Information about Community Hubs is out of date as of 2pm 20th March 2020.
Please visit Government Health Updates for more information.
(Updated 4:45pm 20 March 2020).
Hi Project Church,
I wanted to get in touch with you all and let you know where things are up to with the Project Church and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The staff of the Project Church met yesterday for three hours to hammer out a way forward through this trouble.
We began by looking at 2 Chronicles 20:1-13 (read the whole chapter if you have time). This chapter describes the way King Jehoshaphat handled an intimidating problem – a great horde was coming to attack him and his people. His situation bears many of the similarities of ours as we wait for the virus to arrive with a mixture of fear and foreboding. Jehoshaphat’s response though, is counterintuitive. He gets afraid, but in the midst of it does something vastly different to what we are seeing. He slows down and turns to God. Fear tends to make us spin up and work harder in an effort to control the danger. The end result is we get busier not calmer, but Jehoshaphat doesn’t get busier, he slows down.
Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 2 Chronicles 20:3
Slowing down is counterintuitive.
If a big horde was about to attack you, the most logical thing would be to get your armaments ready, organise provisions and prepare defences. But not when you know God. When you know God, anxious toil (Psalm 127:2) is not logical, it is illogical. When you know God the most logical thing to do is stop, seek after God, see Him truly, and ask for His help. Slow down and give Him your full attention. When God’s people get afraid, they pray, that is what we do. We are children and we ask our big, loving Father to help.
Our view of God and our enemies are inversely proportional.
If we focus on our enemies God will appear small, but if we focus on God our enemies will return to their correct size. This is Jehoshaphat’s prayer:
And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, 6 and said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. 7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’
The staff prayed this way yesterday and we would invite you to join us in praying this in an ongoing way. We talked about practical realities, but we started here, and we invite you to also.
No one is sure how long this crisis will last for.
It is a fluid situation which changes rapidly. As I unpack a few structural realities concerning going forward, please bear in mind that they may need to be tweaked as necessary to fit the situation as it develops.
Please be aware there will be a significant change in the ‘means of grace’ (the pipelines which get God’s grace to you – public gathering, listening to scripture, community). If you don’t lean into God in this time your walk with Him will weaken at the very time you will need it to be strong. Technology provides the opportunity for you to continue to grow, but it will be up to you to engage.
1. Church services on Sunday morning.
In short, we are going old school – house to house. The Government this morning made it clear they do not want gatherings of more than 100 people in enclosed spaces going ahead. This Sunday we will be encouraging the church to gather together in community hubs to worship, pray and watch a live-streamed sermon preached by myself at one of the community hubs. We expect this structure to be ongoing until further notice. We will cap the number of people at these community hubs and will continue meeting in this format until we are advised otherwise. A list of community hubs for Sunday morning will be sent out to you by Friday afternoon. As always, please stay home if you feel unwell for any reason.
2. Spiritual growth.
This is the time you and God need to be close. In order to support this, the pastors of the Project Church will be recording and distributing regular short videos containing biblical encouragement relevant to the present situation. Please avail yourself of these. We also will be looking to organise some regular webinars which you will be able to join where we will gather, discuss and pray together.
3. Pastoral Care.
If you are in need of pastoral support for any reason, please contact one of the pastors or the church office on 0499 071 387. The pastors of the Project are keen to do whatever they can to help out. Where we can be there physically, we will be, when we can’t, we will endeavour to contact you by the most personal means possible.
4. The community.
Please reach out to your community around you and offer them your help. You could do this by praying for them personally, offering to help with groceries, offering to share some of yours, giving them your contact details so they can call you if they need some help. In addition, if you encounter anyone who you think would benefit from some counselling please refer them to Sue or myself. We would love to help them at no cost as an expression of the care offered by the church to the broader community. In addition, if there are practical needs in the community we can help to meet, please let us know.
(Helpful links: I need help & I can help).
This is our time.
Remember that we were made for community and relationship. We will not do well apart from each other. Lean in.
Praying for you,
Peter Sondergeld
Lead Pastor
The Project Church
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