A Community for the Isolated
Face-to-face, face-to-face, that’s the way it’s always been.
The Cornerstone of Community
Every community, from familes to churches to gangs, has one thing in common — face-to-face interaction. We have all, as humans, agreed that this thing we crave, the connection to others we desire, can only effectively be achieved by physical means.
Yes, social media is popular. We can connect online in many ways and forms. There is a plethora of means of communication that exist now that people 100 years ago only dreamed of. But the beauty of connecting from afar, as rich and powerful as it is, does not hold a candle to the radiance of in-person interaction.
We all suffered when the coronavirus forced us into our homes and drove us away from crowds and groups. At first, social distancing demands didn’t seem to be taking much away from us, but we soon learned that the price of health we’d have to pay was high and would heavily impact our relationships with others.
How do we adapt to life apart from the routines and regulations that we’ve always known?
Change and Adaptation
In Vermont, on Friday, March 13th, we all received stay-at-home orders and a warning to not host gatherings of 10 or more people. I was on the phone with the pastor of New King Church that night, after a prayer meeting we had at the church that night before our Women’s Ministry Launch had been heavily under-attended.
We had to plan to cancel church on Sunday and jump to an online platform in under 24 hours. But worse, I had a Women’s Ministry (WM) launch event in even less time that I needed to seriously adjust. Not only the event, but the entire plan for my capstone project to launch a 6-week Bible study was on the line and under fire. When no one showed up to the prayer meeting, we knew that we weren’t just dealing with a virus or with government orders, we were dealing with fear.
When people are afraid to meet their own basic human need of socialization, things can go awry pretty fast. Since the church exists purely as a means to create community between believers, we knew our members were being challenged and it was up to us to keep them socially healthy.
On Saturday, we managed to get the word out to everyone that the entire WM launch would be live streamed via Facebook. I assembled my team of four Bible study leaders and we got to work to organize and produce the entire launch in three hours. However, the biggest problem still remained — what would the Bible studies look like online?
The idea of an online Bible study sounded awful. It’s hard enough to connect with people via FaceTime and engage in deep and thoughtful conversation, and to add other elements of reading, studying, and prayer seemed to complicate interactions even more. We all felt shaky about it but knew we had no other choice. I challenged my leaders to try out their groups online for at least two weeks, and if they were failing, we’d do our best to dig them a proper grave.
I decided to leave it up to each Bible study leader to figure out the specifics of their own groups dependent on the women who join them and their abilities to access online resources and platforms. However, I still had to implement general rules and strategies that would help guide the leaders and give them vision.
Every group needed to get on Zoom, Facebook Messenger, or Skype in order to function. Groups couldn’t have more than 5 women in them. It would be nearly impossible to hear from everyone equally in a reasonable amount of time. But, on the plus side, every group could invite women from outside of the Burlington, VT area to join.
During the first week of Bible studies, the leaders still felt unsure about what they were doing. We started that week with three studies. But as the reports from the three launched studies started to come in, our hopes began to rise.
Women were not only connecting and engaging with each other and with the Word, but were craving community more than they ever had. They began to realize their needs while in isolation, and looked desperately for ways they could connect with others and share this unique experience of ‘sheltering-in-place’ with others.
When we hit the second week of Bible studies, we had doubled our numbers to six different weekly studies. And after the third week, we have maintained a solid eight studies of 3–5 women each, who are joining us from all around the United States.
Our Values
Our success in jumpstarting these WM Bible studies, is not sheerly because of pandemic desperation. We had set up a good structure beforehand, with our values and mission set in stone, and the pandemic had only made people with the same values realize their own. They began to seek after community that complemented their beliefs and goals and they were able to find it in our ministry.
Jesus
Our highest value is Jesus. We are all about Jesus. He is the reason we do everything we do. You will hear us talk about Jesus, teach about Jesus, and sing songs about Jesus because it really is all about Jesus. A close friendship with him is our ultimate aim.
For the Women’s Ministry, we integrated this value by making our Bible studies revolve around Him. The six week study is meant to lead women on a path to meditating on Jesus and all His work for us.
Hospitality
“The church exists for those outside it.” It is so important that we show our love for Christ through our hospitable nature. We will diligently work to be a warm and welcoming community to our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.
We are integrating this value by initiating personal relationships with any woman who joins our study. Though it has been a stretch online, our Bible study leaders have worked tirelessly to maintain contacts with women and engage in real, genuine relationships with them — not because we have to, but because we truly care.
Depth
Depth of study produces depth of soul. There is no way to bypass the scriptures while growing in maturity as a disciple of Jesus. We value the Bible as the central piece to our spiritual formation.
We are integrating this value in our Bible studies by engaging in deep Scripture, conversation, and learning to obey and become a disciple of Christ. When women gather, conversation may become distracted and distorted, but with the Bible as our main centerpiece, we are set on keeping our minds and hearts focused on God and what He says to us.
Multiplication
Jesus spent the majority of his time in ministry pouring his life into a small group of disciples who would go and make disciples who make disciples. Within 100 years, the gospel of Jesus had turned the world upside down. At New King, we believe that the kingdom of God advances as we multiply ourselves through making disciples.
We are integrating this value by encouraging our Bible study members to multiply disciples and create their own Bible study groups. We already have three women who have committed to leading their own Bible studies after they finish the ones they are a part of now. We want to grow women who have a desire to pursue the kingdom of God and engage their family and friends in relationship with Him.
For The Future
No one knows when our society will return back to normality. We can predict all we want, but we can never truly know.
When it all clears, New King Church’s plan is to implement in-person women’s Bible studies. This, of course, was the original goal of the church and of my capstone project, but in our processes of adapting, we have learned something more than we thought we would.
Community is a rock. Those families, churches, gangs, and whatnot that rely on it so firmly are not threatened by pandemic. Yes, we NEED the face-to-face (that’s a biological and psychological fact), but in a more philosophical sense, we don’t need it. At all. Community will always find a way. Whether we’re face-to-face, or screen-to-screen, we will always stand arm-in-arm against any force that threatens the people and values that we hold dear.
