The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.
What will the New Normal look like after COVID-19?
This Is Not The Crisis, But It Is Just A Few Weeks Away, by Ed Stetzer and Josh Laxton
Over the coming days and weeks, the crisis will seemingly get worse. However, some people still do not understand that the coronavirus crisis will be the most significant historical event of our lifetime. It will be bigger than 9/11.
Therefore, it will indeed be a dark hour for many we lead and for many who live in our cities and communities.
As a leader, during this crisis, it’s important to follow Mordecai’s advice to Esther: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” In other words, look at your current position as God’s sovereign placement for you to courageously lead those God has placed in your care.
Is entrepreneurialism about to seize the day?
Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup, by Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard
This time poses the greatest leadership crisis any of us have faced. It can be a moment of amazing creativity, though it also is going to be a time of unavoidable pain and loss. We will discover that while many resources are suddenly unavailable to us, the most essential resource is still available, and the most important reality has not changed. The reality is that God has called us to a time like this, given us a mission and a community to serve alongside, and we still have the most important resource, which is trust in the context of love. Everything depends on how quickly and thoroughly we move to build on that resource, starting today.
Evaluating a significant piece of legislation.
What is (and isn’t) in the economic aid bill, by Harvest Prude
Under a $350 billion paycheck protection program, nonprofits—including houses of worship and Christian schools registered as 501(c)(3)s—are eligible to apply for aid from the Small Business Administration (SBA). The government will guarantee loans to help nonprofits cover operating expenses such as payroll, utilities, and rent. The government will forgive loans used for those expenses.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., explained that pastors can apply online at any Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured bank and should receive the loans within 36 hours.
Sadness in Arkansas church as many are infected.
Greeter is first coronavirus death at Arkansas church where 34 infected, by Leonardo Blair
“Sadly we’ve had our first death from COVID-19 and since that came about earlier today, we’ve had another death so now we have two deaths from COVID-19,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said at a press conference Tuesday.
“Today, I’ve had meetings with hospitals, I’ve had meetings with counties, legislators in talking to my public health team. They used this language and said what we’re seeing is the calm before the storm. I know that many people don’t see this as a calm but I think the way that it’s phrased, makes us understand that we’re still on the lower end of the slope as it goes up,” he warned.
When pain comes, run to God, not from him.
Unexpected Pain I Don’t Understand, by Daryl Crouch
Despair feels so natural, so justified; yet it only adds to the suffering and becomes a tragedy of its own.
So instead of despairing, let us run to the pain. We make no attempt to deny it or even to explain it. It is real, but as unexpected as it is for us, this is the pain of Gethsemane. This is exactly the suffering Jesus came to bear on the Cross in our place and on our behalf.
Not all pain is the result of our specific sin, but all pain is the result of sin: ours, someone else’s, or the curse of sin on creation. No matter its source, Jesus grieved it, bore the weight of it, and defeated it for us.
So while suffering wounds us, it does not destroy us.