“What you’re doing is restoring my faith in the Church.” That is part of a message I received last week from someone in my community whom I have been praying to receive Christ for the past five years.
How we respond in times of crisis is hugely important. Will we focus on ourselves or our little group, or will we boldly step out in faith? Will we get caught up in the inefficient practices of church bureaucracy, or will we seek permission to be nimble and jump quickly into the needs we see around us?
In Pincher Creek, my wife and I have determined to step into whatever we can to love our community and to lead our church to do the same. Here are three things we have done to respond during the COVID-19 pandemic:
1. Free Grocery Delivery Service
Grocery delivery is straightforward on the surface. We have offered to shop for and deliver groceries for anyone who is at-risk or self-isolating in our community. Now we’re trusting God as we work out the logistical details on a week-by-week basis.
Here are the keys for this being impactful in Pincher Creek:
Respond first: We saw a need, we prayed about it, and we put the word out. After a while, other people also began offering to deliver groceries, but our community now recognizes us as the main compassion-drivers in our community.
Get good graphics: We designed a simple, attractive, but informative graphic for social media and advertising mediums. If you have not already, create a free account on canva.com and apply for their free, non-profit premium account. You can quickly design amazing looking graphics without much design know-how.
Put the word out (everywhere): Tell your town/city/neighborhood office what you offer and give them your graphic. Get the local Chamber of Commerce to share, connect with the papers, put your advertisement in all your local buy/sell groups on Facebook, boost your post, connect with local radio, encourage congregants to share on social, text, and phone.
Connect with Emergency Services: We are now partnered with our community’s emergency services hotline to be available for anyone needing deliveries, counseling, or prayer.
2. Show you care and mobilize a community.
We recorded a short video complete with a transcript in the description and subtitles (easy and free to do on Facebook) sharing a need in our business community and encouraging folks to support local small businesses – their neighbors! – by purchasing a $10 gift card to use later from their ten favorite businesses. We then did many of the same things to get the word out that I shared above. This has been our most-viewed, most-shared post of all-time for our church.
3. Be helpful and positive on social media and resource others to do the same
Now is not the time to politicize, criticize, or theorize. It is time to build others up and share the love and hope of Jesus!
How we respond in a crisis will look different for each of us in each of our communities, but I believe two things are critical no matter your context: be constant in prayer and do not drag your feet!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Guest Blog by Stephen Valcourt. Stephen is a husband, a father of four, a graduate student at Fuller Seminary, and pastor of a small, rural church in Pincher Creek. He loves technology and all things outdoors. He believes Jesus can profoundly use all churches: no matter their size.