Resources for Congregations during the Pandemic

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Worship

Music in churches - Chorus America (the future of singing - soloists, congregational, etc.)

Public Worship: Theological and Practical Considerations - PCUSA

Scattered Church - includes reflections and practical resources for the scattered church.

Baptism and Ordination in a time of Pandemic (PCUSA)

Guidance on how to lead a worship service using Zoom can be found here: Zoom Worship Preparation

Interested in live-streaming worship? Here's one congregation's story: Creating Live-streamed Worship

Consider other times and other forms for worship. Scipioville is offering Compline services Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Not familiar with Compline? This beautiful children's book is a lovely introduction to this prayer (offered in the Episcopal tradition)

Skitguys offer creative videos for online worship. Great discussion starters!

Videos for worship are available for a small yearly fee at Work of the People.

Pastoral Care

Those in social isolation need pastoral care and fellowship. Consider the following options:

Send out the bulletin (either snail mail or email) each Sunday with notes from members

Set up a daily conference call or zoom meeting for prayer and checking in.

Create a prayer chain that has those who are isolated calling each other on a daily basis for prayer and check-in, as well as activating your Deacons and others to reach out on a daily basis

Set up an online games group in your congregation (such as Words with Friends, etc.) and publish the winners each week on your Facebook or Webpage.

Ask members to share their story of how they came to your church on your Facebook page. For those who aren't online savvy, ask those who are to interview those members and share the stories.

If you don't have a Facebook presence... now is the time to consider this platform for its ease of use and its ability to connect folks.

Use a conference call for the choir. It may be difficult to work through complicated pieces but it is fun for a hymn sing.

The Book of Common Worship has been edited to include services that can occur when family cannot gather: Prayer at the Time of Death and Comforting the Bereaved.

Spiritual Formation

There are a growing number of materials for online faith formation. Please curate your education materials carefully. There are some really good reformed materials out there... and some that are theologically challenged.

Start here: Taking Faith Formation Online.

Also Building Blocks. Check out the at home section in particular.

Here's a great article Caring for One Another: Care, Share, Play, Love with ideas for making the most of this surreal time.

Check out resources for children at www.illustratedministry.com; visual resources at sanctifiedart.org (wonderful for worship!). Looking for videos… check out https://www.worshiphousemedia.com/producers/423/salt-project.

Can you require vaccinations of staff members? Legal counsel from PCUSA

How often to disinfect Bibles, Hymnals, etc. - oriented toward libraries and museums, but could be adapted for church use.

The offering can be collected via mail.... as well as via a mobile app. To sign up for the latter, consider using the platform provided by the Presbyterian Foundation. Information can be found here: Foundation A video about this can be found by clicking HERE.