Waypoint Responds: COVID - 19
Waypoint responds: Have a look at what we have to say about the current situation and our plan for Sunday.
COVID-19 has reached our country and we need to respond. If we think about this rationally, nothing has changed. We believe that our lives are in the hands of God and is determined by God. On a daily basis there are threats that we don’t see and can’t anticipate that potentially could and sometimes do impact our lives.
The only difference is that we know about the Corona virus. There are two extremes that we want to avoid. The first is to over-spiritualise it and act as if it has no impact in my life and can’t impact me. The other extreme is to fear it as if the end is here and it feels that you are literally counting down the seconds to the end. This would be completely negating the spiritual reality of our lives.
What we call people to, is to be sensible. Don’t expose yourself unnecessarily to risk and by doing so, expose other people and your loved ones to unnecessary risk. The biggest threat that Corona poses is to either do nothing (ignore it) or to over-react (fear it).
Here is a Scripture that I have seen quoted a lot in the past few days, but within the context of our discussion has a lot of truth and value. We read in 2 Timothy 1:7, the following: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
If we have handed our lives over to God, we have fully surrendered to Him; then what do we have to fear? Fear is a tool that the enemy uses to manipulate and to encourage us to do things that other wise we would not have considered to be options. If you are wondering if the last statement is true - when was the last time that you bought a trolley full of toilet paper; so why do it now?
When you think of Corona and you feel yourself being overwhelmed with fear. The fear is coming from a place of either: ‘I haven’t got this, this is too big for me.’; or ‘Corona is bigger than God. My fear of Corona is bigger than the trust that I have in God.’. Neither one of these needs to be true in your life. There is another alternative, that is based on truth that should be part of your faith foundation.
The strategy currently followed by our government and governments around the world is to use ‘social distancing’. It limits social interaction. By doing that it slows the transference of the virus and allows the number of people infected to taper off rather than spike and in doing so it lessens the impact of the virus.
We will convey more information around this topic, but let’s focus on what that practically means for Waypoint and how we meet, especially on Sundays.
We have always built our Faith Community around the model of smaller groups of people meeting regularly. We call them ‘LifeGroups’. We have embraced streaming of our Sunday morning experiences from the onset as we saw the value in reaching people through that medium. We therefore encourage LifeGroups to host ‘watch parties’ on a Sunday morning. Come together as smaller groups, create community - draw people in that aren’t connected and experience a Sunday together. Especially now as we are running the ‘Bystander’ series, as we follow John, an eye witness to what Jesus had said and what he did when He was on earth.
We will however still continue with the experience for adults at Londt Park. We stream from there and we will have that available as an environment for visitors to join a smaller group of people.
Our children have always been very important to us. That is why we set environments up for them where they are able to experience God and we help them build a faith foundation of their own. Transit (Grade 6-8), will meet off-site - close to Londt Park and in the future so will Waumbaland (Pre-School to Grade 1). UpStreet (Grade 2-5), will run at Londt Park for now.
As I leave you, remember that none of us have lived through or experienced something like this before. We therefore ask you to bear with us as we navigate these turbulent times. We will constantly keep you updated.
Remember, we have been called for a time such as this. This gives us the opportunity to live Christ in a profound way.
The only difference is that we know about the Corona virus. There are two extremes that we want to avoid. The first is to over-spiritualise it and act as if it has no impact in my life and can’t impact me. The other extreme is to fear it as if the end is here and it feels that you are literally counting down the seconds to the end. This would be completely negating the spiritual reality of our lives.
What we call people to, is to be sensible. Don’t expose yourself unnecessarily to risk and by doing so, expose other people and your loved ones to unnecessary risk. The biggest threat that Corona poses is to either do nothing (ignore it) or to over-react (fear it).
Here is a Scripture that I have seen quoted a lot in the past few days, but within the context of our discussion has a lot of truth and value. We read in 2 Timothy 1:7, the following: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
If we have handed our lives over to God, we have fully surrendered to Him; then what do we have to fear? Fear is a tool that the enemy uses to manipulate and to encourage us to do things that other wise we would not have considered to be options. If you are wondering if the last statement is true - when was the last time that you bought a trolley full of toilet paper; so why do it now?
When you think of Corona and you feel yourself being overwhelmed with fear. The fear is coming from a place of either: ‘I haven’t got this, this is too big for me.’; or ‘Corona is bigger than God. My fear of Corona is bigger than the trust that I have in God.’. Neither one of these needs to be true in your life. There is another alternative, that is based on truth that should be part of your faith foundation.
The strategy currently followed by our government and governments around the world is to use ‘social distancing’. It limits social interaction. By doing that it slows the transference of the virus and allows the number of people infected to taper off rather than spike and in doing so it lessens the impact of the virus.
We will convey more information around this topic, but let’s focus on what that practically means for Waypoint and how we meet, especially on Sundays.
We have always built our Faith Community around the model of smaller groups of people meeting regularly. We call them ‘LifeGroups’. We have embraced streaming of our Sunday morning experiences from the onset as we saw the value in reaching people through that medium. We therefore encourage LifeGroups to host ‘watch parties’ on a Sunday morning. Come together as smaller groups, create community - draw people in that aren’t connected and experience a Sunday together. Especially now as we are running the ‘Bystander’ series, as we follow John, an eye witness to what Jesus had said and what he did when He was on earth.
We will however still continue with the experience for adults at Londt Park. We stream from there and we will have that available as an environment for visitors to join a smaller group of people.
Our children have always been very important to us. That is why we set environments up for them where they are able to experience God and we help them build a faith foundation of their own. Transit (Grade 6-8), will meet off-site - close to Londt Park and in the future so will Waumbaland (Pre-School to Grade 1). UpStreet (Grade 2-5), will run at Londt Park for now.
As I leave you, remember that none of us have lived through or experienced something like this before. We therefore ask you to bear with us as we navigate these turbulent times. We will constantly keep you updated.
Remember, we have been called for a time such as this. This gives us the opportunity to live Christ in a profound way.
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Love the article team...â¤ï¸