Leveraging technology with your small group to not only keep people engaged in your mission when you can't physically meet together, but also to advance the church's mission. This is not a time to push pause on community because we can't be face to face, but rather an opportunity to make community with other believers even more of a priority and to provide hope to our community.
Social separation doesn't have to be social isolation.
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Brad
Hey, I just wanted to stop by and encourage you as church leaders as you're facing unprecedented times right now. Many of us rely on gatherings, physical gatherings of people. Whether that's weekend worship services or small groups happening in homes all throughout the week. And as we know, those times are changing right before our eyes in this short term. And we just kind of need to be able to and be prepared and be encouraged to continue to respond and adapt and pivot our strategies. I really want to encourage you that social separation does not mean social isolation. We have to encourage our people to stay connected, to stay in community. Acts 2, it talks about this is what the local church did. They gathered together in homes. The met together, they fellowshipped, the broke bread together, they prayed together. And although we may not be able to physically do that right now, I want to encourage those same principles are still true.
We live in an amazing day today, full of technology and options for us as we navigate this. And so now as church leaders, we get the chance to leverage this. So I want to encourage you, as you think about your gathering, whether that's weekends or small groups, leverage technology and the platforms that we have available. Use things, encourage your leaders and coaches to use things such as Zoom, such as Facetime, as Skype, messaging as GroupMe or iMessage or just texting people. Stay in community. Social separation does not mean social isolation, so let's leverage these tools to stay connected, to stay growing, to stay praying with and for each other, to stay caring for one another. Use these tools and platforms to reach out to people in our community that we know may be far from God but this may be a chance for us to come alongside their questions in such times as this.
But more than anything, don't go through this alone. Encourage your people to stay on mission, to stay on point. I'm reminded of the gospels when Jesus is talking to Peter and he says not even the gates of hell will be able to stop the church. I don't even think a virus is going to stop the church from moving forward. Let's not act out of fear, but let's use the tools that we have to continue the mission. Use the tools that we have to continue to encourage your leaders to stay on mission, to stay on point as we continue to take ground for Jesus Christ.