[Bonus Episode] Coronavirus

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:00

I want to welcome you a special edition of the unfiltered podcast. My name is Lee Stevenson.

I have the joy of being executive director of church planting with Converge and then also a local church planter in the Orlando area.

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:21

And I'm Danny Parmelee and I oversee church planting for Converge Mid America.

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:26

And we're calling this special edition the COVID 19, aka the coronavirus edition.

And there is no doubt that what has taken place in the last week, I think all of us can agree, will change the landscape of the local church and how churches operate.

And so Danny and I are just going to take some time and I don't know how else to describe it, but just spitball of what we're seeing and some ideas to help church planters and to think through ministry.

Danny, one of the things that's, I think is a good thing that's come out of this is it's, it's caused local church leadership to realize that leading the local church isn't something that just happens on the weekend, but it's something that needs to take place throughout the entire week. Why don't you speak a little bit to what you're seeing and how, how church planters need to think about church at this point?

Danny Parmelee: 00:01:21

Yeah, well, certainly even as some of this stuff started to unravel and you know, there was restrictions on how many people could gather, I started texting the church planner saying, I am so thankful that I don't have your job right now.

Like, I, I, I'm not actively planting a church, so I can't even imagine what it's like to be all sudden have the carpet ripped out from underneath you. So I was hearing definitely a good amount of fear and even just fear myself for them.

But one of the things that I just have been trying to encourage our church planters is not just think short sighted, how do I reproduce my Sunday service online, but instead to ask the bigger question, how do I do evangelism and discipleship? How do we operate as a church and so to even use it as an opportunity to be innovative.

I think that this is a time for the church and for church planners to be able to explore and to experiment because the gospel hasn't changed just how we operate as a church in evangelism and discipleship that definitely in these times has fundamentally changed, but probably will have a long lasting impact.

Lee Stephenson: 00:02:38

Well, let's, let's just talk a little bit about some of the resources to think through the different aspects of what a church can do, both from a service side of things, but also the, the midweek engagement, you know, making sure that community stays viable, doing discipleship, evangelism. What are some of the online streaming options that you've seen churches lean towards? What do you see as strengths, weaknesses?

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:05

Yeah, well, for sure. As was kind of, kind of evidenced this past weekend, Facebook Live was kind of the go to and probably just because the simplicity of it.

I mean, if you had an iPhone, you could do your service, set it up in your living room or go to the church without anybody there and light it up. Now, the problem with that is I don't think that Facebook was anticipating every church in the world using it. So it crashed.

And I think the Same happened with YouTube and a couple other platforms as well.

I would even take it a couple steps back and to say, from a technology standpoint, this is your time to use your phone to call, text, like, pastor your people during this time. So before you even just think of jumping right away, okay, how do I get the service up online?

This is your time to go back to the basics and be checking in with people, you know, pastoring people. Not, you know, not. Not just in the gathering sense, but how you're able to. How you're able to do that. So.

Lee Stephenson: 00:04:04

Yeah, absolutely.

And if you can, if just talking about the weekend experience, no matter what platform you use, if it's life church, you know, online platform that they've created to Facebook Live, I'd encourage you to find a way to have a host that interacts with people so that there's a relational connection that's taking place even during the service time and make sure that you're giving them specific directions during that about how to. People can stay engaged midweek and even new opportunities because of the lockdown situation for people to be able to engage.

Danny Parmelee: 00:04:43

Yeah, absolutely. One of the churches that I. That's the fun thing is that, you know, I was able to visit about 10 churches this past Sunday.

Don't always get the opportunity to do that. Exactly.

But City Church, Salt county, which is in Little Rock, they did a great job because they did exactly that where they had essentially a producer who was the person who was kind of fielding some of the questions while, while Pastor Josh Robertson was able to teach and he was just whiteboarding it and it was live. And so the, the production as far as lights and audio and all that was low. But it was still, you know, still clear picture, clear audio.

But the interaction that happened with the teaching and asking questions, I thought was just off the charts. It was awesome. Did a Great job. We had a couple of our other churches that did kind of a similar format and to me, that was really, really great.

They just did a great job.

Lee Stephenson: 00:05:48

Super, super. What are you seeing?

I mean, I'll talk about some of the creative things I've seen churches do to help engage their community, think through evangelism, side of point.

And honestly, this excites me because I there's no doubt God is working, the church will be different and it is forcing us to think through why do we do what we do.

But I've seen churches offer kind of Q and A times where they've interviewed local doctors and say, help us understand what is, how to make sense of this from a layman's person, you know, side of things when it comes to understanding. COVID 19 I think that's a great relational engagement to be able to do with your community.

I saw another church that did an interview with financial planners and just what does this mean for your investments? And just trying to get some practical resources out there. What about.

I've seen churches use Zoom and thinking about this may be our opportunity to actually double community group participation because people are so tired of being locked down in their home that they're craving relational time. And so they're starting community groups using zoom as an interactive platform for people to get together.

Danny Parmelee: 00:06:59

So, Lee, I'm so curious as a church planner, walk me through a little bit what it was like for you.

Just some of the different emotions and stuff that you processed or if you thought, oh, no big deal, this is going to be a short thing and kind of how it gradually grew.

Lee Stephenson: 00:07:14

Yeah, great question. I think at first there was an element kind of going. I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal.

I think the media is kind of overplaying this and it'll just be something that passes by and be a blip on the radar.

And then about midweek last week, I think is when it really began to realize, like now this is a big deal and we need to get be proactive and ahead of the curve on this. Some of this.

It was beneficial for us that a month prior we were actually laying out a unique digital strategy of thinking through how can we use digital platforms and virtual gatherings to not just supplement, but add a whole nother layer to our ministry.

And so I felt like when this hit, it just pushed us that much faster to actually pulling the trigger on things that we were already working on anyways. But it, you know, immediately online communication, how we use social media, went to the forefront and what was helpful.

And I would encourage planters and pastors to think through this. We had already scripted out a social media calendar when this hit.

Then all we had to do was kind of take a look at this and make some tweaks to make it fit the conversation of what needed to take place now.

And so that really accelerated and then that gave us the forethought to make sure that we weren't overly bombarding people, but that we were communicating effectively and being able to script all that.

So we use hootsuite to actually lay everything out and we're doing it a week in advance at this point with what we believe are the key messages and when those need to go out. And so I would highly encourage church planners like really don't just post when your gut tells you to post.

Actually sit down and begin to create a social media calendar that you can operate the platform from.

Danny Parmelee: 00:09:18

That's great. What do you think are going to be some of the big issues that planters and pastors need to just kind of be looking for?

So instead of just being reactive, being, yeah, kind of thinking ahead of what are going to be some of the big fallout issues, so to speak.

Lee Stephenson: 00:09:36

Pastoral care is going to be huge right now. So you just got to figure out ways to stay connected to your people.

So one things that we're implementing is we, we're doing a daily devotional and I would say, I would call it more testimonial devotional that we're asking key leaders in the church just to record a quick 5 minute testimonial devotional thought wherever they're at.

And we post one of those every morning at 6am and that people have the opportunity to either register for online text, that they get it delivered through text message or email, or just want it through social media. And so we give people the option with that.

So I think that's a major, you know, just think through how are we making sure we're connecting, doing pastoral care, encouraging people. I think giving is going to be a huge thing.

I think churches need to have a 90 day strategy right now minimum of if this was to drag out for three months, what do we need to do different? And already begin to think through my budget. What are things I need to cut back on?

Engage your community, really help them set up online giving text to give those type of things.

If those aren't already at play in the life of the church, then the other thing I think is something we've got to be watchful of is I think there's going to be a rise in mental illness over the next three to six months, particularly two areas. I think one, families being locked up together for extended amounts of time.

I think we're going to see a rise of abuse and the fallout of what that can create. I think the second one is grief.

I mean, we have no ability to even calculate the economic loss of people that are losing jobs, especially hard here in Orlando, where the major part of the economy in Orlando is hospitality driven. They're immediately without a job.

And, and so that is going to have repercussions and personal grief that people are going to have to walk through, let alone just the financial implications that that may have to the local church.

Danny Parmelee: 00:11:49

Yeah. Wow, that's crazy times. I just, it's making me pray for pastors and church planners more and more.

And yeah, I'm, I, like I said earlier, I'm, I'm thankful I don't, I don't have your lead role right now.

Lee Stephenson: 00:12:02

Yeah. Yeah. I do think this is another one of those important reminders.

This is why it's important to be a part of a tribe as well, is who do you have as a local pastor to be able to lean on, share ideas, resources with. And I think it's important to be part of a denominational network for when these type of things land.

So for those that need some resources, there are a lot of places. A couple things I'd encourage you do, whether or not you're a Converge church or not.

You can simply go to the converge website@converge.org coronavirus and there's a landing page there and list all the different resources and opportunities out there to be able to strengthen your church from a digital and virtual world. And I highly encourage you to check out that. Thanks so much for being with us, everyone.

This has been the unfiltered podcast special edition Coronavirus. And until next time, keep it real.