Tracy Roby  Pastor, Overland Park Baptist Temple

Throughout the entire span of our ministry it has been about people. To suddenly find ourselves isolated from our congregations is heartbreaking. Together we are all trying to adjust to the new norm. For many of us, livestreaming was a brand new experience. My goal was simply that the Sunday morning video of our service wouldn’t look like an Islamic extremist hostage video. I spent much of the weekend looking at different church services across the nation and some of us succeeded and some didn’t!

Personally, I wasn’t too excited to change our format. I liked the way things were. I enjoyed our comfortable building and meeting with “our people.” I was comfortable and things were going great. “Don’t mess that up.” I couldn’t believe the changes that suddenly we were all forced to accept and adapt to. It seemed like our freedoms were being taken away. At this point, you might be thinking, “I thought this was a word of encouragement?” Well hold on…

One thing we all succeeded at last Sunday was getting the gospel out in mass form like never before. We had people tune in online that haven’t come to our church in years. Our people were “sharing” our service to all of their friends, and before we knew it people were watching from all around the country. Multiply that by all the missionaries and pastors that did the same thing online and suddenly the gospel is being spread in an unprecedented way. Way to go God! The gospel is being spread to the ends of the world in these last days. All because God forced us to get out of our comfortable buildings.

Acts 1:8 is a command that we all know was given to the early church and applies to us today. However, when you begin to read the book of Acts the early church really wasn’t succeeding in the fulfillment of that command. They were doing a great job in Jerusalem, but that wasn’t the mission. The goal was the uttermost parts of the world. Then persecution came (Acts 1:8) and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. It took persecution to get the church back on track.

Perhaps we had become too comfortable in our Jerusalem. “Let’s send a little something to help them remember the command” – and in one Sunday it happened! The gospel goes to the world through social media like never before. For a few moments Christians stopped sharing “politics” on Facebook and shared the gospel. Let’s share the good news and encourage our congregations to share their media this Sunday. This is a wonderful opportunity the Lord has provided for all of us. May the Lord bless you as you minister to the world in a brand new way.