During this time of uncertainty
there is still one thing for certain-JESUS CALLS US TO LOVE! The Bible says, “By this all men will know
that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) When his
people do that to each other (that is other Christians) it’s called ministry.
When his people do that to those who aren’t yet believers it’s called mission.
In every crisis there is always opportunity. I believe we can leverage this
Covid-19 (Coronavirus) crisis for building Christ’s kingdom! But we must be
wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matt. 10:16). I have been racking my
brain as to how we can do ministry that won’t put us at undo risk or end up
making the situation worse. My brain racking process always involves prayer and
after about a week here’s one opportunity I’ve come up with:
Talk-N-Pray is a phone
based ministry anyone could do regardless of age or health-you could have
Covid-19 and still do this ministry! On the most basic level I know lots of
people are already doing this. You call people you are concerned about or
people are calling you to talk about their concerns. This is all good but I
would challenge you to take it up a notch. In your phone conversations simply
ask, “can we pray about this?” Again I’m sure some of you are already doing
this-but if you’re not-why not start? Praying over the phone is weird at first
but after a while it becomes very natural-just try it :)
I believe the only way Covid-19
(and all the fear and chaos it’s causing-which may end up being worse than
Covid-19) will be stopped, is if God intervenes. I also know one of the main
reasons God intervenes is WHEN WE ASK HIM TO!
So this is a general call to prayer and since we can’t meet in mass
together we must pray apart, perhaps in pairs on the phone!
If you feel led to do this
ministry with SMC I would invite you to simply call/text/email the church
office and let us know your name, phone number and hours of availability. We
will make that available to SMC through our one call system by basically
sending out a roster of Talk-N-Pray ministers who are willing and available*.
My vision would be that we could
eventually have a 24 hour/7 days a week network of our people available on the
phone to minister to people-maybe an hour at a time and the love of Jesus would
grow among us! But that’s not where I believe God would have it end… my vision
is larger than this but we’ll see how this goes first!
Now maybe you hate talking on the
phone-that’s ok-we can make it just text or email too. The main thing is LOVING
PEOPLE IN JESUS NAME by keeping (or getting) connected to each other. This is
just one idea-I have more-but maybe you do too! I would be glad to chat with
you about other ministry/mission visions you have as well. Let’s not let this
powerful time of opportunity pass if the Spirit is prompting us to act in Jesus
name!
*To be clear, I would begin by
having a ministry to SMC-being called by our people. If you want to sign up for
that just call me or the office and sign up.
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