How is your church adapting for COVID-19?

Joseph Turner:

Fred Chapman:

I have encouraged our members to make decisions about attendance based on factual data. I have also encouraged them to hear what our Lord has to say about fear, anxiety, and emotional decisions.

This is what I fear most concerning churches in the current situation.  In many places, if the church chooses to continue on-campus services, then people feel like they lack faith if they do not attend, disregarding factual data.  Churches also have a large concentration of older people, so this is a prime place where you would not want people gathering.  Setting up attendance as a matter of faith seems extremely dangerous.

Couldn't agree more with you, Joseph! Here's what Martin Luther had to say about this during the 1520's when pestilence (the Black death) was wreacking havoc in Wittenberg, Germany:

"It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. Indeed, such people behave as though a house were burning in the city and nobody were trying to put the fire out. Instead they give leeway to the flames so that the whole city is consumed, saying that if God so willed, he could save the city without water to quench the fire." Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 43: Devotional Writings II. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 43, p. 131). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Richard Villanueva:

Also, I recently read Stark's "Rise of Christianity" (not in Logos) and it had a chapter detailing the Christian response to the decimating smallpox outbreaks in second-century Rome. You can read (Chapter 4) it in the preview on Google Books. The church's self-sacrificing response is heroic. That chapter was based on an article he wrote in Semeia 56, “Epidemics, Networks, and the Rise of Christianity”.

Starks' article in Semeia 56 is available in Logos BTW

https://www.logos.com/product/15374/semeia-56-social-networks-in-early-christian-environment-issues-and-methods-for-social-history

Richard Villanueva:

We have several thousand that gather each week at our church, so we are decentralizing on campus. Rooms with no more than 250 persons in them and the service will be live in our main sanctuary and live-streamed to the extension rooms. It displaces our youth service, but we will have that in another room to make way for adult services.

We are making changes as the situation changes and communicating via social media, email, phones calls, and texts to volunteers and other church leaders who can relay the word to their circles. We have increased our cleaning protocols. We're located in Southern California, but have not had any cases in our county, so we are trying to be cautious without shutting too many things down. All other meetings, events, and gatherings at the church have been canceled until further notice.

We are preparing for tighter restrictions to go online-only or in small home groups potentially. I personally think online-only is not a comprehensive long-term plan, so our pastoral staff is working to get our plans in place should this stretch into weeks or months. I am the Youth Pastor at my church. I greatly appreciate the info shared here and will pass it along!   

In other related news... I have found it fascinating to read Martin Luther's "Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague (1527)" from Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. He's surprisingly relevant in his mention of quarantine, pastoral responsibility, cleanliness (considering his time period, of course), and even-handedness between practicality and spirituality.

Also, I recently read Stark's "Rise of Christianity" (not in Logos) and it had a chapter detailing the Christian response to the decimating smallpox outbreaks in second-century Rome. You can read (Chapter 4) it in the preview on Google Books. The church's self-sacrificing response is heroic. That chapter was based on an article he wrote in Semeia 56, “Epidemics, Networks, and the Rise of Christianity”.

I know we're neighbors, please stay healthy and stay safe my brother. Words around from the top said our area will get hit hard around end of April.

On the other hand, I feel like we should hang out one day :)

Cheers! 

Faithlife should come up something like Zoom that can integrate nicely with Logos. Like when you doing Zoom and click on screenshare... Logos can be userfriendly with it.

We don't need faithlife groups or whatever... we have our text message group in our phone, that's what that's for. We don't need anymore social group stuffs. We need conference video-call integration with Logos software to teach. This is the time for that.

Bob Pritchett:

https://faithlife.com/messages, and just pick the group (that you're a member of), and when you use the video button (right next to 'Send' in the place where you type your message) you'll be able to go right to the video chat, with the private URL shared with your group only.

Can you please make your team a video of that? (features and walkthrough) I don't see the video button.

Thanks Bob.

Bob Pritchett:

We added a button to Faithlife's Messages feature that initiates a video chat (browser based, no download, no log-in) instantly, and pastes the URL into the chat.

It supports screen sharing as well.

https://faithlife.com/messages, and just pick the group (that you're a member of), and when you use the video button (right next to 'Send' in the place where you type your message) you'll be able to go right to the video chat, with the private URL shared with your group only.

You can also use it directly with an room name you'd like, for example: https://meet.jit.si/LogosForumUsersLiveNow

THANK you Bob (and team)! Just as Facebook Live ran into bandwidth issues with a sudden influx of church services, I expect Zoom to bump into the same obstacle. I appreciate you providing a simple alternative.

Chrisser:

Lynden Williams:

The Bahamas had just confirmed its first case on Sunday. All schools are closed (as far as I know) and all events using public spaces that the government owns are cancelled. Decision made last night.

Seventh-day Adventist have not taken a formal position as yet, instruction could come this week, but we have been emphasizing hand washing, social distancing and I have begun telling my colleagues to make use of streaming platforms in case churches have to be closed. My preference is Microsoft Team due to real time response.

Lynden Williams, how are you guys down in the Bahamas? I don't know how the damage done last year is effecting you still, and I fear damaged infrastructure will not help the current outbreak.

Thanks for asking. Yes we are still in recovery mode financially (entire country) and infrastructure for the islands affected. The lock down that we are experiencing is not helping the financial recovery and only time will tell how we get through this.

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari:

Here's what Martin Luther had to say about this during the 1520's when pestilence (the Black death) was wreacking havoc in Wittenberg, Germany:

"It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. Indeed, such people behave as though a house were burning in the city and nobody were trying to put the fire out. Instead they give leeway to the flames so that the whole city is consumed, saying that if God so willed, he could save the city without water to quench the fire." Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 43: Devotional Writings II. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 43, p. 131). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

For any who do not have Luther's Works, this essay has been made freely available at https://blogs.lcms.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Plague-blogLW.pdf. It is sad that this devotional writing for which I had only historical interest before has become more real to me and many others.

SDG

Ken McGuire

Mark:

It seems that you can only video chat with others who have a Faithlife account, correct? 

My experience was that I had to be in a Faithlife Group to start a video chat, but then it provided a URL that I could send to anybody who could access the jitsi site in a browser. As ZOOM requested access to my entire contact list (and there are reports today of hacking of ZOOM meetings) I am thankful to Faithlife for providing an alternative.

I have a package of Logos that I already bought, but unfortunately I'm canceling my purchase today. But when I opened the page I saw this discount and I would like to know if it is possible for you to apply this discount in my plan so that I can continue with the Software. I'm asking because unfortunately due to the Covid-19 I'm working little and reducing costs

augustozanini@outlook.com