Navigating into mission through the COVID-19 storm

Everyone has sailed into the storm during the COVID-19 outbreak and many adjustments are required. What can we choose to do that will make a difference to where we emerge on the other side? Will we simply resume life and ministry as it was before? Will we have lost momentum, critical mass, commitment of our people to “come to church” and support the programs we provide for them? Or, after this forced deconstruction could we emerge with a new reputation for compassionate community service, more disciples, fewer consumers, more meaningful connections with non-church people, and more believers activated as disciplemakers in their social worlds?

There is a fundamental change from what few do when many are together, to what the many do while we are scattered and apart. A shift from looking inward to looking outward, from centralized to decentralized, from the priesthood of a few professionals to the priesthood of ALL believers.

Here are seven practical suggestions for leading God’s people to BE the Church and make disciples through this crisis.

Seven steps for leaders

Step 1 - Refocus on People, family, and the household

Train your people to establish healthy priorities and life balance to ensure mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing. Provide simple tools and formats for personal Bible study and prayer in the home, including with families. Bible Discovery groups are simple and easily transferable. A sense of community through the crisis is enhanced by everyone is using the same tool. Resource: MyFriends Web App

Step 2 - Refocus on local

Refocus people from what they no longer have to new opportunities: neighbours, friends, and family are available on phones, email, social platforms, and from across the street or balcony. Model and train your people to prayerfully map their networks. Train your people in how to live out of their identity as followers of Jesus in an intentional yet simple lifestyle. Resource:  Daisy diagram (pdf)

Step 3 - Build Community and a sense of team, virtually

Ask people to set up a WhatsApp or Messenger group to facilitate prayer, accountability, and encouragement for people to progress personal mission initiatives. Share prayer points and outcomes, along with resources, tools, and ideas. These could be based on existing home groups, shared social networks, or new ‘ministry teams’ sharing a common commitment to action and desire for support and accountability.

Step 4 - Cast fresh vision to clarify and reframe the Church’s purpose in this new reality

  • Revisit your church's vision and mission as a community of believers. Ensure your people's focus is on how that vision is worked out through them while in physical isolation.
  • How does your church BE the church through its members? How do members embrace a new sense of personal identity? How can you support and encourage that new focus not as a regrettable ‘Plan B’ but proactively embraced as the new ‘Plan A’?
  • Stop talking about what you can’t do and start casting vision for and resourcing people for what they CAN do and be.
  • Capture short 30-60 second video testimonies of how people are seeing Jesus working in and through them in the lives of others.
  • Rethink what you're seeking to produce in the lives of your people as disciplemakers. Train your people in the top 3-5 skills your people need to care for, pray with, and share Christ with their neighbours. What can they do in virtual teams? How will you support this structure? Resource: How to BE church with my friends.

Step 5 - Provide a “simple church” format for people to practice in households and social networks online

Three Thirds Process

1/3rd Looking Back:

  • What has been going well for you this week?
  • What has been difficult for you this past week?
  • Have you experienced God this week?
  • How can we help you with your needs?
  • What would you like prayer for?
  • What have you put into practice since our last meeting?
  • Were you able to share a God experience with anyone? Did you pray with them?

2/3rd Looking Up:

  • Read the passage aloud twice.
  • Have one person retell the passage in their own words with the group’s help.
  • Was there anything missed or added?
  • What do you like and what bothers you in this passage?
  • What does this passage tell you about Jesus, God and people? 

3/3rd Looking Forward:

  • What are some possible ways a person could apply this passage? Is there:
    • A behaviour to change?
    • A promise to claim?
    • An example to follow?
    • A command to obey?
  • Ask God what He wants you to do in response to the passage.
  • Share this with the group
  • Who will you share this passage with? How could you introduce it?

Step 6 - Renovation - Use this time to strengthen the spiritual foundations for the present need and future expansion

Through messages and Bible Discovery resources, re-enforce the Spiritual Foundations through reiterating the six priorities summed up in the acronym "Holy Spirit P.O.W.E.R."

  • Holy Spirit dependence
  • Prayer
  • Obedience to the Kingdom agenda
    • What practical needs in the community can your church physically assist in?
    • How can you support your people as they demonstrate practical love and care in being “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” in their social networks? 
    • How will you mobilize together to be “Jesus with skin on” in revealing His Kingdom hope in the crisis?
  • Word
    • Establish every household in a simple Bible Discovery reading plan which can be extended online.
  • Exalting the Father
    • Make time to worship alone and together. Meditate and work through the attributes of God and keep things in perspective.
  • Relationships
    • Have people think through their relational networks using the Daisy Chain concept.

Step 7 - Choose to deliberately restructure for Multiplication

Multiplication always operates from a cellular rather than a whole-body level. In a healthy body, the systems support the cells in reproducing themselves and multiplication is the outcome. The same is true in disciplemaking.

In this season, with the forced closure of large gatherings and the relegation of the congregational gathering to a computer or TV screen, there is an unprecedented opportunity to shift the focus onto disciplemaking though ordinary people and small groups rather than centralised programs. The difference between deconstruction and restructuring is leadership and intentionality. The factor determining whether restructuring simply repairs and restores what previously existed in the past or restructures anew for the future is vision, insight, and courage.

What will it take to emerge post COVID-19 in future with structures and behaviours that continue to encourage and support multiplication at local and household level?

Every church has experienced a forced deconstruction, but who will embrace the opportunity to restructure for multiplication?

Prayerfully consider these questions:

  • How will households and small groups (either face to face or virtual) become the primary structures for disciplemaking, evangelism, and deepening community?
  • What will the continuation of these new structures look like at the other side of the crisis in the new normal?
  • What new forms and structures can provide the a foundation for ongoing growth and multiplication?
  • What leadership support and resourcing do you need to provide and how?
  • What are the top three new skills your people need to be trained in and the tools they will use? When, how, and through whom will this training be provided?
  • What will you do to ensure this process and structures of multiplication are transferable, reproducible, scalable, and self-sustaining apart from a centralised large gathering?

Action Steps:

  • Identify people in your sphere of influence who are demonstrating a heart for and effectiveness in initiating locally. Who is having a go, stepping out in faith (and likely fear!), and acting in reaching out to others?
  • Come along side to affirm, clarify vision, and challenge them to broader responsibility.
  • Have a simple plan for multiplying groups using reproducible processes through transferable tools/training like Bible Discovery Groups, Daisy mapping, MyFriends lifestyle, and more (see links below).
  • Prayerfully think through the future possibilities and decide on your trial plan.

Link: Learn more about MyFriends

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