Reflections: After the “Storm” COMING OFF THE HEELS OF CBFNC’S 20th ANNIVERSARY in 2014, a discernment process conducted by the Coordinating Council in 2015-2016 resulted in new ministry priorities, all of which start with the letter “E”: • Equip Ministers and Churches • Embrace Neighbors • Engage Students and Young Adults As we have lived into these priorities, a fourth “E” has emerged, “Enhancing Fellowship,” which relates to identity, community and partnership. In our upcoming issues of The Gathering, we will focus on these priorities, beginning in this issue with “Equip.”
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n 2016, Southeastern North Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Matthew and its resulting floods. Two years later in 2018 an even larger area was severely impacted by Hurricane Florence. While much of life has returned to normal in those areas, the effects of these major storms still linger and some of the impacted communities will never be the same. As I write this article in April, our churches, our fellowship, our nation and our world find ourselves in the midst of another kind of “storm” – the COVID-19 Coronavirus. How are we dealing with this storm? What will life be like after it is behind us? One of CBFNC’s ministry priorities is Equipping Ministers and Churches. We describe this task as follows: CBFNC supports and strengthens ministry leaders and the churches they serve. The primary ways we have sought to do that have revolved around Church Resources, Ministerial Resources and Ministerial Transitions. How has the current COVID-19 storm affected these equipping ministries? Fortunately, we are also guided by strong core values, including flexibility, which we describe in this way: We aim to be adaptable, responsive and relevant so that we may act quickly and effectively as new needs and ministry opportunities arise. For CBFNC, the COVID-19 storm began when we made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Annual Gathering (shortly before cancellations of other aspects of society became widespread). We viewed the Annual Gathering, especially its workshops, as a primary avenue of equipping ministry leaders. In fact, historically, many of our equipping ministries have taken place in face-toface settings. Our ministry priority of Equipping Ministers and Churches has not changed, but the delivery system for
by Larry Hovis CBFNC Executive Coordinator
doing that has changed significantly. Since this crisis began, we have focused our energies on equipping churches as they seek to continue their ministries. These efforts have centered around four areas: ONLINE RESOURCES—We established a Coronavirus Resources landing page on our website, cbfnc.org, that contains relevant resources from a variety of sources – governmental agencies, ministry partners, churches, and our own staff, to name a few. We are continuously collecting, reviewing, curating and producing relevant resources to help churches and their leaders figure out how to keep their ministries going while physically separated. We also offered churches without an online giving platform the option to process gifts from their congregations through CBFNC’s online giving platform. VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLES AND WEBINARS We are convening groups of people, primarily on Zoom, to share ideas on particular topics ranging from worship to childcare. These virtual gatherings not only provide relevant, helpful information, but also build community in this season of separation. INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS AND ASSISTANCE Our staff is also spending a lot of time on our telephones, consulting with pastors, associate ministers and other church leaders to offer advice and support for the challenges they are facing. GRANTS—We are offering a variety of grants to congregations so they can maintain, and even expand their ministries during this time. These grants include local missions, hunger ministries and technology enhancement. ROBUST COMMUNICATION—In order to facilitate all of these resources, we strive to communicate regularly and clearly through a limited set of platforms that are available to most of our fellowship, including our newly re-vamped website, a special e-newsletter, social media such as Facebook, Zoom, and of course that old-fashioned technology, the telephone! I am proud of CBFNC – our staff, our churches, their leaders and our partners. Through this season, we have shown that even though we can’t know exactly where things are headed, we have been nimble and flexible, faithful and effective, all of which will help us better Equip Ministers and Churches in following God in mission to the world. Summer 2020
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