welcome back i hope you enjoyed your brief break had your cup of coffee an exciting time uh uh i i had my glass of water so we're in good shape so let's continue with our study on on today uh primarily we're talking about adopting to a changed world adopting to a changed world we talked about biblical justice so let's go and see what the scripture of god says about this all-important subject matter uh on you on your slide it's called biblical justice biblical social justice that's what it's called biblical social justice number seven uh let me get over to this slide you notice what let me give you a little story what happened to me on sunday uh uh and and then before i go through this scene because this is so apropos and what it's saying here i had a guy give me come to me sunday uh african-american i came to me and he he he was uh he said i called you friday and i needed to talk with you about something that's going on at work he said the problem is uh he uh he feels that he's being taken advantage of at work and he feels that he is uh he uh he just got his approval rating uh just he went through this whole thing got our approval rated and he was not rated very well not very rated very well he's the second in command of a project and his leader has been out uh ill and he had had to step up to the position of leadership so there was a lot of things he had to go through so when he received his rating they did not rate him well uh because of his performance as the leader as a secondary person he did good but now he has to become the leader so they did not didn't give him a negative rating but did not give him the rating that he wanted so his statement was you know i believe this is racially motivating i said okay okay that could be i i don't know your company i don't know the situation that could be and then i says now he says now i said so what are you asking me he says well what do i do he says it's this new project that's coming out that's going to start monday and they they haven't asked me to do it and and i'm staying away from it i know how to do it my team knows how to do it i'm going to stay away from it so i said to him let me give you some biblical advice about that okay when we go through society we feel like we're being treated unjustly unjustly there's a there's a response that that we can we can present to people or there's there's two responses we can respond negatively or we can respond biblically okay those are your two response okay i says now i'm going to submit to you for your thinking that you respond biblically so here's what i want you to do okay i want you to go home i want you to to read the scripture i want you to seek justice love mercy and walk humbly before the very people that have criticized you seek justice love mercy walk humbling he says what do you mean by that okay i said well for an example listen on monday morning go to work and ask your supervisor give me the job let me do it let me prove to you that i have the capacity and the capability to do it he says well they untreated me fairly they treated me unjust you don't see justice how do you seek justice by doing the very thing that is right before the almighty god this is how you seek justice this is how you love mercy you're being merciful to them and you are walking humbly they need to see your humility they need to see your humility so he says you know that's a tough thing to do i said it is never easy but it's always correct so he went back and i didn't get a call yet so i believe that because he's doing what god has called him to do he wins that's what i believe he wins because he's doing with god and god has a heart of the king in the hands of the almighty god and god can shake that anyway so let i just want to tell you a little story before we get into our lesson second lesson here today the scripture says biblical social justice isaiah 117 learn to do good seek justice correct oppression bring justice to the fatherless plead the case are the cause of the widow this is god's standard for how we deal with in god's position on biblical social justice zechariah 7 9-10 thus saith the lord of hosts render true judgment show kindness and mercy to one another do not oppress the widow the fatherless the sojourner of the poor and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart in your heart one of the issues that my friend was working with on sunday his heart was beginning to become heartened against the leadership that will affect his response that will lead to pride that will cost him even more trouble god says do not devise evil against another in your heart this is god's method this is god's word concerning social justice jeremiah 22 verses 3 this is what the lord says do what is just and right rescue from the hands of the oppressor the one who has been robbed rescued from the hands of the oppressor and the one who has been robbed do no wrong all violence to the foreigner the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place god again we're establishing what is god sees about social justice what is god's position on on how our relationship should be with people micah 6 we just read that he has told you o man what is good and what is to be done the lord requires that we do justice love kindness and walk humbly before your god and i will add to that walk humbly before god which means you're going to walk humbly before man okay critical issue first john uh 3 verse 17 through 18 but whosoever has the world's goods and sees his brethren in need and shut up his heart from him on how does the love of god abide in him my little children let us do not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth if you notice the scripture talks about don't shut up your heart over here we say the same thing do not create within your heart so my inward my outward behavior is going to determine where my heart is on this subject matter and if i allow the word of god to penetrate my heart or your heart then your behavior will be in line harden not your heart to the word of god so therefore we can be pliable and open and used by the almighty god okay so we see clearly what god positioned on that subject matter is now let's go and look at another one biblical response to social issues here's some biblical responses to social issues biblical response we saw how the world has responded to social issues now let's look at what the bible says uh our response should be in association those issues were preached in the old testament god called abraham to establish a social justice abraham descendants the people of israel was to treat everyone in their midst in a just manner and that's found in deuteronomy 25 13-16 everyone so god instructed the nation of israel through the through the through abraham that everyone in their midst were to be treated with respect they were retreated to be treated fairly they were not to oppress them they were not to take advantage of them because it is easy to oppress the weak the strong and that's what happens within cultures and societies and families in the communities the week is oppressed because they have don't have the resources that is available to the strong however at the same time god says to the strong do not oppress your weak so it's a battle between man and god on how we do that god said number two to the social justice was central to the prophets social justice was central to the prophet in the word of god the word of god talks about the word the law and the prophets in the old testament the whole old testament is defined as the law and the prophets the ten commandments and the word from the lord through the prophets that's how the word of god came okay social justice was central to the prophets israel's prophets believe in god and social justice were inseparable that's what israel's prophet believed belief in god and social justice were inseparable their voice pointed to a need for a social level justice and for individuals to live justly that's found in isaiah 1 16 jeremiah 22 3 okay so the prophets not only the word of god spoke to through the ten commandments and through the old testament but the prophets of god spoke to the people as the spokespersons of the almighty god talked about social justice and how we should be responding and how we should treat one another those that in our camp and those outside of our camp those vulnerable people within the community social justice was preached in in ministry of jesus jesus preached the ministry of social justice okay the most excellent example of how church should approach justice is in god's word and christ teaches just if jesus defines social gospel as a spiritual and a and having a social component so social gospel was not only spiritual but it was had a social component or a natural component okay and and what i mean by that is is that when if you read in luke 4 18 uh jesus was to teach to teach to the poor uh the uh bringing forth uh salvation as a form of life and and and preach and teach to the poor and ascend the captives free that's what jesus was was to do now freedom means not only means spiritual freedom for which he preached and taught but it's also freedom means social economic freedom okay so there's two application to being free okay or healed you can be healed spiritually but you also need to be healed naturally so there's always a two components of what christ preached and taught the early church practiced social justice god called us the church to participate in the renewal of our society so that all especially the weak and the vulnerable can enjoy his blessings and that's fine in james 1 27 and acts 6 1 through seven the biblical response to social justice you can see it clearly defined in the word of god through the will of god uh to that whole process so critical component when we look at that okay so you're seeing where god's position is uh on social justice okay let's go to the next slide the church in social justice issues the church and social justice issue we're gonna spend a few minutes talking about this the secular world and believers think that the church has lost its god-given positively influenced over such problems given the current political and social of evil number two you the turn of evil uh and what that up evil mean uh in in a definition which is a major change or a period of change that causes a lot of conflict and and confusion uh and anger so we are living in this society society of of of evil at the same time so some problem okay um feel that the church not only believers but non-believers feel that the church has lost its place a lost its place of influence we have to re-establish that as ambassadors of christ and be insult in life within the scriptures okay society appeal to be growing more skeptical of how much of a difference the church can make in tracking social issues uh society has lost not the bible perspective because god hasn't lost anything okay but the society and believers and the believers i i share with you about it's a 50 50 percentage-wise difference now let me let me let me let me throw something out there for you in the last 25 years the predominant growth in the church community of people coming to christ has been in the area of of the non-denominational churches that's where the phenomenal growth of a church the huge large congregation are growing throughout mega churches are growing in the denominational non-denominational setting okay now think about this this way okay what are the non-denominational quote-unquote churches are doing or ministries are doing that the the that the traditional denominational churches are not doing okay now one of the things and i'm going to use the baptist church i love baptist church i have no problem with that but i'm by way of example the baptist churches long ago 20 25 30 years ago was was one of the key proponents of social justice they were one of the key proponents of social justice uh dr martin luther king most of the civil rights organizations came out of quote-unquote the baptist church okay they were very influential but the baptist churches kind of withdrew from that now okay and the churches that have kind of picked up the mantle has been the non-denominational churches the non-denominational church if you visit any non-denominational church they are huge on dealing with social issues around things that affect the community huge uh outreach ministry to the community addressing community needs doing food pantries doing uh health care services they are huge on that they this is a part of their their their continual growth god is using the whole uh social ministry in order to reach the nonsense if you look at the growth in the non-denominational church you will not find a non-denominational church that is of any size that do not have a high-end quality community outreach programs and they call them community outreach they don't call them social uh biblical social justice ministry they don't call them that they call them outreach or community to concern they're doing bible studies in the home they got care programs they had all these great programs uh in order to reach the community especially reach the non-believer okay for them so i submit to you if we focus our attention now we are never going to shift the church from preaching the word of god okay it's not either or or neither nor it's not that okay we must do both both is better balance is better okay rather than inbounds okay so we want to make sure that we stay have our first priorities to preach and teach the word of god our second priority is to focus on advancing the kingdom of god through outreach outside of the church so just hold that into your pocket that's my opinion uh through observation and research on different churches and what's working and what's not working that's what i came to the conclusion of okay as a part of that okay now examples of social issues facing our church uh what is the church going to do about coconut 19 and the health care crisis uh we will be measuring on this we will be measured on this we will we will either gain influence uh from a church perspective or we will lose influence as a result of this on how we approach this area of covert 19 and the aftermath of copenhagen we are the church the church will gain or lose its effectiveness based on how we approach these areas hunger and food insecurities that's a big issue today within our our our culture and our society hunger and food insecurities um i've been to i work with hud and i work with most of the state government agencies and there's not a time when we're not on a call that they don't concern themselves with food insecurities when i share with them that we have a food pantry that's feed 300 people a month they are shocked because most of the churches are on lockdown and have not decided to find a way a safe excuse me a safe way to still serve the community because that's a key component we must find a safe way to continue to serve people within our community because that is our mission and that is our mandate and covert 19 or any pandemic should never interfere with that we when they happen we need to always look for an alternative way to stay focused on our mission and our purpose of being salt and light and be in the church of the lord jesus christ we have to do that but this is one of the areas that's facing our nation is facing our our society that the church needs to weigh in one way or the other on these issues affordable housing and homelessness uh we're in the church on these issues affordable housing uh in new jersey the average uh the average uh rent in new jersey is sixteen hundred dollars for a two two bedroom apartment most people if you run the equivalence of that most people make about a thousand dollars worth if you run those two numbers so the actual cost is 16 but the people's salary based on income is about a thousand so there's a there there's a big gap between those two things okay where your church is going to find itself on affordable housing in homelessness we know that the rate of homelessness is increasing there used to be a time where when when the homeless persons were uh men but now we're finding out that homelessness is not only just men it's women and children of becoming homelessness uh how do we how do we address this issue how do we voice what direction do we take as we look at these things now and we're going to talk about how to get there how do you come up with these answers but these are some issues civil rights and racial discrimination where are we when it comes to racial discrimination and civil rights uh the church has to weigh in on this this is going to determine how the world will perceive us as the body of christ and if we don't weigh on in on civil rights and racial discrimination then we are not preaching nor teaching the fullness of the gospel because god has already weighed in on it we saw that in slides before uh slide just before that in five six cases we saw what god position is on this issue okay so we have to weigh in on that okay now gay rights is another gender issue the gay agenda okay we have to weigh in on that okay a lot of churches have weighed in on that and a lot of churches have decided that they're not going to make this an issue the bible is very clear about our position see none of these issues uh none of these issues that that we're confronting there's not a single one on this sheet and on this list that the bible have not already provided us a direction of where we should stand on these issues it is biblically doctrinally theologically positioned from the word of god where all of these issues the church should be without question the problem is we think by not addressing them that we're gaining favor but the problem is by not addressing them we are losing favor and influence in the community every person needs to know where did you stand on these issues okay uh alcohol and drug abuse and substance abuse another uh prostitution and trafficking human trafficking changing abortion laws okay all of these are issues okay i looked at the research and did the research on those they came out to be the top issues that's facing our nation today the church must establish a precedence of where we stand on all these issues and how we are able to move forward to bring resolution so we can say what we stand against but let's go to the next step we stand against however this is what we're doing in order to help those people that are caught in these particular issues okay because our our our we must not do it in word only we must do it indeed okay as the scripture has said in genesis i mean in james uh in the book of james okay so we must be able to do that shall the church should the church movement for justice mirror the world shift the church movement i'm gonna think i want you to think about this should the church position on these issue be an agreement with the world and the answer is no it's still an issue we don't have to be in agreement still an issue like 2010 we are never going to be the church should never be in agreement with abortion laws that kill innocence we're never going to be in agreement on that the world said this is an issue and the world has its position and the church has this position on the same issue now if the church is going to address the the abortion issue we say no we stand against abortion but here's what we are doing to help those young ladies that find themselves pregnant so they can bring a child to full term that's where the church needs to be okay that's where the church needs to be no the church is not going to agree on the gay agenda okay we're not going to agree on the gay agenda what they perceive to be their rights we're not going to agree on that because to agree on that means that i got to disagree with god okay but what are we doing to address this group of people to bring them the truth of the gospel to deliver them that's where we are so not only a point of disagreement but we also now must go the next step and say what are we doing uh to prevent or to help them through those difficult challenges so the answer to the question is no we're not always going to be in agreement on these issues not going to do that and then accept it we should always seek the holy spirit that's why we won't be in agreement and guidance on the areas of importance to make sure our actions you notice the word actions our actions represent the love and the grace of christ our action on the gay agenda should represent the love and grace of christ our action on abortion laws our actions on prostitution and human trafficking okay these things our actual behavior should always be as the holy spirit and the word of god has defined in scripture how we approach those things very much so okay everybody you still with me okay let's go on we're talking about adopting or adapting to a change with changing world the world around us is changing now we the church should never change because christ itself doesn't change our position on the scripture should never change says jesus says he is lord and he changes not that represents the fact that he knows all things present past and future when we the church find ourselves of knowing all things past and future we will never have to change either okay until we get to that point we must change every day to bring ourselves in alignment with where god wants us to be to deal effectively with those situations that we talked about that's what we must change that's how we have to position ourselves as it relates to change now let's talk about post pandemic church the post pandemic church uh this is church after the pandemic that we are and some changes that we need to make that's what we're going to be discussing as we begin to close out this session here uh the the some changes necessary for the body of christ to make in order to be effective and reach people within our community uh the post-pandemic church this epidemic is not the end of the world but an end to an era okay an end to an era it's not change it's not the end of the world it's not at the end of the church it's just an end of the era okay after the flood everything changed and we're talking about the floor of none of north nor in the flood everything changed after world war ii everything changed after 9 11 everything changed number three it is not an overstatement to say after coronavirus everything will change people often talk about the new norm what will the new norm look like okay what will the new norm look like what will the new norm when it comes to church looks like okay what will the new norm looks like let me give you an example the new norm of employers and employees one of the new norms is remote workers remote workers that's a new norm we will probably never go back to everyone back in the office it just probably never happened okay there will be a place for remote workers uh that number has basically tripled uh in the last this year in the year of 2020 okay that's a shift of the norm when it comes to work okay so most corporations are not even have in their plans to return everybody back to the building they're beginning to reevaluate whether or not we need all this building space because of the changes in our culture in our society when we when 9 11 hits most of us will remember that uh before 9 11 we used to go to the airport get there five minutes before the uh before the flight and walk right through and and get on a plane a year even go down to the lounge and just uh just just board now you have to go through tons of security take your shoes off put them in the bag put them back on uh all of you know what i'm talking about all that happened after 9 11. so a new norm was was mandated through that whole process this crisis this crisis should be a teachable moment for us for the church we need to reflect recalibrate and reset that's what the church needs to do reflect recalibrate and reset we don't have to change our doctrine we don't have to change our belief in christ we don't have to change our our commitment to christ we don't have to change any of that however we need we do need to reevaluate to where we are we need to reflect on what god is doing today we need to reflect on the direction that god wants to take us we need to reflect on what has worked in the past and what will not work as we move forward into the future we need to reflect on that then we need to recalibrate we need to decide what we are going to do uh with the resources that god has provided for us how are we going to evangelize now in the era of the pandemic how are we going to provide social services in the era of after the pandemic how are we going to to to to disciple believers in this era of after the pandemic so we have to re-calibrate okay we have to recalibrate so we're going to spend a lot of time as a church community or should be spending a lot of time in the church community uh kind of reevaluating over the how are we going to maintain the mission and the vision that god has given us because god's mission in god's vision has not changed based on a pandemic it will never change based on any disaster or crisis that we run into we just need to re-figure out a recalibrate on how we are going to do that okay then we need to reset let's set some things in place uh let's set some new things in place let's set some some new guidelines on how we're going to operate okay uh for that purpose so i got some things that i kind of put on the table that thing that we need to kind of help us go into that direction okay this is i submit to you the following three areas of prayer and adjustment three areas of prayer and adjustment the first one is deconstruction and i'm going to talk about what deconstruction is we need to deconstruct our customary gospel presentation to a highest to a highlight repent to highlight repentance lordship and the kingdom of god as we are evident in the gospel of christ okay and the acts and in the epistles so what is what are we talking about deconstruction uh in our movement in within the uh non-denominational movement within the last 10 to 15 years there has been a lot of conversation about about about finances in the body of christ now and there there's been an over indulgence in the conversation of finances as it relates to the body of christ we will always talk about finances we're never going to not talk about it because it's a critical component of the scripture and what god has called us to raise the finance in order to to cause the people to be blessed by their giving and and advance the kingdom of god so financing will always be there but we coined the phrase of of the prosperity message uh that needs to be re-examined that needs to be uh recalibrated that need to be reset okay and we need we need to focus more when we present the gospel uh repentance the lordship of christ the kingdom of god so we need to focus our attention and our focus on how we present the gospel to represent a more biblical perspective in relationship to the preaching and the teachings of christ so that's what re uh deconstruction mean so whatever we were doing we need to look at and examine that things that we were doing as a body as a church as an individual and determine first of all whether or not that is what does the bible say how do we read how do we present that rather than what a denominational point of view or non-national point of view is we need to see what the bible says and we will never be out of order if we talked about repentance we would never be out of order if we talked about lordship of christ we would never be out of order if we talk about advancing the kingdom of god we will never be out of order if we talked about salvation by faith we will never be out of the order we talk about the baptism of the holy spirit to help us because that's what the book of the gospel talks about that's what acts talks about and that's where the epistle all speaks to so we will never be out of order if we uh reconstruct our presentation of the gospel in those areas that's number one number two distribution god's blueprint in ephesians 4 11 reveals the church is not a building but a body christianity is not an auditorium-centered spectacular sport with leaders given only the given only educating or entertainment but for the equipment of the saints for the work of the ministry okay now in layman's terms distribution the distribution god's blueprint in ephesians 4 11 was the leadership of the church was to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry the distribution was never to be focused only on church services sunday because what has happened to us uh in the past is that we thought if we went to church on sunday we have punched our spiritual ticket so from monday to the next sunday god was never a priority to us he was never a reading your scripture every day uh praying every day uh sharing your faith at the workplace or in the marketplace sharing your faith uh uh as a part of your daily routine uh supporting your family being a godly man and woman as an individual now cohen 19 has kind of pushed us back to that point that we need now need to learn how to develop strong discipleship within the body of christ so the redistribution from a five-fold ministry gift on a sunday to preach and teach to educate the redistribution is now i'm preaching to teach you to educate you that you go out and do the work of the ministry that's a shift that has got to be uh focused on uh as a part of that and that was the original intent that you find out uh in ephesians 4 11 it says for the equivalent of the saints for the work of the ministry till we all come into the unity of the fame okay uh and releasing them to do that for which god's called us to do that's going to be a redistribution or a distribution of what god has called us to do as far as the ministry is concerned okay now the next slide talk so we talked about deconstitution deconstructions deconstruction uh which means we're going to take a look at how we've been presenting the gospel in the past and redistribution is equipping the saints the blueprint in ephesians 4 11 is that we ought to quit the saints okay and then decentralization decentralization number three the church must be decentralized to express the new testament model that christianity is not merely a meeting to attend but a life to be shared critical component it's not a meeting to be a team but a life to be shared the church is not a building permanently built permanently on service but our relationship on relationship with those persons that are outside of the body of christ especially those relationships with sinners those relationships to non-believers those relationships are non-christian we have to be that salt in life uh as we relate to people within the community so if you look at those three terms that we just talked about we talked about deconstruction uh we talk about distribution and we talk about decentralization those are terms that are that the church has to embrace in our changing society or a changing world while there is a measure of success the way we were doing it in the past but there is not a surety that it will work in the future now the assurance becomes as i line up more and more with how god wants me to do it god becomes our surety god becomes the holy spirit becomes our surety of success when we change our message let me go back to slides when we deconstruct our message to focus on repentance lordship kingdom the holy spirit becomes our our uh enabler for success in this area okay the holy spirit becomes our neighbor because it is the it's an expression of god's heart it's an expression of god's word when we talk about number two district uh distribution when we equip the saints and uh for the work of the ministry we move from an oratorium-centered ministry to a to a lifestyle ministry and where we enable more people to be involved normally what happens on a or eternium-centered spectator sport with leadership giving direction is that the pastor or the ministers or the elders are at work while the congregants are spectators as though they are fans saying go pastor wonderful let's do this elders great job deacons but that's not god's original plan god's original plan is that every person in this body uh engage in the process of delivering the message of the gospel and knowing that because we are involved with that process the spirit of god becomes our surety for success so the spirit of god is our sure to hear for success and here for success and here for success so our how do we measure success advancing the kingdom of god when it souls for christ bring discipline new believers that's what is defined as biblical success spiritual success as we do those things grow in the body of christ mature in the body of christ those are elements of success because we still talk about in in context building a healthy church building a healthy church when we when we discipled and we bring people to another level of growth within the body of christ when we decentralize and we enable now the church not instead of having let's say typically speaking four or five people at work on sunday we have the entire congregation at work all week you see the difference of application now the holy spirit can move more mightily because every person is reaching people that are not in church on sunday whether it be in the marketplace whether it be shopping at shop right or shopping uh in the malls when they reopen uh whatever the event is the people become more and more involved with the advance in the kingdom of god now so that's those three things uh decentralization distribution and of course uh uh uh uh uh deconstruction as a part of that okay now let's have a look at let's look at some practical things these are uh would be considered as uh hierarchy spiritual things okay these are hierarchy spiritual things that we must have and we must understand now we're going to look at some practical things uh how we need to exist in this post-pandemic church because we are in a post-pandemic church positions that we find ourselves today number one mission okay let's start is the following practical insights may be helpful to consider in our forthcoming post-pandemic era okay post-pandemic error is what we're making reference to uh number one mission-driven agility mission-driven agility from now on churches must determine what mission method works best in their environment align with the church mission more than the church tradition so we the church community as we move into this post-pandemic era okay must fine-tune our mission must fine-tune our vision must fine-tune our our direction that god has called us to do and make it available to every congregant that under the sound of our voice that they understand without question the mission the purpose and the intent of the church the pastor needs to make sure and the elders and the deacons and those who are in leadership need to make sure that every congregant whether they be a first-time visitor as we make our first impression uh whether it be a a a a a new disciple as they begin to mature in christ or whether it would be a senior mature individual that needs to be in the po in an area of discipline new believers we have to make sure that everyone understand this this mission driven agility and focus our work based on the environment that we find ourselves in uh in the inner city they do it differently but in the suburbs there's a different approach to it uh and within church denomination there's a different approach to it so whatever it is we need to find our mission driven agility and get back on on track there as a part of the post-pandemic era of the church local church outreach number two as communities have grown closer congregation will need to be in place in a higher ministry and and budgetary priorities for a relationship outreach with their local communities see one of the things that has happened within the dynamics of the of of the pandemic is community has grown closer there's more of a sensitivity or awareness or concern for your neighbor people uh unfortunately i've had in my neighborhood there were two uh men in their forties that contracted copy 19 and pass i actually went on one of what i know was a believer the other one i don't know so i won't comment on that but both of them uh died and they had families okay now one of the things that we done and we will continue to do is reach out to those family members to serve them how can we help you okay what's going on uh how can we help you help you through this difficult time every in that issue that i'm making reference to everyone in the community came to the assistance of those two families so the community drew closer and you'll find that out in every community if there is a loss or not a loss of life but there's a certain awareness around us so we the church needs to make sure that that community is addressed and that is something that we need to do when it comes to that okay so local church has to be prepared for number three church communication high contact high congregational communications expectations will remain the norm okay therefore the church will need to emphasize communication quality consistency and an online presence okay communication is a big factor uh in in in areas in time of pandemic and how you communicate in what you communicate and what you do not communicate to people or are critical especially in light of the church critical components of that okay so we need to make sure that we establish communication if you notice here i said an online present okay even after the pandemic now we had an online presence before at our church we had an online present and what we have done what we have done is put more resources behind our online presence okay that's something that we needed to do uh in order to improve the quality of our online presence okay and and churches need to do that and we need to maintain our online presence i i i'll give you i'll give you an example that i that i thought was interesting when we talk about online presence uh and i can say this about our ministry specifically and not being braggadocious but being happy that we have these kind of responses prior to the pandemic we had thursday night services and thursday night service ran between between 400 to 600 people here on thursday night that was the average it had been the average for a very long period of time okay and post post pandemic we started having online services online services the numbers have drastically changed since we started having online services i looked on i i dialed in one night and i looked at the numbers and couldn't believe it one one thursday night we had over 11 000 people online i said oh my god the power of that we go from four to six hundred to eleven thousand do you think for one moment that we we're going to change that direction i don't think so people ask me are you do you is pastor john is gonna go back to thursday night service he may i don't think so okay because you're not gonna reach that population of people okay so it is important for you to shift years and maintain an online presence uh whether it be and around your service times or however you want to do that you need to find out what makes it works but you got to do that this is church after the pandemic era okay quality of communication and consistency and you have to have quality and you have to have consistency as you begin to reach and communicate quality of communication is absolutely essential for the direction that we're going okay we're talking about independent the post-pandemic church the post-pandemic church okay uh the post-pandemic church the church fellowship uh and copenhagen has revealed that one of the things that cannot be virtually virtual replaced in physical human interaction sermons can be delivered via live streaming but congregational fellowship cannot congregational fellowship this is an area that churches will have to work on you can still have and keep in mind you can deliver the sermon via live streaming you can teach the word of god via live streaming but a part of the local church or the part of the church is is church fellowship getting an opportunity to fellowship one with another that's an area that every church needs to kind of work on you kind of need to figure that out how are we going to establish fellowships how will fellowships look how our fellowships feel uh how do you go about fellowship that's an area that we as as we continue to move away from the original pandemic we are going to have to come up with a plan on how you're going to construct and develop uh fellowships that are safe fellowship that are that are that are reasonable fellowships are within context but the idea of not having fellowship is not a is not an option it's not an option because the bible says fellowship one with another okay so we'll see that throughout scripture we need to figure out how we do that within the time frame living in a post-pandemic church church finances urban churches are experiencing 15 to 25 decline in giving okay most churches are 15 to 25 i've seen some with 35 uh in their givings budgets have been streamlined okay so when you when you get a cut in in an income for a church perspective you have to re you have to realign the budget okay you need to streamline your budget and you need to do something that we we have learned how to do budgets have been streamlined sustainable substantially but we'll remain uh streaming online will remain as we move forward we're going to continue to do that volunteers is a critical component is to empower your volunteers to fill the gap that's how we're gonna that's how the church needs to so the church needs to focus more on developing the volunteer pool as we disciple people and release them into the ministry to do the work in the call of god we have become very churches have become especially if they understand very staff depended upon the leadership of the staff to do the bulk of the ministry work that has got to shift back to the people like god had originally intended that the people are the congregations get involved with ministry work and we the church in leadership have to facilitate that to a high degree as we move into the pandemic the first pandemic church family counseling big issue big issue big issue when it comes to family counseling this epidemic has overwhelmed many families individuals and marriages ministry services such as grief share divorce care financial and financial and biblical counseling will will be important as we as a congregation move forward in the community and it also bless the community and the people on the outside of the immediately so what's happening here with number six uh because of such stress on the family unit uh at home our divorce rates in the nation both in the church and outside of the church have increased okay has increased uh grease sharing has increased uh financial stress or financial uh uh uh capability has reduced but financial stress has increased so the church is going to have to begin to refocus itself and address some of those concerns of of housing concerning of financial needs concerns of divorce rates concerns and so we're gonna have to provide a level another level of counseling and help for the people both non-believers and believers in our post-church pandemic era so we're going to have to do that okay as a part of that now everything i'm talking about here primarily uh deals with a and address social issues within our community not only church issues but they are dressed when we talk about families we're talking about the backbone of the scripture we're talking about the backbone of the community we're talking about the backbone of the nation okay the family unit so we're going to have to as we move forward continue to place emphasis on those things associated with the family union because that's an area that ministry have provided for itself through through the needs of the minister number seven discipleship and releasing discipleship and releasing many churches have been confronted with an ultimate reality over a dependency upon the pastoral and church staff the equipping and releasing people to use their skills and passion will be increasingly necessary especially in the area of the congregational care the congregational care we need to become and we need to uh spend time uh at this pad this post pandemic period of disciplining and releasing people excuse me releasing people in this pandemic era to provide congregational care and help within their ministry awesome requirement that god has called the church to do if you look at all seven of these things okay all seven of these things and i'll repeat repeat through them a mission focus local congregation diversity and outreach and making outreach a priority church communication high level quality when it comes to church communication and consistency and one of the major tools for communication today is the online present maintaining that online presence in order to reach the people that are in the church that are doing social destiny uh at this point in time uh we need to maintain that high level of communication to them uh in a quality way uh church fellowship we can never never ever ever take church fellowship off the board human beings have a natural tendency to want to fellowship one with another so that's what that's inherent with who we are is to have human uh interaction uh that is that is a concern that most uh psychologists most uh most uh uh parents and many of the social workers have today without children uh doing doing remote learning and remote training is they have no interaction with other people uh we don't know what that's gonna look like in their an effect that that's gonna have uh with with people when we raise our children in an environment where they can sit and look at the computer and learn everything they need to learn uh and and not have human human interaction because human interaction is a is a part of our maturity part of our growth part of our development as an individual and a much needed tool so we are never going to move away from church fellowship uh even in the past post-pandemic era church finances the solution to that is beginning to focus around especially when you have 15 to 20 reduction or decline in giving we need to make sure we find other ways to address the needs of the community and serve the congregation family counseling i just talked about that marriage uh is is is in trump marriage is in trouble it was in trouble before the pandemic it has moved to another level of hyphen uh concern uh in relationship to being there the church cannot not be there the church cannot not be there we cannot let this become a strictly secular humanistic approach to helping people through the issues uh we cannot let that happen that way we have to provide a biblical foundation for ministries and and and counseling and working with people to ensure that the original family was created by god and god's original intent for the family must be always on the forefront of what we need to do when it comes to the family unit and then a releasing and disciplining those persons that will now become greater actively involved with caregiving for other people and within the congregation and in the community uh so what do we do what do we do in the midst of all of these things uh i'm gonna spend my my uh last uh few minutes uh talking about how should the church respond how should the church respond what should we do as the body of christ in these areas of of concern how should we respond what should be our approach and i've laid out four things that i'm going to talk about each and every one of them as we kind of close out this session on the 21st century church uh in order to make sure that we have some marching orders or we have a sense of direction i've covered a lot of material a lot of material and a lot of directions a lot of information i think i think has been absolutely critical uh when we find where we find ourselves and where we or in this this this direction set forth by our pastor and our our church our acts director miriam percy they kind of set this direction that we want to go and hey look i am i'm all in as you can always tell that this is because this is what god wants us to do so how should the church respond to the call and after the pandemic i've submitted to you four things that the church should be doing as a body should be doing as a congregation should be doing as individual members so here it is the bible calls for a balance between what some think there are two opposing reactions condemnation and compassion the two together are essential elements of biblical love and that sometimes the non-christian desperate needs i use the word condemnation in a not in a negative sense but a form of correction and compassion so uh people say well if if i if i point out a wrong to you they think that i'm condemning them well it's not condemnation but if i don't if i don't illustrate to you a an error and i do it in the form of love and compassion then that error will continue we must make great adjustments in the areas that we have deviated from and so my use of the word condemnation is not a negative but a form of correction and compassion toward people because uh that is the form of a real biblical love be able to tell you the truth about a matter and do it in love and do it in a manner for which is which is constructive and non-christians need that non-christians who desperately are in need of that now christians need it also okay but for someone to come along and say you know that's that's not right you know and they say oh you can deal with my behavior no i'm not condemning you but that's just not right i want to show all the love in the world but i still but that my compassion for you doesn't deviate that now that's one of the things that that that that we have ran into when it comes to the dealing with the homosexual community um while we never condemn them okay but we don't condone their behavior you know we never condemn but we don't condone they say you are condemning them okay we're not doing that we're not we're not condemning you we don't condone the bible does not condone okay uh bible doesn't condone sin from any level and any people whether you're heterosexual or homosexual the bible does not condone sin okay period okay so i'm done and i said don't be so sensitive just understand what the bible says about that now i must do that in a form of compassion love thoughtfulness and not a personal attack it will not be a personal thing it'll be just saying to you that issue is not according to the word of god can i help you in any way overcome that just like i would say the same thing to an alcoholic i will come to say the same thing to a person that is indulged with extra marriage or sex outside the marriage i would say the same thing that would be the same message same compassion okay because that should change based on the situation so what then is what should the church number do two number two this what then must we do okay and any of the social issues that we have been talking about today any of the social issues uh whether it be pandemic wise or whether it would be a crisis whether it would be uh uh uh the charter slide and i'm gonna go back to that slide right here because i wanna show you this uh i wanna go back to this slide once i figure out which way which way i should be going here i wanna go back to this slide where this what the common issues of the day is these this is what i want to go back to regardless of what the condition of these issues are whether it become 19 and this is after the association these are social issues that's confronting us today payment hunger and food insecurity uh affordable housing and homelessness civil rights and and racial discrimination gay agenda alcohol and drug abuse prostitution and human trafficking changing other abortion laws regardless of what these issues we must take a position on this a position on this is two parts they predictions on this is to identify what it is and an action also associated with an action what should that action be so now so when i say on the slide that you have before you slide number 13 when i say to you pray i'm saying i'm let's pray for what our position should be let's seek god's wisdom on how we should respond and how we should approach that particular subject matter okay the church must ask god for his heart of love and compassion toward those suffering okay those suffering so we must god i uh let me give an example my prayer is god what will the church do how do we respond to this covet 19 health care price crisis especially after the pandemic how should how do you want your church the lord jesus christ who died and gave us the opportunity to be a part of his name how do you want this church to respond how do you want this church when it comes to homelessness and and and and housing affordable housing lord show us what we can do to bring honor and glory to your name in this area that's my this is kind of when i say prayer that's what i'm talking about show us what we need to do show us how the body of christ can respond in a manner in a way that that causes you to bring honor and glory and bring honor and glory to your name when it comes to human trafficking show us lord god how to prevent this how to deal with the people how to catch them and how to bring correction and redirection in these areas so you add we're asking god for his insight who knows exactly what to do and how to do it and most of the time we find ourselves not knowing what to do nor how to do it so we do nothing that's what we normally find ourselves in okay but if we would seek god i believe that god will and he has demonstrated it through scripture if we would seek god and ask the lord god lord what do you want me to do in relationship to social issues that we talked about what do you want me to do in relationship to copenhagen 19 how do we respond to the human trafficking i believe that our first responsibility is to pray and get god's heart on it to get god's direction on it to get to god's strategy on how we should do that so anytime we are dealing with any of the any of the social issues that's confronting us here on this slide there's a position that we take we first ask the lord what do you want us to do about this civil rights and racial discrimination issue lord what what how do you want us to approach that today in today's time period how do you want us to address that issue we know how the world how the secular humanism and the world the government we know how they are approaching it you have a better way and the way that god would give us will always bring honor glory to his name and justice to the very people that we're trying to help so the first thing we must do is pray number two we must take action action is something when god prays we're not praying god tell me what to do but you guys show me how to do it show me how to do it we must take action the church must take action the church must address social issues based on biblical principles that's how we address social issues because we do it this way we know that god will always be with us and he will always be on our side so we have to take action number three we must be courageous the church must make it known clearly with love grace compassion and humility that compromise is not an option we will not retreat we will not fall back we will proclaim the gospel of christ and it does not matter what their opinion is but we will not compromise nor retreat and that is to us not an option the church has to make that known okay number three we must always number four excuse me number four we must always share the gospel of christ must be loving respectfully presenting it to those that need to know the scripture pointing them to the hope of salvation through the repentance and faith in christ jesus we must do that we must do that we must pray we must take action we must be courageous and we must share the gospel a great man preacher as we know it has once said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moment of comfort but where we stand in the time of challenge and controversy dr martin luther king we must not stand by and allow the world to resolve the issues of the social issues of our day if we do the church will become irrelevant and that's not god's will for his church amen do your test we talked about that having back us in two weeks and god bless you and next week we start a new series uh and hope that you join us there uh it's an exciting time god bless you now