Our BUV's Partnership Development Pastor, Andrew Naylor is a professional musician and has recorded his version of 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' (originally written by Isaac Watts) as a video. Andrew has made this available to any church that would like to use it this Easter in whatever setting you like. If you need a download link for church service use, please email andrew.naylor@buv.com.au.
Source: BUV News
Recently I have found myself having conversations that I haven’t had since I worked as a social worker in an Intensive Care ward about twelve years ago. In that role, I would support families who had critically ill loved ones. When the patient was out of danger, my conversations with the family would turn to their self care and what they should expect over the next few weeks. I would say,
“Don't be surprised if you find yourself getting easily upset. The next few weeks will feel like a rollercoaster. You have been through a major trauma and it’s normal for your body to re-adjust both emotionally and physically.”
I have been saying similar words this week. Often after a major trauma or incident we find ourselves having strong emotional, spiritual or physical reactions. I think COVID-19 would count as a major trauma! If you are in leadership in a church, over the last few weeks you have been forced to lead your church through a massive change process that has happened at very short notice. You have totally transformed your mode of church; had to learn how to stream services, provide pastoral care remotely, run meetings online and deliver sermons to camera rather than a present congregation. Some or all of this has been outside of your experience.
When facing trauma, it is often at the three-week mark that we find ourselves at a vulnerable point. This is often when our emotional tank is nearing empty, having been drained by constantly responding to the needs of others around us. We may also feel spiritually flat after engaging with the initial challenges to faith and service. You might be experiencing some of the following:
Maybe you just want to stay in bed and pull the bedclothes up over your head.
Here are some helpful tips for us to remember at this time:
Make some time to read and reflect on Elijah’s experience in 1Kings 19:1-21. In what ways can you relate to Elijah’s experience? What resources did God provide to support him in that situation? How might you access similar resources to support you at this time? Click here for a sermon by Rev David Devine on 1Kings 19.
If you find things going for too long, seek help. It is important to talk to someone as early as possible to prevent longer-term issues from developing. You are able to contact your Regional Pastor or a Church Health team member if you want further assistance.
Take care of yourself during this time. God is faithful and will sustain us.
Christine Wanstall,
BUV, Church Health Consultant
Mental Health Resources:
Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries recognizes the need for access to online mental health resources in this season, and so they are making The Sanctuary Course available for free. Simply use the code "mentalhealth" at checkout to receive a 100% discount for the next month (discount code expires April 18, 2020). This course is intended for use in small groups, and so now more than ever we ask that you gather online with friends or your church community to engage with the material together. You'll also find other useful Mental health resources here.
Source: BUV News
Jeremy van Langenberg, from Bacchus Marsh Baptist Church, gives us an insight into how their church is maintaining its congregational connection.
There’s some amazing resources out there at present but we were really concerned to maintain a sense of ‘us’, our LOCAL church community.
Overall we are encouraged and in good spirits, thank you LORD.
For more information click here
Source: BUV News
One question that many Baptist pastors are asking since the Stay at Home direction by the Victorian State Government (31/3/2020) is, “Can I pastorally visit people from my congregation in person?” Is it okay to meet with a couple, a family, or a person needing care at this time? How can pastors respond to those needing pastoral care?
When it comes to providing guidelines for the public, the Government of Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services website states the following in response to the question, “Can I have visitors in my home?"
No. Social visits from friends and family increase the risk of spreading coronavirus. Every interaction with another person carries the risk of transmission and should be avoided. You should not have visitors and in turn, you should not visit the homes of others during the Stay at Home direction.
Of course, you can welcome a visitor into your home when they are providing you with care and support when you are unwell, disabled, elderly or pregnant. (Victoria State Government, 2020)
What does this mean for pastors?
It is important for Victorian Baptist pastors to remember that while visitation is now severely limited, there are still so many ways to provide pastoral care. Here are the most effective ways to care for God’s people through this COVID-19 crisis.
1. Go old school!
2. Go new school!
3. Go all out!
Over these last weeks, we have seen Baptist churches all over Victoria overcoming the unique challenges we are currently facing to keep loving one another and building each other up. May God continue to give pastors creativity and courage as you lead our churches to love in unprecedented ways during this crisis.
Rev Jonathan Stark
Head of Pastoral Leadership, Support and Development
Source: BUV News
One question that many Baptist pastors are asking since the Stay at Home direction by the Victorian State Government (31/3/2020) is, “Can I pastorally visit people from my congregation in person?” Is it okay to meet with a couple, a family, or a person needing care at this time? How can pastors respond to those needing pastoral care?
When it comes to providing guidelines for the public, the Government of Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services website states the following in response to the question, “Can I have visitors in my home?"
No. Social visits from friends and family increase the risk of spreading coronavirus. Every interaction with another person carries the risk of transmission and should be avoided. You should not have visitors and in turn, you should not visit the homes of others during the Stay at Home direction.
Of course, you can welcome a visitor into your home when they are providing you with care and support when you are unwell, disabled, elderly or pregnant. (Victoria State Government, 2020)
What does this mean for pastors?
It is important for Victorian Baptist pastors to remember that while visitation is now severely limited, there are still so many ways to provide pastoral care. Here are the most effective ways to care for God’s people through this COVID-19 crisis.
1. Go old school!
2. Go new school!
3. Go all out!
Over these last weeks, we have seen Baptist churches all over Victoria overcoming the unique challenges we are currently facing to keep loving one another and building each other up. May God continue to give pastors creativity and courage as you lead our churches to love in unprecedented ways during this crisis.
Rev Jonathan Stark
Head of Pastoral Leadership, Support and Development
Luke Williams, the lead pastor at Follow Baptist Church in Officer, went live on Facebook in his neighbourhood park on the 20th March. His house is neatly situated adjacent to the park and playground – a great common area where neighbours gather. He confesses that as a family, they are connected to their immediate neighbours, but not so much with the wider neighbourhood.
With a desire to connect, and an acknowledgement of the danger some people face in becoming even more isolated than before, Luke and his family set to work, creating neighbourhood packages to be dropped on each doorstep. And in this unique crisis, a nicely wrapped toilet roll and a chocolate bar holds more currency than ever before. Each package carried with it an invitation to join a new private Facebook group – one that is unique to the neighbours that overlook the park.
Seven days later, 17 neighbours had joined the private Facebook group – all people who had been previously unknown to Luke and his family. And now there are ideas bubbling for a Post Pandemic Pancake Party at the Park.
Luke encouraged those tuning in to the live feed to find the ‘us' in the virus, and to find creative ways of connecting with neighbours.
"What if, during this time of social distancing, we actually become more connected with people around us?"
"We might see it as a toilet roll or a chocolate bar, but I see this as a seed of love, a seed of kindness, and hopefully a seed of compassion. Who knows what is going to happen? On the other side of the pandemic, we might come out with a new normal." One neighbour who received a toilet roll burst into tears as they were down to their last roll!
For this small neighbourhood group, a new way of connecting has begun. For Luke and his family, new ideas are flourishing. A week later, their neighbours have received a “Neighbourhood Stimulus Package,” which included two melting moments “to grab a moment with someone you love”, a card, envelope and stamp to send some old-fashioned letters, and "a pack of seeds to plant which remind us that new things grow from the darkness.” It also had some chocolates, a colouring competition for the group, some links for kids activities online and some tissues for “when things get too much”.
"When you sow a seed, you are not quite sure what is going to grow, or if anything is going to. But what I do know is that if you keep sowing seeds, something will grow! And hopefully it is friendship and kindness, and even faith in a time like this."
Source: BUV News
At the beginning of this year if someone had said that all church gatherings would be banned we would have thought our society had been overturned and the world was going mad. In the space of a month however, we have moved from concerns about the Covid-19 illness to being asked to remain at home with all gatherings of two or more people banned. This has thrown all of us into quick action to try and work out how to be church when we cannot gather.
Encounter Baptist Church sits in the south-east suburb of Chadstone. It started six years ago as a church plant, looking to intentionally engage with discipleship and mission in the local community. Ps David Wanstall is the senior pastor of the church and describes how this church community has responded.
“We recognised quickly that as church we needed to develop light-weight ways to make sure people felt cared for, connected into community and spiritually encouraged.”
Encounter Baptist did not just want to stream services on-line but are seeking to have their members actively engaged with others in the church as well as their neighbours around them.
David identified “The challenge is to not be in a holding pattern during this time, but to continue to see people actively encounter God, encourage each other and engage with the community and neighbourhood around them. This can be difficult with social distancing rules but with some creative thinking, it is not impossible.”
Encounter Baptist has placed every person connected with the church in a home church. The home churches have approximately 10-12 people in each group with leaders identified for each home church. On Sunday morning the church uses a Zoom webinar to provide 30-40 minutes of gathered time that includes worship, prayer, notices, a kids spot and a short reflection time. Following the gathered time, each home group is encourage to connect together through their own Zoom accounts for worship, bible study, prayer, sharing and support. Home churches shape this time depending on who is in their group. A major part of the ministry team’s time is now focused on supporting and resourcing the home church leaders.
The church also has online gatherings during the week in running parenting courses, praying together, training missional leaders and connecting kids and youth together.
“In the first chapters of Acts the church met in large groups in the temple courts and smaller groups in people’s homes. We see this season at Encounter, where our gathered Sunday option is on hold, as an opportunity to strength our ability to gather together in smaller groups. In our case this is through online home churches. We don’t just want our church to survive this time but we want our church to thrive. We have seen home churches draw in people who have not previously been part of church. It is exciting.”
Source: BUV News
Luke Williams, the lead pastor at Follow Baptist Church in Officer, went live on Facebook in his neighbourhood park on the 20th March. His house is neatly situated adjacent to the park and playground – a great common area where neighbours gather. He confesses that as a family, they are connected to their immediate neighbours, but not so much with the wider neighbourhood.
With a desire to connect, and an acknowledgement of the danger some people face in becoming even more isolated than before, Luke and his family set to work, creating neighbourhood packages to be dropped on each doorstep. And in this unique crisis, a nicely wrapped toilet roll and a chocolate bar holds more currency than ever before. Each package carried with it an invitation to join a new private Facebook group – one that is unique to the neighbours that overlook the park.
Seven days later, 17 neighbours had joined the private Facebook group – all people who had been previously unknown to Luke and his family. And now there are ideas bubbling for a Post Pandemic Pancake Party at the Park.
Luke encouraged those tuning in to the live feed to find the ‘us' in the virus, and to find creative ways of connecting with neighbours.
"What if, during this time of social distancing, we actually become more connected with people around us?"
"We might see it as a toilet roll or a chocolate bar, but I see this as a seed of love, a seed of kindness, and hopefully a seed of compassion. Who knows what is going to happen? On the other side of the pandemic, we might come out with a new normal." One neighbour who received a toilet roll burst into tears as they were down to their last roll!
For this small neighbourhood group, a new way of connecting has begun. For Luke and his family, new ideas are flourishing. A week later, their neighbours have received a “Neighbourhood Stimulus Package,” which included two melting moments “to grab a moment with someone you love”, a card, envelope and stamp to send some old-fashioned letters, and "a pack of seeds to plant which remind us that new things grow from the darkness.” It also had some chocolates, a colouring competition for the group, some links for kids activities online and some tissues for “when things get too much”.
"When you sow a seed, you are not quite sure what is going to grow, or if anything is going to. But what I do know is that if you keep sowing seeds, something will grow! And hopefully it is friendship and kindness, and even faith in a time like this."
"At the beginning of this year if someone had said that all church gatherings would be banned we would have thought our society had been overturned and the world was going mad. In the space of a month however, we have moved from concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic to being asked to remain at home with all gatherings of two or more people banned. This has thrown all of us into quick action to try and work out how to be church when we cannot gather." Pastor David Wanstall of Encounter Baptist Church said.
Encounter Baptist Church sits in the south-east suburb of Chadstone. It started six years ago as a church plant, looking to intentionally engage with discipleship and mission in the local community. Pastor David is the senior pastor of the church and describes how this church community has responded.
“We recognised quickly that as church we needed to develop light-weight ways to make sure people felt cared for, connected into community and spiritually encouraged.”
Encounter Baptist did not just want to stream services on-line but are seeking to have their members actively engaged with others in the church as well as their neighbours around them.
Pastor David identified “The challenge is to not be in a holding pattern during this time, but to continue to see people actively encounter God, encourage each other and engage with the community and neighbourhood around them. This can be difficult with social distancing rules but with some creative thinking, it is not impossible.”
Encounter Baptist has placed every person connected with the church in a home church. The home churches have approximately 10-12 people in each group with leaders identified for each home church. On Sunday morning the church uses a Zoom webinar to provide 30-40 minutes of gathered time that includes worship, prayer, notices, a kids spot and a short reflection time. Following the gathered time, each home group is encourage to connect together through their own Zoom accounts for worship, bible study, prayer, sharing and support. Home churches shape this time depending on who is in their group. A major part of the ministry team’s time is now focused on supporting and resourcing the home church leaders.
The church also has online gatherings during the week in running parenting courses, praying together, training missional leaders and connecting kids and youth together.
“In the first chapters of Acts the church met in large groups in the temple courts and smaller groups in people’s homes. We see this season at Encounter, where our gathered Sunday option is on hold, as an opportunity to strength our ability to gather together in smaller groups. In our case this is through online home churches. We don’t just want our church to survive this time but we want our church to thrive. We have seen home churches draw in people who have not previously been part of church. It is exciting.”
Source: BUV News
"At the beginning of this year if someone had said that all church gatherings would be banned we would have thought our society had been overturned and the world was going mad. In the space of a month however, we have moved from concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic to being asked to remain at home with all gatherings of two or more people banned. This has thrown all of us into quick action to try and work out how to be church when we cannot gather." Pastor David Wanstall of Encounter Baptist Church said.
Encounter Baptist Church sits in the south-east suburb of Chadstone. It started six years ago as a church plant, looking to intentionally engage with discipleship and mission in the local community. Pastor David is the senior pastor of the church and describes how this church community has responded.
“We recognised quickly that as church we needed to develop light-weight ways to make sure people felt cared for, connected into community and spiritually encouraged.”
Encounter Baptist did not just want to stream services on-line but are seeking to have their members actively engaged with others in the church as well as their neighbours around them.
Pastor David identified “The challenge is to not be in a holding pattern during this time, but to continue to see people actively encounter God, encourage each other and engage with the community and neighbourhood around them. This can be difficult with social distancing rules but with some creative thinking, it is not impossible.”
Encounter Baptist has placed every person connected with the church in a home church. The home churches have approximately 10-12 people in each group with leaders identified for each home church. On Sunday morning the church uses a Zoom webinar to provide 30-40 minutes of gathered time that includes worship, prayer, notices, a kids spot and a short reflection time. Following the gathered time, each home group is encourage to connect together through their own Zoom accounts for worship, bible study, prayer, sharing and support. Home churches shape this time depending on who is in their group. A major part of the ministry team’s time is now focused on supporting and resourcing the home church leaders.
The church also has online gatherings during the week in running parenting courses, praying together, training missional leaders and connecting kids and youth together.
“In the first chapters of Acts the church met in large groups in the temple courts and smaller groups in people’s homes. We see this season at Encounter, where our gathered Sunday option is on hold, as an opportunity to strength our ability to gather together in smaller groups. In our case this is through online home churches. We don’t just want our church to survive this time but we want our church to thrive. We have seen home churches draw in people who have not previously been part of church. It is exciting.”