Reimagining mission

Secretary for Mission Lieut-Colonel Drew McCombe highlights resources to help corps develop new forms of ministry

THERE are great demands on people at the front line as they reimagine their mission and offer pastoral care and support in their communities. The Mission Service is able to offer guidelines and resources to enable them.

CORPS-BASED TELEPHONE CARE

Older People’s Services and Community Services have collaborated to produce guidelines for making telephone care calls to those who are part of a corps or community programme. This ministry can benefit people in their later years, people with disabilities and younger people who are isolated and lonely.

Many corps and centres are doing everything they can to keep connected and providing pastoral support via the telephone. Here are some helpful boundaries regarding what we should and should not do when calling during the coronavirus outbreak:

We can

* Provide telephone calls on a regular basis

*Offer a listening ear

*Be a contact for someone who has any unmet needs or concerns about their well-being

*Support one another when we have difficult conversations

*Look out for ways to help people in the corps and within our communities

*Pray for and with the person we call

We cannot

*Visit people at home until the coronavirus threat has come to an end

*Offer a professional counselling support service. If someone needs further help they can be signposted to other services

*Take out money from anyone else’s bank account

We must

*Maintain and promote government guidelines at all times

MUSIC AND CREATIVE ARTS (MACA)

The Maca Unit is continuing to provide resources and helpful worship tools. The Music and Creative Arts Facebook page (facebook.com/musicandcreativearts) provides a weekly programme of tools and resources.

On Mondays there is a new resource called Reflect – a devotional series that uses video and art to help people engage in meaningful worship.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Dancefit FM Live is led by Assistant Director of Music and Creative Arts (Creative Arts) Stephanie Lamplough.

On Wednesdays the Facebook page provides a resource called Stillness, which encourages reflection on particular themes, such as Hope, Take Time To Be Holy and Be Like Jesus.

Then there are Fun Fridays with Maca – a series of engaging activities for people to enjoy. So far there have been quizzes on various Salvation Army and Maca trivia, and a stop-motion Lego challenge for people to recreate Bible stories.

Seven days a week there is a series inspired by Desert Island Discs called Self-Isolation Discs. Maca encourages people to think about eight meaningful pieces of music, create a playlist and give an explanation as to why the music is meaningful to them. So far, more than 40 people have sent in their playlists.

Maca continues to support frontline ministry by offering technical support for a number of corps engaged in online worship and resources to enhance their worship times, as well as advice in areas such as copyright and music selection.

Other helpful resources are brass band backing tracks for many Scripture-based songs and songbook backing tracks (keyboard) downloadable from spstunes.com.

MOVING MINISTRY ONLINE

It has been encouraging to witness corps across the territory rethink how they can continue to gather to pray, worship and support one another using digital tools.

The Mission Service has created a web page to advise, resource and support mission and corps communities as they move their ministry online.

Whether you’re looking to kick-start online ministry at your corps or maximise the impact of what you’re already doing by getting some new ideas, we hope you find these resources helpful.

The website salvationarmy.org.uk/ moving-ministry-online includes the following information:

Keeping people safe online As well a reminder that all the usual Safe & Sound practice should be in place online as it would be in a building, there are five key pieces of advice: behave as you would in person, respect everyone’s privacy, be open and transparent, ask others to help facilitate and set these expectations in advance.

Copyright and licensing If corps use music online, copyright and licences must be in place. Questions about this can be emailed to Joanne Duff at joanne.duff@salvationarmy.org.uk.

What tools we need The website gives useful guidance on using the video platforms YouTube and Vimeo. It also suggests that Facebook Live is a good way to engage with a congregation. The use of video conferencing tools Lifesize and Zoom is also explored.

Examples of online ministry and worship The website also has links to examples of the many ways in which corps are using these resources so that others can be inspired to move their ministry online too.