What are the most important things we can be doing as a church in challenging times like this?
1. Know that God is still in control!
2. Be the church, maybe like never before!
3. Make sure your congregation knows about your continuing financial commitments.
4. Challenge/ask/invite your people to commit to continue giving, as before.
If you find yourself in need of additional assistance in any of these areas, contact David Viland.
Full Transcript:
Greetings. David Viland here. I am a Candidate Coach and Interviewer with Chemistry Staffing. I also work as a church consultant, primarily in the areas of generosity and giving. I've been asked to share with you some thoughts regarding how can you as church leaders respond to what is happening in our country, especially when we don't any longer have the plate to pass. I've been asked to share with you, what is the one most important thing that we can be doing at this time. I will tell you that one most important thing is to remember and to remind our congregation that God is in control. But I want to add three other points to this. And that is, number one, continue to be the church. Remind your congregation of your ongoing financial needs. And ask or invite your congregation to continue their giving. Let me just expand on those just a little bit. Knowing that God is in control - don't just know that, but teach it and preach it and bring confidence into your congregation that from the beginning of time God knew that this would be happening today. And therefore, he is in it and he is in control. Secondly, be the church. Pray and call your people to pray diligently for the country, for the situation, for the church, your church, and your people. And related to being a church, care for your people. Care and love your people. I had a conversation with a woman today who said, "I'm just afraid to go out. I would like to talk to somebody every other day if I could. Could it be possible that somebody would deliver meals to me?" And it so happens that in this church, the care and love ministry is being accelerated as it really hasn't in the past. And it's going to become a watershed in the care and love ministry in our church. So care for your people, be the church. Thirdly, remind your congregation of your financial needs. Remind them that your commitments to salaries and to ministries and to missionaries and to your ongoing property and building needs has changed very little, and so their continued giving is very important. So ask your people to remain committed to giving, to generosity. And maybe even for those that have the capacity to do so, you might even challenge them to consider prayerfully if God would have them step up to another level. And I think that this is another time for us to even potentially ask those who are not yet giving if they would consider giving as God calls them to. I think this is a time, an opportunity when perhaps there may be some who are not yet giving who come to realize that the church needs and works and serves the kingdom through our generosity. So I trust that these four points may be helpful to you as you consider how to respond to this. Again, those four points. Know that God is in control. Two, be the church. Pray and care. Three, remind your congregation of your financial needs. And four, challenge your people. Ask your people to remain committed to giving generously. Thank you.
