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.
Most churches in America are small. Here’s how one small church pastor plans to reopen.
Reopening Your Church, by Brian Croft
We are a church of 75 members with 60 – 70 in attendance on a normal Sunday. And yet we have a sanctuary that has a capacity of 300 people. This means we would be able to meet on a Sunday morning and apply all the appropriate social distancing practices that our state officials are requesting of us. With the intent of honoring these restrictions, which we assume will still be asked of us once churches are encouraged to gather again, here are a few guidelines we will seek to apply that first Sunday
God is a God of justice.
The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the Justice of God, by Russell Moore
Now, again, these two men will get their due process, and their day in court. But ought we not to grieve for the family of this young man who is dead at just a quarter-century of life? And should we not lament the fact that there are so many names and faces—from those lynched by domestic terrorists throughout much of the 20th century to the names and faces killed much closer to our own time? Yes.
Gospel Conversations have to get below the surface.
Great Questions Lead to Great Conversations, by Rick Warren
It’s easy to have a superficial conversation with someone. Most of our conversations aren’t personal. How often has someone asked you, “How are you?” What’s the universal response? “Fine. How are you?”
What if you didn’t talk to make conversation, but instead you talked to make a difference?
Jimmy Scroggins has been out front thinking about ministry during the pandemic.
Leading Through COVID-19—Loving Our Neighbors, Church for the Rest of Us Podcast
Right now, there is a unique opportunity to build relationships with people that may have been hard to reach before since the coronavirus affects all of us. It has given us common ground and presents us with opportunities to do small acts of kindness that have a big impact.
Always watching, but never guessing about Christ’s return.
Wake Up, Christian. This Is God’s Alarm Clock., by J.D. Greear
Christian history is littered with false predictions about the end of the world. Though Christians have often botched this up, and we can’t know the day or the hour (or even the three-day span) of Jesus’ return, it is true that Jesus is coming back, and Scripture says it could be at any moment. Jesus will come like a thief in the night—that is, unexpectedly, when we’re not looking for it.
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