Summary
Special thanks to Paul Crouthamel of Journey Church in Raleigh, NC, Gene Mims of Gathering 840 in Franklin, TN, and Jarret Hamilton of Generation Church in Clayton, NC for sharing what they are doing in their respective churches to better care for and minister to their church members and communities.
The things you are doing now should not be seen as just a stop gap. Use this opportunity to restructure your ministry so that it better serves your people. We need to figure out how to be more effective moving forward. Think beyond the weekend service. Sunday services are not going to return to exactly like it was before the pandemic. Moreover, people need to be ministered to throughout the week – not just on Sundays. Consider these four directives: call, pray, communicate, and invite.
Do not underestimate the power of personal interaction. Unfortunately, a one-on-one interaction with a pastor is oftentimes a foreign idea to a lot of people. Personal outreach and personal pastoring can be so impactful. It is easy to say “we” and pass the buck to someone else. Start saying “I” instead. Take ownership of your ministry and invest your time and energy in your people.
You cannot do all of your disciple-making from the platform. While preaching and teaching are important, do not underrate personal disciple-making. The key word here is “shepherding” – not preaching, not putting together a weekend service, not generating online content. Raise up shepherds in your church.
Your concerns right now should not be “how do we survive this time?” Let us look back on this season and say that we learned from the challenges and changed the way we do ministry for the better.