t unify us as one church, and 2) it creates confusion among those we’re trying to reach. (You would never find a business calling itself one name in one location and a completely different name in another location. That’s what you call a marketing disaster!)

If your church ever navigates through a similar process, you may have to wrestle with this dilemma. Do we keep our denominational affiliation in our church name? In our case, would we keep “Baptist” in our church’s new name? I believe the short answer is: It depends. It depends mainly on that church’s target audience of who they are trying to reach.
Now I’ve personally been on both sides of this debate. You can probably find old sermons I preached a decade ago about how churches that are removing “Baptist” from their name are trying too hard to become “seeker-friendly,” “emergent,” and were diluting their message. But over the years, my opinion has shifted on this issue.

Here are 10 reasons why I believe it’s beneficial, at least in our situation, to not have “Baptist” in our new church name.

1. Our mission is to reach the 85% in the Kansas City metropolitan area who do not go to church.

As far as we can tell, 85% of our community is lost. Because of this, the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has deemed Kansas City as a “Send City.” More dollars and resources for church planting and evangelism are being allocated here and other key cities in the United States more than any other region. So for me, the answer to any church’s question of “Should we keep our denomination in our church name?” is simple. It depends on your demographics. If you are in a region of the deep South where the majority of the population attends some church, then having a denominational name might actually help you to grow!  There are a lot of church people looking for a church like the one they grew up in. Yet if your predominate mission field is comprised of the unchurched – like Kansas City’s 85% – then your denominational name can actually be problematic. Denominational names were a positive back when the church was speaking to Christians who were looking for a church. But when we are talking about reaching those in a post-Christian era, it can either be a neutral thing at best or it can be a very big barrier at worse.

According to a recent survey, churches with a denominational reference in their name (vs. none) are:

  • Three times more likely to be perceived as “formal.”
  • Three times more likely to be perceived as “old-fashioned.”
  • Almost three times more likely to be perceived as “structured and rigid.”
  • The same study showed that the unchurched believe that a church with a denomination in their name would be less welcoming to visitors.

Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Resources for the Southern Baptist Convention, recently conducted a survey to ask people “What comes to your mind when you hear the word “Baptist”? The top responses are as follows:

  1. Legalism
  2. Potluck
  3. Immersion
  4. John the Baptist
  5. Traditional
  6. Bible
  7. Outdated
  8. Southern
  9. Boring
  10. Conservative
  11. Sound theologically
  12. Fundamentalism
  13. Hymns
  14. Suits and ties
  15. Missions

Here are some responses that just missed the top 15: fighting, inerrancy, business meetings, men only, eternal security, Sunday school, Republican, religious liberty, pre-millennial, choirs, no alcohol, no dancing, and altar calls. Not all of those things are bad, but taken together collectively, it’s a perception that we don’t want to project.

So we have to determine our target audience. If we determine that our mission is to reach more Baptists, then we need to keep Baptist in the church name. If our mission is the reach the 85%, then we need to rethink whether or not we should have “Baptist” in the church name.

2. Many folks are unlikely to visit a Baptist church if they did not “grow up Baptist.”

I’ve had this conversation play out many times when I’m inviting people to visit our church. Their response oftentimes is, “Well, I didn’t grow up Baptist.” I’m thinking, “Who cares what denomination you grew up? This is an incredible church you need to come visit, regardless of your upbringing.”  Yet some folks shy away from a church that is different than the denomination they grew up in, but studies show that the same person will visit a church that is denominationally non-descript.

3. An unchurched person’s “bad experience” in one Baptist church causes them to stereotype all other Baptist churches as the same.

One bad experience in one restaurant will likely cause you to avoid that chain of restaurants for the rest of your life.

5 Ways You Will Be a Different Person After the Pandemic

By
Thom Rainer
-
communicating with the unchurched

In a recent article, I wrote that churches will never be the same after the pandemic. An important corollary to that thesis is that pastors will never be the same. Though the biblical standards of pastoral ministry remain constant, how pastors carry out that ministry will change dramatically. In many ways, the changes are already taking place.

  1. Pastors will either thrive with an attitude of abundance or retreat with an attitude of scarcity. Some pastors are already adapting incredibly well during the pandemic. They are functioning more with an attitude of God’s abundant provisions than one of scarcity. These pastors are becoming amazingly creative and positive about the future. Unfortunately, others can’t wait to return to a church world that no longer exists. Those leaders will not do well. Some are looking to denominations and donors to rescue their churches even though they have all the resources they need right now.
  1. More pastors will see the building as a means, not an end. I spoke with a pastor who shared his amazement at how well his church is doing without a physical facility during the pandemic. For sure, he will be glad to be able to return to the building. But his views on church facilities have changed dramatically. If you want to see how churches have defined themselves by buildings, go to the “About” section on a church website. A number of churches narrate their successes in ministry by the different buildings the church has constructed. That world is changing.
  1. More pastors will see the digital world as an opportunity for the gospel rather than an evil to be cursed. Nope, I am not seeing many rants about the evils of the internet as a plethora of pastors are using Facebook live for digital services. What a difference a pandemic makes! Sure, the digital world has evil in it. The whole world has evil in it. Some pastors right now are re-thinking how their churches can engage the digital world. Others are just waiting for the pandemic to pass where they can do ministry as usual. Those leaders will not do well.
  1. More pastors are re-discovering and re-engaging their communities. For too long, some church leaders have devised strategies to get guests to “come to church.” The pandemic has forced them to see that the church building is only a gathering point, not an ultimate destination. These leaders are leading their churches right now to find ways to be a positive ministry and influence in the community. So, the church is going to the community rather than pushing the community to go to the church. 
  1. A number of pastors are looking at metrics differently. For example, what are the implications when a church of 125 in attendance has a digital service with 500 views? Who are those people? How many of them are local? How can we connect with them? How can we serve them? Most church metrics are focused on how many people show up in a facility or give funds to the organization. The pandemic has opened the eyes of pastors to countless new possibilities. 

The pandemic is changing the way we do church. The pandemic is changing the way pastors will shepherd and lead in the future.

Look at God’s possibilities rather than the artificial limitations imposed by COVID-19.

This article originally appeared here.

Worries? Nothing Is Certain Anymore—Nothing, That Is, But God’s Love

By
J.D. Greear
-
communicating with the unchurched

It goes without saying that this season has brought on for many of us a new set of worries:

How long will we be dealing with COVID-19? How long will these government restrictions last? What’s going to happen if I or someone I know gets sick? Will my parents be OK? How long am I going to be out of work? Will life ever return to “normal” again?

David Platt says Proverbs 12:25 depicts worry like extra weight you have to carry around: “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down” (ESV).

Imagine you’re going through life with a backpack on, and into it goes everything you’re worried about. When you’re getting ready for college, you wonder if you’re going to get in the right school. *Boom, added weight.*

You worry you are stuck in a job you can’t stand. *Boom, added weight.*

You’re afraid you can’t avoid divorce, like your parents. *Boom, added weight.*

You wonder if you’re going to have enough money to retire. *Boom, added weight.*

And kids, of course, bring a whole new set of worries: whether or not they’ll do well in school if they hang out with the wrong crowd or date the wrong person. What if they need braces? Are you going to have enough money for that? If not, does that mean they’ll have crooked teeth for the rest of their lives? Maybe your kids will be jobless because of their messed-up teeth. Then they’ll live with you for the rest of your life.

*SO MANY added worries*

Each of those worries adds an additional weight to that pack you’re carrying around—some of them are 5-pound weights, others feel more like 100-pounders.

You already had this weighty backpack on. And then, on top of all that, comes a pandemic. You didn’t feel like you had any room in the pack. It was already too much. But now you have the added weight of uncertainty, loss, fear, and death.

But there’s more to Proverbs 12:25: “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

The news doesn’t have a good word today. Your pastor may even be in short supply. But we can always find a good word from God in his Word.

You may not be strong enough to carry all your burdens, but Jesus is. Cast them onto him in prayer because he cares for you. He’s made many promises in the Bible about just how much he cares for you:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 CSB). God knew the world would weigh us down, and he made a way for relief through Jesus.

Peter, who knew Jesus well, tells us: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV).

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16 CSB). God cares for you and thinks about you more than a new mother thinks about her baby.

“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” (Psalm 139:17–18 NLT). How much does God think about you? His thoughts about you number more than the grains of sand of the seashore, which is, for the record, 7,500,000,000,000,000,000. That’s pronounced “7.5 quintillions.” (Or, as my kids would say it, “7.5. bajillion.”)

I don’t know how to think about numbers that big. And yet, that is the number God chose to communicate how often he thinks about you.

And, what’s more, David said in Psalm 139, “Even when I made my bed in hell, you came after me.”

We are living in times when nearly everything we thought was certain is suddenly uncertain. But in the midst of that uncertainty, one thing remains: If you turn to God, you never have to wonder what he thinks of you or if he’s going to help you with your worries, big or small.

He loved you so much that even when you had wandered from him, rejected him, scorned him, and insulted him, he gave his life for you (Romans 5:8). Jesus rescued you when you were his enemy and solved your biggest problem, and, now that you are his child, he will not abandon you to take care of the rest on your own.

That’s how much he cares!

This article originally appeared here.

5 Keys to Unlocking Small Group Ministry Impact

By
Mark Howell
-
communicating with the unchurched

Having trouble figuring out how to unlock small group ministry impact? Maybe you’re just beginning to think about prioritizing small group ministry. Maybe you tried once and couldn’t get it off the ground. Or maybe you’ve tried multiple times to launch small group ministry and just can’t figure out how to make it work.

No matter what your experience has been, there are at least 5 very important keys to unlocking small group ministry impact.

1. Increase ministry acceptance by leveraging the influence of your senior pastor. Face it. Ministry impact almost never develops momentum without the endorsement of your senior pastor. Further, in most churches only those ministries championed by the senior pastor will attain enduring significance.

2. Decrease competition by streamlining the belong and become menu. This is an essential ingredient. Until you’ve narrowed the focus and streamlined your menu, you shouldn’t be surprised when your people can’t figure out their next step. It has been demonstrated conclusively that the more choices on the menu, the fewer purchases or selections are made.

3. Increase awareness by increasing the frequency of promotion. Keep in mind that unconnected people are often infrequent attenders. If you’re only occasionally talking about the importance of being connected in a small group, you shouldn’t be surprised if more than 50% of your unconnected adults never really understand the importance of a small group or know about the next connecting opportunity.

4. Decrease hesitation by eliminating inhibitors. An inhibitor is anything that causes alarm bells to go off inside the heads of unconnected adults. Lifetime commitments (anything longer than 6 weeks), topics that appeal only to seasoned Christians, and fears about the kind of people who will be in the group are just three of a number of damaging inhibitors. If you want to make it easy for unconnected people to say yes to a small group, you must eliminate inhibitors.

5. Increase response by creating great first steps out of the auditorium. Another very important key, many unconnected people stretched far out of the their comfort zone just to step into your auditorium. Some drove by your location for several years before they got up the nerve to attend one of your services. Others actually made it to your parking lot more than once before they ever got out of their cars. If you want to connect these people, creating great first steps out of your auditorium is essential.  

Introducing a Pandemic-Proof Way to Share the Gospel

By
Greg Stier
-
communicating with the unchurched

Introducing our newly updated, highly anticipated Life in 6 Words app! Through this app, not only can you share the Gospel face-to-face (from 6 feet away:)), but you can also share it using the app’s “audio story” functionality from the safety of your own home!

After all, you can’t quarantine the Gospel!

Finally, there’s a way to still have social distancing and engage in Gospel witnessing!

IMG_1269

And, as a bonus, it’s really cool looking, easy to use and super effective!

After you download the app, push “Start a Conversation” and choose the “Send audio story” button. Then record your own voice on each slide of the app, There are cues embedded in the app to help you articulate your story and the Gospel story in a clear and compelling way.

The app then gives you the opportunity to send your friend, family member, co-worker, classmate or neighbor a text, e-mail or DM that invites them to check out the six words that changed your life. Your message includes a link that takes them to an introduction slide (with your voice narrating) and then through six G.O.S.P.E.L. slides that unpack the full story of the Good News of Jesus. Again, it’s your voice explaining each slide and helping them to understand the Gospel.

 

Life in 6 Words App from Clear Design Group on Vimeo.

The newly updated version of the Life in 6 Words app went live on Saturday, and I used it to engage two people in Gospel conversations. I was surprised that, within seconds, I got a text response from Kaitlyn. Although she had only listened to 13 percent of the audio story (you can tell from the app when they open it up and how much they listened to), we immediately began a texting conversation that allowed me to unpack the Gospel.

IMG_1244

Tristan listened to 87 percent of the audio story and sent me a long text in reply. He loved the way I explained the Gospel on the app and we have a conference call set up for tonight to talk through the message of Jesus.

We are living in unprecedented times and this is an unprecedented tool to rise up with a Gospel solution!

If you are a parent, why not have your tweens and teens use it to start a Gospel conversation with their friends? If you’re a youth leader, challenge your youth group on your next Zoom call to download and use it. Pastors, encourage your entire congregation to download and use this one-of-a-kind app.

In addition to the audio story functionality, you can put the names of your unreached friends in a “Cause Circle” that will send you push notifications to remind you to pray for, care for and share the Gospel with them those whom they want to reach with the hope of Christ.

CauseCircleUse this pandemic-proof way to share the message of Jesus. Encourage other believers you know to share the the Gospel as well using this unique and powerful app.

When it comes to using different methods of sharing the Gospel I’m reminded of the old story of DL Moody, the great 19th Century evangelist. Someone told him once that they didn’t like his method of sharing the Gospel. He asked them what their method was. They said that they didn’t really ever share the Gospel. He said, “Well then, I like my method of sharing the Gospel better than your method of not sharing it.”

Whether you choose the Life in 6 Words app to share Jesus with others or some other method, make sure you are doing something to communicate this life-transforming, hope-giving, destiny-changing message to those you know.

People are more open now to the Good News of Jesus than any time I can remember in recent history. The very foundations of what many have put their hope in (wealth, health, job, safety, etc) have been shaken beneath them. The Life in 6 Words app will help point them to a sure and firm foundation which will never crack, crumble crash…Jesus!

This article originally appeared here.

No Pews, No Problem: Churches Serve Communities This Easter

By
Stephanie Martin
-
communicating with the unchurched

Although the coronavirus kept most pews empty this Easter 2020, it didn’t prevent churches from reaching out in innovative ways to meet people’s needs and offer support. Throughout America, congregations distributed food, treats, masks, gas—and lots of holiday joy.

Easter 2020: “Giving is a form of worship”

In Jonesboro, Arkansas, staff and members of Kingdom Nation Ministries gathered at a service station to buy gas, wash car windows, and provide face masks and Bibles for people in need. The area also has been hit by tornadoes recently, and Pastor Carlos Turner says the church wanted “to show the city that we love them and that we want to invest back into them.”

Worship has always been a priority on Easter, but the format merely changed this year, the pastor points out. “We’re not able to come together as far as worship in the building, but we’re able to worship in a different way by giving to the community,” Turner says. “What better way to worship than to give. The Bible says, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave,’ so giving is a form of worship.”

Impact Church in Waterloo, Iowa, also bought gas for drivers on Easter—blessing the occupants of more than 140 cars. Though the pandemic has forced the church to temporarily suspend its free monthly community meal, “God still shows up through his people,” says member Gail Greer.

With the coronavirus causing unemployment to spike, food insecurity is a major concern in many communities. Harvest Ministries Outreach Center in Wadesboro, North Carolina, distributed free groceries to hundreds of families on Easter 2020. Cars began lining up three hours before the event was scheduled to kick off. Staff members wearing gloves and masks handed out nonperishable goods, toys, and Easter baskets. “This is a difficult time,” says Pastor Steve Adams, “so we just thought, ‘Let’s put our heads together and see what we can do.’”

Churches Spread Joy Throughout Communities

In Beaumont, Texas, the pandemic meant that Harvest for Lost Souls Church had to creatively adapt its annual “Serve 24” campaign. Every Good Friday, church members perform 24 good deeds in 24 hours. This year’s event included delivering baskets to sheriff’s deputies and setting up a prayer-request wall for community members.

Medical workers in West Palm Beach, Florida, benefited from the generosity of members at Christ Fellowship Church. Congregants brought cinnamon rolls, offered prayer, and delivered hundreds of bags of Easter treats to personnel at several local hospitals.

Two pastors in Pekin, Illinois, hopped to the challenge of bringing smiles to young congregants on Easter Sunday. City Church’s annual 5,000-egg hunt was canceled because of the coronavirus, so Pastor Shane Hawkins and Children’s Pastor Nate Springer donned bunny costumes and delivered treats to 72 homes. On social media, Springer shared photos and praised Hawkins, writing, “Many Pastors would send their kids pastor out dressed as a bunny to hand out Easter baskets. Not many pastors would insist on going with you and dressing as a bunny themselves.”

WATCH: Christians Reimagine the Easter Choir

By
Jessica Lea
-
communicating with the unchurched

Christians across the U.S. have been sheltering in place during the weeks leading up to Easter, but that has not stopped congregations from celebrating, even from a distance, what Christ has done for them. In lieu of the choral performances that would be a feature of many Easter services in a more normal time, several churches and groups have re-imagined the Easter choir by forming virtual ones.

Church Guide to Coronavirus 1

In the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area, 30 churches collaborated to virtually sing “The Blessing” by Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, and Elevation Worship. “There are so many people who have lost jobs and small businesses that are suffering,”  said Alan Hannah, the assistant lead pastor at Allegheny Center Alliance Church. “As church leaders and as churches…we pray this blessing over the city. We truly believe God is going to bring us together and He’s going to get us through it.”

It took about two weeks to complete the video, but the result is powerful. The song proclaims God’s love and favor upon his people, opening with the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, which says,

The Lord bless you
And keep you
Make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you
The Lord turn His
Face toward you
And give you peace

Only a few weeks ago, singers in Nashville recorded a virtual rendition of “It Is Well with My Soul” in order to provide hope to people. Here is how other groups have followed suit by re-envisioning the Easter choir to encourage others during this difficult time.

Re-Imagining the Easter Choir for 2020

The Episcopal Church Virtual Choir and Orchestra put together quite a production with its rendition of “The Strife is O’er, the battle done.” The church provided vocal and instrumental parts online, as well as advice for the participants regarding how to record themselves. There were over 800 submissions to the project from people all over the world, and the result is stunning.

The triumphant hymn was very fitting for Easter, as the third verse reads:

The three sad days are quickly sped;
he rises glorious from the dead.
All glory to our risen Head.
Alleluia!

Craig Groeschel’s Life.Church posted a video of the church’s pastors and singers performing a virtual rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Said the church, “While we may not be able to gather together in person for Easter, that won’t stop us from worshiping together from wherever we are.”

Over 300 people around the world with the United Methodist Church performed “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”—including at least one person who performed in sign language. 

This virtual choir’s beautiful rendition of “In Christ Alone” was actually posted in 2018, but it is even more timely now than it was then. The video was produced by David Wesley, who has a YouTube channel featuring a cappella versions of different types of worship music. 

According to CBN News, Wesley is a registered nurse currently working in the ICU to help with the coronavirus pandemic. He said he chose “In Christ Alone” in part because “It’s a deeply meaningful song, presenting the gospel in a nutshell.” 

Alan Hannah believes these virtual performances are powerful because of how they portray unity and speak about faith. He said, “(God) hasn’t abandoned us. He can bring hope, He can bring joy through the most uncertain of times.”

Suddenly, Everybody Has Time for a Small Group

By
Allen White
-
communicating with the unchurched

Unless they offer an essential service, suddenly everybody has time for a small group. The #1 excuse people give for not joining a group is that they are too busy or they don’t have enough time for a small group. Small Group Pastors know what they are really saying is, “Small group is just not a priority.” I get that. But, now the “I don’t have time” excuse has been erased, and small groups should become a greater priority — even if they can’t meet in person.

Why do you need to start new groups during a pandemic?

Whether by choice or by mandate, people are staying away from other people right now. Church services have gone online. School has gone online in many places. While people are making their best attempts to curtail the spread of a disease, isolation and loneliness coupled with a steady intake of cable news and social media is a breeding ground for fear. Isolation and fear come straight from a page in the enemy’s playbook. The devil is having a heyday with this.

People have spiritual and emotional needs. With all of the conflicting information and no one to discuss this with, the monsters in our people’s heads just become bigger and bigger. Last week I wrote about practicing the “one anothers” of the Bible while in quarantine. People need more than worship and a sermon to reassure them and help them deal with what’s going on. Beyond that some people have practical, physical needs. How is your church keeping up with older people or people with medical conditions. We must find a strategic way to care for our members. Here’s a tough thought — your people can find a better online service. How you help them right now will determine where they go and where they give after this is all over. This is fertile ground for the enemy to do his work. This is a tremendous opportunity for the church to do its work.

As a church staff, you are working hard to transition worship and sermons to online services, but what about the social time people spent in the lobby or even in the parking lot. How are you meeting your members’ need for connection? This is the time to launch new groups. Groups could meet on a video platform. Groups could meet on a free conference call line. While many are forced to be apart, there are ways to be together.

How to Start New Groups in a Time When Everyone Has Time for a Small Group

Starting new groups online is not so different than starting groups offline, except you have one advantage. People need connection more than ever. Now is the time to get all hands on deck and start as many groups as possible. Churches must mobilize the most people they can for ministry right now. Your people need personal care like never before. You can do this. Here’s what you need to get started:

A willing, caring person to initiate.

If there was ever a time to bypass bulky requirements for group leaders and get all hands on deck, the time is now. Invite every person who will willing and caring to start a group right now. If you are insecure about that method, then review a copy of your church’s membership roster. Who would you feel good about? Call them and invite them right now. Who is willing and caring? Remember, they suddenly have time for a group.

A system to connect.

Once you have invited people to lead these groups, then ask them who they know who would be interested in a group. Take a week and have them invite everyone they know inside the church or outside the church to join their group. Then, invite the rest of your congregation to sign up online or even give out some names for leaders to call and invite to their group. The idea is that everyone in the congregation would have someone to connect with personally every week.

A platform to meet on.

Some localities are still allowing meetings of groups less than 10 people. If people are comfortable meeting in person, then they can. Personally, I would recommend an online option like a teleconference or a conference call. This will prohibit any unnecessary contact and potential spread of disease. Teleconference services such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other services offer a stable platform and an easy way to connect online with video. Most services offer a call-in number for those who might be less tech savvy. For a comparison of video platforms, click here. If video is not a good solution because of the internet service in your area, then a free conference line could work as well. Several services are available.

For families with children, encourage them to meet later in the evening when their kids have gone to bed. Wear headphones to eliminate background noise. Mute yourself when you’re not talking. And, do not take your device into the bathroom with you!

Curriculum to guide.

Your groups could start with just a weekly check in to see how everybody is doing. Start the meetings by allowing people to debrief what’s going on in their lives and in their minds. Another great way to start a new group is to ask people to tell their stories or at least the part of the stories that they’re willing to tell. This is an important way for the group to begin to understand each other and have context for what they share in the group.

For new leaders I have discovered that it’s best to use some sort of video-based curriculum that contains the teaching on the video. This makes things safe for both the new leader as well as the pastors. The new leader doesn’t have to be the Bible expert, and the pastors don’t want the new leader to teach or be the Bible expert anyway. By giving them a curriculum that you’ve created or a curriculum that you trust, you could assure that the group will follow the topic that you’ve given them and have a great meeting to encourage each other, build up their faith, and grow spiritually in an unusual time.

Just-in-time training and coaching. Don’t skip this step!

There won’t be a lot of time to train these leaders at first. I have discovered that if you recruit an established leader to follow up with new leaders, you create a win-win situation. The new leaders get help and support right when they need it, and the experience leader gets a trial run at being a coach. Once the trial is over, you can determine whether the new leaders will want to continue and whether the coaches should continue.

Just like groups can meet over a teleconference or conference call, training can also happen in the same way. In the last church I served we had an immediate need for coaches. I knew it would be difficult to add another meeting to an already busy schedule which included all of the coaches leading their own small group, so we met together on a conference line at about 8:30 at night for 30 minutes and did this for about six weeks in a row. Why did we meet so late? Well everybody was home from work, finished with dinner, and their kids were hopefully in bed. With all of these distractions removed, I was able to conduct the training and get these new coaches started. The same can be true for leader training, but I would recommend letting the coaches do the work for at least the first six weeks, then offer more formal training when the leaders are ready to move forward and when the leaders feel like they actually need the training.

Follow up and feedback.

Leading a small group and coaching is important work so you must inspect what you expect. If you’ve asked your coaches to call the new leaders every week, then you need to call the coaches every week and hear what’s going on with the groups. As a pastor, you want to know what’s going on with your people especially during a crisis. Your coaches can give you the needs that you need to address that maybe they cannot. You also get an accurate picture of what’s going on in your small group ministry. If you wait for a report, you are already in the weeds.

Do for your coaches what you expect them to do for your leaders. Just like your people need the care of a leader and your leaders need the care of a coach, your coaches need care from you. Now that your schedule has changed, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up the phone and give each of your coaches a call.

Supervision and accountability.

While you have successfully given away the ministry to new leaders and new coaches, the only thing that you cannot give away is the responsibility for the ministry. The buck still stops with you. I don’t say this to make you nervous, but I do say this so you will avoid an entirely hands off approach. The coaching structure is effective, but it cannot run on auto pilot. While you are not in the day-to-day care of leaders, you cannot be completely out of it either. This is still your baby.

The End Result

In this climate, everything you do is essentially a startup. You cannot call a meeting and gather people on campus. You cannot do on-site training. You can’t even visit your people in their homes. But you can start online groups that will accomplish all of this. This may go against your personality. This may go against everything that you’ve done before. But the message is the same — We are better together even if we are apart.

By starting new small groups right now, your people will feel less lonely, less isolated, and less fearful. These groups can help your people build their faith and experience the care that they deserve. And the hard truth is that you cannot create that with an email.

My hope for you is that the end result of starting online groups will be at the beginning of something new for your ministry and your church. Pastors and staff cannot possibly meet all of the needs of any congregation. And they shouldn’t. Now more than ever, you need to get your people to engage their gifts and serve others in groups like never before. Don’t waste this moment. Suddenly, everybody has time for a small group!

This article about everyone has time for a small group originally appeared here.

How God Uses Isolation to Advance His Kingdom

By
Os Hillman
-
communicating with the unchurched

Several years ago I wrote a book entitled Change Agent: Engaging your passion to be the one who makes a difference. During the writing of that book I discovered 6 unique stages God took his leaders through to become His change agents. One of the 6 stages I discovered was a Time of Isolation.

It seems God often set aside a leader away from his normal life for a greater purpose. For some it was jail time like the apostle Paul. Paul wrote many of his epistles when he was imprisoned. This would be said of Jeremiah, Isaiah and many others. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, and made Me a polished shaft; in His quiver He has hidden Me” (Isa 49:2).

The apostle John was put on the Island of Patmos where he received the vision of Revelation. He did not die on this island, but God used his time of isolation on Patmos to download an important part of the Bible for God’s people.

John Bunyan was imprisoned twelve years for preaching the Gospel. What came from his time in prison was one of Christianity’s greatest classics – Pilgrim’s Progress.

Sir Isaac Newton’s Greatest Discoveries Came in a 2-Year Time of Isolation

On Christmas Eve in 1664, a London resident named Goodwoman Phillips was found dead in the run-down district of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Telltale “buboes” on her corpse left no doubt about the cause of death. Her house was sealed and the words “Lord Have Mercy On Us” were painted on the door in red: Phillips had died of bubonic plague.

Only a few other deaths from plague were reported over the next few months. But by April, the numbers had begun to climb markedly. When summer arrived, death was everywhere. Records from mid-July showed 2,010 deaths, spread among every parish in London. The death toll a week later had jumped to 7,496. Over a period of 18 months, the Great Plague of London, as the epidemic came to be called, would claim more than 100,000 lives – roughly a quarter of the city’s population.

Then as now, social distancing was an important response to the deadly outbreak. Urban residents who could afford to do so fled to the countryside. Among the institutions that closed for the duration was Cambridge University, and among the students who headed home for what today we would call self-quarantining was a 23-year-old mathematics student by the name of Isaac Newton.

For the next year and a half, Newton remained at his family’s farm in Lincolnshire, reading, studying, and thinking alone. While the bubonic plague raged elsewhere, Newton embarked on what he would later describe as the most intellectually productive period of his life.

One subject that had always interested Newton was light and color. Two years earlier, visiting the annual Sturbridge Fair near the university, he had purchased a small glass prism. He had been fascinated by the way the prism seemed to change white light into a spectrum of rainbow-like colors. No one understood where those colors came from; one theory was that the glass somehow added color to otherwise colorless light.

This wasn’t the only discovery Newton made during his time of isolation. Newton’s laws laid the foundation for classical mechanics, and upon it, generations of physicists would build towering edifices. The mathematics required to derive these laws – which involve multiple variables with continuously changing quantities – did not exist in Newton’s day. So he invented an entirely new mathematical discipline. Without calculus, modern mathematics, engineering, and statistics would be impossible.[1]

God often used isolation to prepare his leaders for a greater assignment. Joseph was sold into slavery and later accused of a crime he did not do which landed him in prison. God used over 13 years of preparation for what would be an 81-year assignment as second in command of Egypt.

Nelson Mandella would be imprisoned for 27 years for his anti-apartheid, revolutionary political activities in South Africa. He would move from the jail cell to the presidential palace for five years as president of South Africa from 1994-1999.

He turns messes into messages and messengers.

What I observed is God turns our messes into messages and creates messengers in the process. God initiates a time of separation from past dependencies to realign values of the leader. King David was forced to flee Saul, who was trying to kill him. He ended up in the Cave of Adullam as his hiding place. During his time in the cave he wrote three of the Psalms — Psalm 34, 57, and 142. The down and outs joined him in the cave. They became known as David’s Mighty Men.

God often gave the leader treasures in darkness. “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel” (Isa 45:3). I recall God doing this in my own life in the mid-nineties. I was in a time of isolation from a difficult season. I began to reflect on what I was learning in that season that resulted in my writing a devotional series entitled TGIF Today God Is First. That devotional is now read in 105 nations around the world. Recently I wrote another book during a time of isolation that is just now being released called The Hidden Place: One man’s journey to freedom.

How might God be using this quarantine time in the nations for His purposes? Maybe you are being isolated right now. Perhaps there is a book or a message God is downloading to you right now. I encourage you to use this time to listen. Allow this mess to download a message from God that might be used for His people at this time as His messenger.

***************************************

Os Hillman is author of 20 books and the popular devotional TGIF Today God Is First.

His most recent book is The Hidden Place: One man’s journey to freedom.

[1] https://www.aish.com/ci/sam/Sir-Isaac-Newtons-Self-Quarantine.html

Is the Bible the Foundation of Our Faith?

By
Dan DeWitt
-
communicating with the unchurched

It is idolatry to make the Bible the foundation of your faith. That’s what one Christian leader said in recent history. It’s also a trend in popular apologetics. Is this a good way to talk about the Christian faith? 

For starters, I understand, I think, what is the motivation behind this kind of statement. Often Christians are in a position of responding to claims from their unbelieving friends that faith in Jesus is somehow disconnected from evidence. “There’s plenty of really good evidence for the resurrection!” they want to respond.

But why this move to disparage the idea of making the Bible our foundation?

I’ve heard some leaders put it in the context of the very first believers, those who, for example, came to faith at Peter’s preaching at Pentecost. They didn’t have a New Testament, they argue. So, they conclude, the foundation of the faith of the first believers was the resurrection of Jesus, not the New Testament. This seems logical enough, doesn’t it?

The problem is the first believers actually did situate their belief in the resurrection in Scriptures, the Old Testament. For example, consider our oldest Christian creed, which scholars across the spectrum, Christian and skeptic alike, agree was developed within less than three years of the resurrection. Look at the way the Apostle Paul talks about this creed he received and later passed on:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he raised on the third day in accordance with Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

This early creed was on the lips of the first believers after the first Easter Sunday. What was the foundation of their faith? It is the resurrection of Jesus as interpreted by the Scriptures. What Scriptures? This is a reference to the Old Testament. These believers were interpreting the historical event of the resurrection according to the Old Testament. This was their foundation.

Isn’t this merely splitting hairs? No, actually it is not. Experiences and historical evidence are not self-interpreting. This early creed doesn’t discount the historical evidences for the resurrection. Look at all the references to eyewitnesses! It’s almost as if Paul is saying, “Hey, most of these eyewitnesses are still alive. Go talk to them for yourself!”

But don’t miss the important construction of the creed. The event of the resurrection is seen as authoritative because it is interpreted in light of the Messianic promises of the Old Testament. That Christ died . . . according to the Scriptures . . . that he was raised . . . according to the Scriptures. When Christians separate the resurrection from Scriptures they are doing something that the earliest believers did not do.

That’s why when I hear apologists or Christian leaders argue against making the Bible our foundation by referencing the first believers, I’m a little perplexed. What evidence do they have for making evidence the foundation of their faith? The earliest Christian creed is the one found in 1 Corinthians 15. If we want to start looking for evidence for how to think well about these issues, this text should be primary. And what do we find there? We find the foundation of faith is Scripture, God’s revelation of himself—God’s interpretation of himself and his actions.

I can give you a long list of people who understand the historical evidences surrounding the resurrection quite well yet reject the conclusion that Jesus indeed rose from the dead. Gary Habermas, Christian apologist and author, has compiled a massive list of scholars who accept a surprising number of historical facts surrounding the resurrection yet reject the resurrection.

From Atheist to Deist to Denier of the Resurrection 

Consider Habermas’s friend and debate partner, Antony Flew. Flew spent most of his career as an atheist before coming to believe in some sort of deity. In his debate with Habermas, Flew conceded that the evidence for the resurrection is superior in quantity and quality to any other miracle claim from any other religion. Yet he didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead. He was willing to overturn the body of his academic writings from a lifetime of teaching atheistic philosophy, but he was unwilling to accept the resurrection.

Why? Was he confused? Was he unintelligent? No. The problem was, he was unable to properly interpret the evidences for the resurrection.

That’s because evidence doesn’t interpret itself. Without the work of the Spirit opening our eyes and removing our bias we will not properly interpret the evidence for the resurrection. We will see it as foolishness.

Let me frame this like a catechism to summarize the simple point I’m trying to make:

Question: How do we properly interpret the evidence for the resurrection?

Answer: According to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15).

I’m reminded of what one atheist friend told me a few years back. He said even if I could convince him the resurrection happened, which he was impressed with the breadth and depth of evidence, he would be forced to conclude that some really odd event happened that must have a natural explanation since he rejects the supernatural. He would interpret the evidence in light of his larger worldview commitments.

Gary Habermas is again helpful on this point. He has perhaps written more about using historical evidences for the resurrection than anyone else I know of. Yet he doesn’t pit evidence over or against Scripture. Consider his warning about using his minimal facts approach when talking about the resurrection:

But it should always be remembered that this is an apologetic strategy. Thus, it is not a prescription for how a given text should be approached in the original languages and translated, or how a systematic theology is developed, or how a sermon is written. So it should never be concluded that the use of such methods in an apologetic context indicate a lack of trust in Scripture as a whole, or, say, the Gospels in particular. Nor should it cause others to question or doubt their beliefs. Thus, it should only be understood and utilized in its proper context.

So, a short admonition is in order to conclude. Preach the resurrection. Use all the evidence you can find. Trust me, there’s plenty. But don’t relocate the center of your faith to something other than Scripture. The first disciples didn’t. You shouldn’t either.

This article originally appeared here.

Video Conferencing is Convenient… Until…

By
Jonathan Smith
-
communicating with the unchurched

The recent wave of shelter in place orders has created tremendous demand for work-at-home services, especially video conferencing. Video conferencing has been around for a long time, but it was always just one of the options. If you wanted to walk down the hall and call a meeting, or even jump on a plane for a face-to-face. You could do that. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken those options off the table for many, so video conferencing is once again a trend.

The rush to either begin using video conferencing or ramp up usage of video conferencing can lead to unwise decisions when it comes to security and privacy. The age-old question when it comes to internet security and privacy is balancing convenience and security. Due to the current demand convenience may win out but when convenience triumphs over security, the bad guys also win.

While all software has bugs, it is important to watch how vendors respond when bugs are reported in their systems. For video conferencing consider what you are ok becoming public knowledge. A teacher doing a video conference with a class of high school students teaching algebra probably doesn’t care if someone can spy on their video session. A CEO sharing a financial spreadsheet among a board probably does care if someone can spy on their meeting, discussion, and the data being shown.

As of this writing, one of the more popular video conferencing platforms, Zoom, has known security vulnerabilities. My intent is not to call them out but to use their example to help others think through video conferencing options. Zoom is used by many, but they have 2 issues right now, and the known issues should have been fixed before being exploited.

The first is for Mac users and was discovered in July 2019. When you uninstall the program from a Mac it leaves behind some Webcam code that is still active and easily exploitable. Any program should honor an uninstall request and remove everything.

Second, for users of any platform, the default security setup for Zoom allows bad actors to find meeting ID numbers and join the meetings. For the reasons listed before, this can be bad. The issue can be mitigated if the meeting organizer sets different security settings when creating the meeting, but many just go with the default settings, which in this case can be bad. Nick Nicholaou, one of MinistryTech’s contributing editors, said, “We’ve heard of people in Zoom meetings that were shocked when a bad actor crashed into the call and began showing unwelcome things via their webcam.” The internet has started calling this #Zoombombing.

Zoom has recently stated that they are going to spend the next 90 days fixing these issues. There are countless articles listing up to 10 steps you can take to have safe Zoom meetings. At this point the question to ask is if you want to use a program that is so poorly designed it requires you to configure it for safe use as opposed to being safe to use by default.

It is also important as you consider and are asked to provide video conferencing resources to look at tools and options you may already have. The last thing we need when this pandemic is over is to come out of it with 5-10 video conferencing apps running on our computers. Evaluate what tools you may already have and standardize. If you use Office 365 or G-Suite you already have such tools built in that work well. If you are connecting with others who use other programs like GoToMeeting or WebEx, ensure the security settings are appropriate and if you won’t need to use the program again be sure to uninstall it. Regardless of what security flaws are discovered and patched everyone in your organization will benefit from some cross-platform standardization.

Video conferencing is a powerful tool but as with most tech, it is important to do your research before charging ahead. For more details on Zoom’s security vulnerabilities, including #Zoomboming and some additional remote working tips check out the following from Nick Nicholaou.

 

 

Jonathan Smith is an author, conference speaker, and the Director of Technology at Faith Ministries in Lafayette, IN. You can reach Jonathan at jsmith@faithlafayette.org and follow him on Twitter @JonathanESmith.

1...830831832...1,192Page 831 of 1,192
855,266FansLike

New Articles

first Father’s Day in heaven

First Father’s Day in Heaven: Minister to Children Coping With Loss

Stephanie Martin -
The first Father’s Day in heaven can be difficult for children. Learn how to minister well to these students.
how to teach the Ten Commandments in a fun way

How To Teach The Ten Commandments in a Fun Way

Father’s Day devotion

Father’s Day Devotion Focuses on Dads As Encouragers

kids church games

Kids Church Games: 17 Just-for-Fun Children’s Ministry Activities

New Podcasts

Joby Martin

Joby Martin: What Happens When Pastors Finally Understand Grace

Jessica Lea -
Joby Martin joins “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” to discuss what happens when a church leader has truly been run over by the “grace train" and understands the profound love and grace of God.
Jennie Allen

Best of 2024—Jennie Allen: Why Church Leaders Need To Pay Attention...

Jon Acuff

Best of 2024: Jon Acuff—How To Pursue Success Without Destroying Your...

Libin Abraham

Libin Abraham on God’s Surprising Job Description for the Pastor

ChurchLeaders.com is dedicated to resourcing, informing, and connecting a community of church leaders for greater Kingdom impact worldwide.
Contact us: support@churchleaders.com

Company

Trending

Popular Categories

© ChurchLeaders