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Ministry in the Middle of a Pandemic

Hey friends,

What a wild month. I've no doubt you feel similarly. The types of situations we have going on are unprecedented for at least the past many decades. I wanted to give you guys a quick hello and insight into how ministry has been looking the past few weeks. In a lot of ways, everything is the same, just online or over the phone instead of in person. I'm thankful that the bulk of our time before all of this was focused on ministry at a 1-1 level, so that is something we're still able to do albeit in the virtual format. So my days look similar, but instead of driving time I now have more time for learning and continued education in ministry, which is actually a huge blessing. For some official insight though, here's a letter from our director, Brandon, on how we're responding to all of this as a ministry.

A Letter From Our Director On COVID-19


To the FOCUS Community:

I want to update you on how FOCUS is responding to COVID-19, especially in light of so many of our campuses extending spring break and moving to online instruction only afterward. As a community, we need to be praying diligently for our world during this concerning time. We don’t need to panic, because we know our hope is secure in Christ, but we do need to take action in order to love our neighbors well. Those actions may be personally inconvenient, uncomfortable, and/or expensive. The situation is evolving daily, and spring break has disrupted our normal schedules and access to one another, so we will hopefully have more definite plans in the coming 2 weeks, but here are the actions we are currently taking/considering:
  • The 3 SSI trips from Washington State that were scheduled to arrive on March 22 are cancelled.
  • Pizza Theology will not happen in its normal format on March 29, but we are considering our options for livestreaming a special teaching time, so stay tuned!
  • After tonight, we are cancelling our weekly large group fellowships (TNF, TNT, FNF) on our various campuses. We will be following the various policies on each campus to determine how long that will be in effect. We are also considering livestreamed weekly services to replace these. 
  • One-on-ones and FOJ studies will continue as planned, moving to phone or video calls depending on the health and comfort levels of the students and pastors involved.
  • For cores and other small groups, we are working with student life offices to determine what policies may affect those. We will not stop small groups of adults from gathering together, but we are also working on developing a video conferencing option. We will certainly encourage all sick or exposed students to stay away from others.
  • Leader development meetings on Monday nights will move to small groups led by a pastor, whether in-person or virtual.
Thanks for being gracious and flexible. We as a team of pastors are committed to providing pastoral care to the students in our community and beyond.

For the kingdom,
Brandon Worsham

In essence while our big group events have had to either be cancelled or change a lot, the basics of the ministry are still able to continue thank God!

Here's our Denton Staff meeting now. 


The good news in this time is that God is still working! This situation may be difficult and a new kind of challenge, but I've been spending time reflecting on God's goodness in the midst of this, and I encourage you to do the same. Thanks for reading, and stay healthy!

Ryan


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