You may not always think of yourself as a “people person,” but when normal opportunities to meet with others are taken away, you can quickly become aware of how important friendships and connections are to you. The words you are reading are being written at the time of the coronavirus outbreak that extended from Asia in late 2019 and have radically affected ways of life around the world during the first quarter of 2020. Such widespread shutdowns are unusual, and yet you and your Links Fellowship (or other small groups) may find yourself cut off from one another for more localized reasons. In 2018, my own cancer treatments overlapped with the renovation of the clubhouse where we had a regular Fellowship for men and women, and we were unable to meet for much of the year.
At such times, what can you do? Here’s a short but important list of things to keep in mind:
Avoid a persecuted mindset
When secular groups are required to adjust, they circle their wagons, find an alternative plan, then set back out on the road. But when Christian groups are put out, as they expression goes, we too often wring our hands and suggest that the powers at work are trying to shut us down.
Be careful to assess your situation circumspectly. It’s unlikely that you are being singled out. Though churches are being asked to stop meeting at the time of the coronavirus because they bring too many people together in one place, so are entertainment and sporting events, schools, and other gatherings being suspended. At a different time, it could be possible your Christian group is being dismissed because it is Christian or holds to particular biblical standards. This may be closer to true persecution, but it probably only means adjustment for your group. There will be other meeting place times and options available to you. Cries of “Persecution!” or defiance may be how our flesh wants to respond initially, but the world is looking on. Resilience and perseverance are admirable characteristics demonstrating our faith in God to bring us through, and they should guide our actions. Links Players president Jeffrey Cranford once coached a Fellowship through a time of targeted shutdown by encouraging them toward and gracious and prayerful response; the positive long-term results remain a lasting testimony today.
Pray broadly and specifically
The circumstances that keep us from meeting can give us reason to pray together. In the same way we pray for individual miracles when a friend receives a life-threatening diagnosis, we can pray for broad miracles, even asking that a pandemic be arrested in its tracks. If a club’s board has changed its policies and driven your Fellowship from your on-site meeting place, pray that board members be moved to change their minds or that a new board would open the door again.
Remember, too, that your group is often held together by the individual prayers you pray for one another. If you can’t meet at all, as a Fellowship leader, don’t slow down in gathering and disseminating your people’s prayer requests. Send a weekly email asking for requests from your group’s members, then send those requests out in a list on the day you would normally meet. You may even do this in the hour ahead of your usual meeting time, then hold a call-in prayer meeting in lieu of your typical study.
Pick up the phone
Now that we’ve started down the path of communication, let’s keep on it for a minute. There was a time when people used their phones to talk to each other! Whether or not you now think of this as “old school,” the phone can be a key tool in disconnected times, especially if you are Links Fellowship or small group leader. Your people show up for your meetings each week because they want to connect with you and with one another. If your group is a small enough size (8-10), you should commit to checking in with each person by phone each week. If it’s bigger, you can employ a partner in this phone ministry, or you can split your list in half and call every other week. Additionally, you should encourage each person to call at least one other during the week.
Your calls don’t have to be long, but they should be purposeful. Maybe share a passage of Scripture that has been meaningful to you in recent days. You can even say, “Here’s a verse I’m sharing with everyone in the group this week.” Then ask if there is a prayer request or practical need the person has. Finally, if you have the time, ask the person to share a little story from their week with you. This will allow them to connect as a friend.
You may find that your Fellowship is interested in meeting via conference call or video call. Not everyone will feel competent with the technology, and you don’t want these people to consider themselves left out, but if you can coach everyone along, this may be a way for your group to stay connected. Some popular platforms for such group connections are: Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Free Conference Call.
Share good content
Maybe once or twice during the week, use email to share some meaningful content with your group. That is, send them the link to an article or video that will keep them connected to the foundations of the faith. Avoid quippy or politically-charged content—we all get plenty of that. In times of crisis, weed out articles that either dismiss the problem or engage in fear-mongering. Instead, share things that are valuable in edifying one another, especially when it comes to one’s relationship with Jesus. Here are some helpful online resources for finding such articles: desiringgod.org, challies.com, and gospelcoalition.org. Of course, nothing replaces Scripture reading, so you might also encourage your group to read together, with you designating a particular chapter each day. When people can’t be together, the sense that they are “on the same page” can be encouraging.