“O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 2 Chr 20:12

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”- Ps 121:1

As staff of CCC, what should be our response to the COVID-19 Crisis? How should we engage those around us, our ministry, and most importantly, our own hearts? Before we rush off into various ministry opportunities, we need to take time to ponder these questions. “God, what are you doing in all of this and how can I join you in it? What are you saying and how can I hear you better? What are the works of God waiting to be revealed in me and in each of us?” God is at work in these unprecedented times, and He is inviting us to join Him! Could it be that He desires to do more now than ever before?

Care for Your Own Heart

How is your heart doing? Really doing? Rather than immediately filling our schedules with all the newest digital ministry techniques, could God be inviting us in this season to first prioritize:

● Time with Him- listen to His voice, spend extended times praying, worshipping and in His Word

● Time with our families- eat together, go for walks, play games, talk deeply, worship together

● Time for rest- We’re under stress, so eat well, sleep more, exercise, do things that bring life to your soul

Express Care and Compassion for Others

● Genuine care for students- listen to their fears and anxiety, pray for them, encourage them from the Word and continue discipleship online; connect with and listen to their parents, pray for them and seek to meet needs

● Compassion for the Lost- people are anxious and afraid, Pray for non-believers around you; Really Care- ask them how they are doing, listen to them, pray for them; Share the gospel & connect their heart needs to Jesus

Provide Hope, Encouragement and Vision

Having cared for our students, how can we then lead them to a place where they expectantly believe God for great things?

● Listen to the Lord together- seek Him in prayer, ask Him “What are you doing and how can we join you in that?”

● Cast Vision from the Word- Who is our great God and how has He worked in the past? What are His promises?

● Dream and plan together- What do we want to believe God for? How can we do that?

Equip Staff and Students for New Ways of Doing Ministry

● How can staff make use of this time?

○ Continue Win, Build and Send online

○ Equip students with digital evangelism and discipleship skills and tools

○ Coach students toward multiplying their lives through online outreach and discipleship

● How can students minister these days?

○ Prayer- pray together for their non-Christian friends

○ Care- listen, encourage and pray for Christian and non-Christian friends, seek to meet needs

○ Share- present Jesus to non-Christian friends through digital evangelism tools

○ Disciple- minister to existing disciples and newly believing friends with Follow Up & Discipleship materials

● Skills and Tools for Digital Ministry

○ Online Meetings & Community- Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp and Skype

○ Win, Build Send Tools- The Four; God Tools; EveryStudent.com; EveryStudentLeader.com

○ Online Training

○ Digital Campaigns- Digital Faith Week; Digital Global Student Launch Week

DIGITAL FAITH WEEK

The Gospel for Every Student Initiative

We have much to celebrate in terms of increasing the number of Campus Locations, as well as Engaged Disciples and Multiplying Disciples. However, another important fact to consider is that, while most of the new campuses launched in the last years remain active, (that is, they are not moving from "presence" back to "no presence"), only some are moving from "ministry" to "movement". Spiritual multiplication is the key to the growth and sustainability of movements, and regular evangelism is the first step towards multiplication.

As we advance in scope and continue to challenge students to become KVs, providing these students with simple ways to share the gospel without extensive training is a felt need everywhere. Along with that, ensuring that these methods are transferable beyond campus is essential.

Vision: Create momentum for evangelism that will inspire, equip and challenge our students to share the gospel as a lifestyle. Show students that sharing their faith doesn't have to be complicated or intimidating.

To invite our students into the great faith adventure of sharing the gospel with, at least, 20 friends in just one week using simple evangelism resources such as:

● EveryStudent.com

● Jesus Film Media App

The COVID-19 crisis offers us a unique opportunity to promote a global digital evangelistic campaign with the potential to make a big impact since people are more connected than ever. A partnership with Go2020 could be very good for strengthening the SLM relationship with other MCCs and organizations since Bekele and Steve Douglas are part of the Go2020 leadership team.

Proposed date: May (each area could choose a week in May to do the Faith Week)

● Faith Week does not require much preparation and, as a matter of fact, many resources that are being offered by Digital Strategies today can be applied to this initiative. It is also possible to learn from the South Asian experience last December.

Helpful links:

Faith Week resources

DS Webinars