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By Mary Frances
Keeping Congregations Connected is a series on strategies and tools for helping congregations survive and thrive in the face of the COVID crisis. Click here for the previous post.
It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that just about everything you learned about how to do church has been turned upside down in the last several weeks. You have led your congregations through change that may have taken decades previously, you have turned on a dime to offer virtual worship, online bible study, and calling teams for pastoral care.
And to all of that I say, well done!
And now that you have all of that (AND Easter) under your belt, could we turn to outreach? How do we make sure that the people outside of our communities can access what we are doing online? How do we continue to invite, connect, and serve? I realize that this may seem a bit extreme to some, yet I think about the disciples, in the upper room after the resurrection, scared for their lives. And what did they do? With the blessing and breath of Jesus upon them, they went out into a very scary world and told about what they had seen and experienced. It’s our turn to tell about what we have seen and experienced. Perhaps we can’t go out physically, but we can still connect and invite.
This blog post is part of an ongoing series. Future posts may include:
CDC Social Vulnerability Scales and Other Tools and Strategies to Locate Vulnerable Neighborhoods and Populations
Things your congregants can do to create a sense of community with their own neighbors and neighborhoods.
Tools and strategies for hosting online fellowship.
Tools and strategies for facilitating online bible study and formation.
Tools and strategies congregations can use to locate and reach populations most vulnerable to COVID19.
Tools and strategies by which judicatories can resource their congregations.
Before You Go Back to the Building: Tools and Strategies to Prepare You for the Aftermath and Recovery.