A pastor friend was telling me about a discussion among fellow pastors about COVID-19. Specifically, in military terms, what was degraded, what was disrupted, what was destroyed? For example, the Sunday gathering has certainly been disrupted. Has it been destroyed? Will we ever go back to “the way it was”?

Some people think that meetings have been degraded. I have not found that to be the case. Some of the best meetings I’ve had, ever, have been by Zoom or FaceTime, maybe because we’ve not been distracted.

Which brings me to today’s blog. Can we think about how COVID-19 adjustments have actually enhanced our ministry? I’ve already written about post-worship-service conversations in our church that wouldn’t have happened with “business as usual.”

And last week I heard from my Navigator friend Randy Raysbrook telling about a summer program originally scheduled for Colorado Springs. Please listen in on this encouraging story:

Every year we invite select university students from all of the world to come to Colorado Springs to learn how to study the Bible deeply, share their faith naturally, and love authentically. We give them practical tools so they can pass on to others what they have learned. That way the kingdom flows like a river into families, tribes, neighborhoods, and nations. After much planning, just before the students were to arrive in Colorado Springs, the COVID virus beat them here and the program had to be closed down.

But people prayed, God worked, and creative minds used their imaginations…In no time at all, a new program was created that was even better than the original one. We are just now finishing up our first week of the summer with 52 people from 20 countries, representing 25 ethnicities in 11 time zones. Using new technologies we are all interconnected 24 hours a day and can talk, send photos, discuss our Bible studies, and pray together. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see a Nepalese business major have the opportunity to chat with someone in Norway. A woman from Cameroon living in Russia can share what she is learning about practicing the presence of God with an American staff in Iowa…The nature of the program draws young men and women who are hungry learners with servants’ hearts. Most of these students will remain in their own countries to become salt and light to the next generation…

Many thought the COVID virus would be nothing but a problem. Our problem became God’s opportunity. We just wanted you to know He is alive and well. – Randy and Marilyn Raysbrook, June 2020 (emphasis mine)

Adapting our approach and succeeding despite obstacles is not new. Here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote:

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1.12 – 14, NIV)