With a brand new week, fresh on the heels of our first Church@Home Online Worship Experience, we again find ourselves facing new, unique and very trying circumstances after last night’s Presidential address. With our nation plunged into twenty one days of lock-down from this Thursday at midnight in an attempt to flatten the curve and the spread of the Corona Virus, we want to continue to play our part by moving all our church gatherings (Sunday services, life-groups, Watch Groups etc) and connection points online! But as we continue to say again and again, our God is not taken by surprise or stressed by this situation and will “turn this around for good!”
John.10:10 says,
“the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy BUT Jesus came to bring life and life to the full!” (our emphasis added)
This promise from the unchanging Word of God does not exclude any situation or circumstance. Jesus brings life and life in abundance – full stop! We can trust Him with our health. We can trust Him with our emotions. We can trust Him with our kids and family. We can trust Him with our finances and our businesses.
We can trust Him!
To help keep us pressing into Jesus and His Word at this time, as well as knitted into church life and community, we will be putting out daily online content. If you aren’t following us on our various social media platforms yet, we encourage you to definitely do so for this season ahead.
Here are four big ways for you to plug-in at this time:
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CONNECT
We believe that we were made for community and are not meant to do life alone. It’s at this time that this truth will be needed more than ever.
Although we can’t gather in person for the next few weeks, we are working hard at ways to keep having connection moments for us as a church family, in big groups as well as in smaller ones.
a. Sundays
Connect with us for us on Sundays on https://lifechangerschurch.online.church/ at 9am and 5pm where you can engage with our services at the same time as others.
While you watch you can ask for and receive prayer, connect with others who are watching online as well as encouraging any others who may need your presence and encouragement at that time.
But what is also going to be quite fun, is to connect via the live link on https://lifechangerschurch.online.church/ at 8:30am and 4:30pm before the two services where one of our pastors will be live online connecting and getting everyone ready for powerful services. These will serve in a small way like our huddles or pre-service coffee times, so grab a cup of coffee at home, get the family ready and join us online for a bit of fun, humour, Q and A and faith building before the services kick off!
b. Life Group Live
We wholeheartedly believe that life change happens in the context of community. As a result, we have prepared an alternative way for life-groups and serving teams to meet online.
We are excited that this alternative way of meeting together still allows people to still engage in biblical conversation and community- right from our own homes.
How incredible that in 2020, technology has allowed us to “not give up on being and meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25).
The platform we will be using to meet online is called Zoom – a free virtual meeting platform that allows anyone, anywhere to meet online with up to 100 people for 40 minutes. Zoom is an app that can be downloaded for free on any smart-phone device or computer. We know that meeting online can create some hurdles, so we have tried our best to create some tutorial videos to support you.
In the course of the next week, if you’re already in a life-group or serving team, your respective leader will be in contact with you to set up a group connect via Zoom. If you are not a part of a life-group and are wanting to take this opportunity to take that next step, you can sign up for one here http://lifechangers.org.za and our team will facilitate you into one of many new groups that are launching at this time.
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WATCH
a. Online Service
If you missed out on this last week Sunday Church@Home service or just want to watch it again, catch up with it here: http://www.lifechangers.org.za/
Each week a new service (full of worship, prayer and the preaching of the Word) will be uploaded onto our website, youtube channel and facebook, and will be left online for the following week.
We’d love for you to be sharing the service on social media, inviting friends and family (especially those who would normally not go to church) to watch along with you in their own homes online. We truly believe that this is the time that we will see miracles of people coming to faith in Jesus like never before!
b. Podcast Series
Gabe and Mark have been recording short podcast conversations that will be on our social media platforms in video and audio format over the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for these and share them with your world. The podcasts are called LIFE CHATS and attempt at answering questions people have been asking around parenting, loneliness, spirituality, business, financial pressure and the Christian response to the corona virus, and we believe it will be helpful, entertaining and encouraging in these crazy times we are living.
c. Daily Devotionals
There will also be short two minute videos from our various pastors with daily devotional encouragement that will be on our social media platforms that we believe will help start our days off with the right focus and heart in mind.
d. Bible College
If you were not able to attend any of our Bible College Terms from the past year, use some of your newly found spare time to dig into the Word with one of our courses found at this link: http://www.lifechangers.org.za/bible_college/
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READ
a. Blog
Check out our blog site http://blog.lifechangers.org.za/ where we are publishing a variety of articles, insights and helpful thoughts for you to engage with at this time.
b. Reading Plans
Download our Life Changers App (for free on any mobile App Store), click on Reading Plans and start our Faith Over Fear reading plan. A new one will be uploaded every morning.
The Reading Plan includes a devotional thought, scriptures to read and prayers to pray, as we navigate our hearts to combat our fear with faith!
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GIVE
If you are wanting to give of your regular tithes and offerings, we would love to point you to http://www.lifechangers.org.za/give-online/ where you can give via Snapscan or via our EFT banking details.
We want to encourage you not to step back in fear in this respect at this time. We give not because of our circumstances or because it’s easy to do so, but rather because we have seen a faithful God who is our true source of provision. Keep giving in response to God, with faith in your heart and also with courage knowing that as we give, we can serve our city and the vulnerable in our midst even more!
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SERVE
We really believe that this is not a time to shrink back but to rather continue to step out and serve our city like we always do. Why not make the decision to actively step into the role of PARTICIPATOR in what God is doing through our church at this time, and not just a spectator. Below are some ways you can actively start to do that:
a. Pray
Join us to pray for our online services every Sunday live online before the services at 8:30am and 4:30pm, as well as special prayer moments we will let you know about that will happen via the Zoom App.
You can also join our staff and leadership team in taking 10 minutes every morning at 8:30am to pray on your own for our nation’s safety, wisdom for our government, protection and health for our church family, and for God to bring about miracles during this time.
b. Invite
Make a decision to personally invite at least one person to watch our online service each week with you. People are more open to engage with church at this time than ever before:
a. They have nowhere else to go
b. They will be bored and desperate for a connection point
c. They will be searching for hope and life at a time of fear, confusion and isolation
Here’s a three step process to go about it:
i. Pray for God to lay someone specific on your heart who doesn’t know Christ, or who doesn’t normally go to church
ii. Give that person a phone call or a whatsapp message a couple days before Sunday and tell them to watch with you at whatever time you are watching. You can send a message like this one here:
(“Hi ________, how are you doing in this crazy time? Just have been thinking of you and wanted to know if you were keen to watch our church’s online service with me this Sunday? I’ll be watching at 9am and if you click on this link at that time http://lifechangerschurch.online.church/ we can watch together! The services are only an hour in length but I know that we will get the hope and courage we need at this time! Let me know if you’re keen. It’s going to be fun! Love _______”)
iii. Send them a reminder at least 15 minutes before you watch on the Sunday, reminding them to tune in!
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c. Share
We’d love to ask you to share and comment on our social media posts as much as you can at this time, as we know that with each share and like, we get to reach all the friends and family who are connected with you with the hope of Jesus at this time.
d. Encourage
The bible calls all of us to “mutually build one another up in love”, so why don’t you make a decision to take at least 15 minutes everyday to phone, message or video call at least TWO people in the life of our church with the sole purpose of encouraging one another. If each of us pick up this mandate, we believe that we can become even closer in relationship as a church!
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Life Changers family, we love you deeply and are praying for you non-stop. We are truly convinced that these days are opportunities for God to do incredible things in our hearts and lives. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need any prayer, encouragement or assistance at this time. If you have any ideas, questions or testimonies, please also let us know!
God bless!
Love,
Gabe and Fi Phillips (on behalf of the Life Changers leadership team)