Make Use of This Time of Separation
Send an email to the members saying that during this shelter in place experience, you would like to share in a faith conversation about the church. Assure them that this is meant to be fun and is not intended to lead to any specific decisions. Also, tell them that any report back on people’s responses will be shared with the congregation without any names attached. Tell them that over the next five weeks, you will send a conversation starter and ask each member to hit reply and offer no more than a ten-sentence response.
First Email:
If God has provided us with the gifts for the upbuilding of the church, then what are those gifts as they are evident at your? Please reply with the five things that you would want to share with a church visitor about what this church has to offer. The statements can be about programs, people, what happens in worship, how people are cared for, etc.
Second Email:
If you think about it from God’s perspective, and as you look at the people God has gathered in this church, what might be one of God’s specific dreams for this church? What is it that God would like to happen in the next year? Don’t over-analyze your response, just hit reply and share your thoughts.
Third Email:
In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What is one commitment you would like to see your church make that might contribute to a world that more closely reflects God’s kingdom on earth?
Fourth Email:
If as Jesus said, the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples if we show love for one another (John 13:14-15), what is one act that your church could take that would demonstrate to the larger society how our love for other churches transcends any differences we might have?
Fifth Email:
If part of our church journey is to deepen our faith, what is one area of faith that you would personally like to develop? Are you willing to pray daily for the next four weeks that you might grow more faithful in this area?
Share Aggregated Responses with the Congregation
Find a volunteer to quickly put the different responses into a single document, then share it with the congregation each week and build interest in the discussion. You might send each collected document on Saturday and then send the next question on Sunday. This can encourage all of them to join in the conversation.
This idea is extracted from my soon to be published Clergy Spiritual Health.
