Our One Priority Briefing for Ministers from George Bullard — Monday, April 27, 2020

A Family of Baptist Congregations in the Midlands of South Carolina

Our One Priority: Starting and Strengthening Churches to Serve as Vital and Vibrant Missional Communities.

CMBA Church Leaders Online Gathering

When: Tuesday, April 28th at 2:00 p.m.

Where: A Zoom Online Gathering. As an extra security and for us to connect with you, everyone must register for this dialogue at https://forms.gle/LVsK9JH4xbZW5K6U7. Three benefits: 1. When you register you will receive by return e-mail the link for the online dialogue. 2. Within a few hours after the dialogue you will receive the video recording for review and sharing with others. 3. You will also receive following the dialogue a handout of the notes used to lead this dialogue.

What: ReLaunching Your Congregation — The What and How, Version 2.0 –The second dialogue on ReLaunching/ReOpening will focus on two areas:

First, Three Big Questions about ReLaunching/ReOpening for Churches to Consider: 1. Criteria for Opening: What are your criteria for relaunching/reopening your church? Not a date, but the criteria that must be met for your church to decide to open. 2. Phases of Opening: What are the phases for relaunching/reopening your church? You will not go from zero to 100 in one Sunday but will likely phase-in your opening. 3. Readiness for Opening: What must you do to prepare your facilities, your staff, and your volunteers for opening? What is your marketing plan to your congregation and your community context?

Second, Innovation and the New Normal: 1. Continue Innovating. This may be the best opportunity you will ever have to innovate and engage in adaptive change in your congregation. 2. The New Normal: Building capacities for sustaining the “New Normal.”

These Church Leaders Online Gatherings are a regular weekly ministry of CMBA during the current season.

A Prayer for the Sixth Week of Virtual Church

O Lord our God, just as we were refining our pattern of functioning as a virtual church, the anxiety of people has flipped the conversation from, “stay home, stay safe, and save lives” to one of, “when can we reopen our church as a live, on-site community of faith.” We all miss the high touch of personal relationships. That is an important part of the unique sense of community we offer as congregations. For those of us in Christian ministry leadership, we are dealing with withdrawal pains and the heightened anxiety of people around us. Some of us are also scared about the economics of our own church.

(Read/download the remainder of the prayer at https://columbiametro.org/prayer-for-04-26-20/.)

Our One Priority Briefing and the CMBA Church Leaders Dialogue Gathering are made possible by the financial gifts of the member and network congregations of the Columbia Metro Baptist Association at www.ColumbiaMetro.org, CMBA@ColumbiaMetro.org, or 803.619.7110. To donate go to www.baptistfoundationsc.org/give. Designate your contribution to the Columbia Metro Baptist Association / #cmba.

About the author 

Kyndra Bremer