In an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus in our city, on Saturday, March 14, 2020 at 6:33 p. m. , the mayor of Austin issued an order prohibiting all private or public meetings from 2:00 a. m. Sundays. Effect from March 15 to May 1, 2020. La for us was how to guide our congregation, over the next few weeks, if we couldn’t meet?To our surprise and encouragement, we realized that the Lord was already preparing for this global pandemic. by the ordinary means of pastoral ministry. Let me explain.
Through regular and consecutive preaching, book by book, of the Christ-centered Word of God, the Lord has allowed us to lay the foundations of our people in His Word. Immediately before we can meet again, we complete our study of Ruth. The main points in each sermon was that the Lord supports his people and governs everything, including through human action, to orient everything towards the goals assigned to them. The doctrine of divine providence taught and applied for four weeks prepared us for what the Lord had for us, including a world pandemic; and just before Ruth, we had studied Philippians, relying on this important exhortation not to be anxious about anything but to bring everything to God in prayer so that we could experience the peace of God (Fil. 4. 6-7).
- By the grace of God.
- The Lord convinced us that it was better to seek to cultivate a culture of discipleship than to have a discipleship program.
- We wanted to see a culture among the members in which it was normal for them to be in common.
- Relationships that would encourage them and help follow Jesus to the point where we all came to the likeness of Christ.
- Our biblical guarantee was Ephesians 4:11-16.
- We hoped to establish a culture where pastors would teach and preach the Word.
- Congregation received this word.
- And then they talked about love.
- Even though we already had small groups.
- We wanted to make sure that all members were involved in a discipleship relationship.
- Now.
- In late March.
- We hear exciting stories about how our members connect through zoom messages.
- Phone calls.
- And meetings.
Above all, we also decided to regularly identify faithful men who could also teach others (2Tm 2,2). By God’s grace, in January 2020, we had nine elders / pastors. We already had a plan to take care of everyone. Each time we met (twice a month), we developed a plan to contact some of our members and pray for them. We work to cross our entire congregation two or three times a year. caring for all members during this unprecedented period of life, we realized that we already had a pastoral plan to contact and pray for all members. All we had to do was adjust our roster to make sure we passed our members every four weeks. extend beyond May 1, 2020, we will simply continue to work on our pastoral plan.
Our deaconos focus on specific ministries. Organize teams of volunteers to help the elders serve the church. We immediately contacted the emergency response deacon and asked him to develop a church-wide emergency plan after talking to the right people: doctors, emergency personnel, pastors. Fortunately, our deacon of widows and the disabled already had a team of volunteers, so they simply continued their original work. However, in addition to their burden, it was necessary to reach all the elders of our congregation, not just widows and the disabled.
What’s my point? These may be unprecedented times for us, but not for the church. For more than 2000 years, the church has faced pandemics and persecutions, floods and famines, disease, and imprisonment, but we know from Jesus’ words that the gates of hell in Ephesians 4:11, Christ, subject to heaven, structured his church around the ministry of the Word. In pastoral epistles, we observe the structure of the Church, inspired by the Spirit, with elders/pastors and Deaconos What I mean is this: the Lord Jesus has already prepared us for this pandemic by the way he commanded his church for the purposes of ministry and mission, for the glory of God the Father, in the power of the Spirit.
Our mission is to make disciples stand out as a holy people who proclaim the gospel of the King Jesus. To advance the mission, we can establish programs that function as lattice that help the vine grow its disciples. But what have we learned during this pandemic?Evangelism and discipleship rather than programs. As a result, when the programs ended, the crops continued. This is good news, because each church, regardless of its size, can organize properly, develop cultures of evangelization and discipleship, and be prepared for the next crisis we may face.