Part of being church family means equipping one another as we follow Jesus together. Below you’ll find articles and recommendations to further equip you as we navigate through this season of life together.
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Resources on Anxiety
TEACHING
Sermon - “Be Still and Know That I am God” from our Personal Liturgy series (Downtown, Two Notch, Lexington)
Resisting Anxiety in Historically Anxious Times
“We don’t have control and we don’t have the answers…But we do have something. Christians have a God that is present. We have a God who knows all of the answers. He is in control and He cares.”
Shepherding Your Family Through Covid-19
“As we find ourselves unable to gather on Sundays and with our LifeGroups, the importance of you discipling your children is more apparent than ever...While this chaos can lead us to feel frozen and not want to do anything extra, the truth is it’s a perfect time to add in new rhythms while everything feels new to your kids anyway.”
PRACTICES
Overwhelmed: a 3-week Midtown Plan
“Too often we can allow our circumstances and events to run our lives and breed a posture of hurry, restlessness, and exhaustion. The biblical call, however, is to fix our minds on the peace of Jesus and to apply wisdom to our schedules.” (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
Daily Rule of Life While On Lockdown
“In light of the global pandemic that is COVID-19 and the recent limiting of all gatherings over 10 people, it’s easy to get bored, burnt out, or stir-crazy. Hebrews 6 reminds us though that one thing we can hold fast to is the presence and power of Jesus. One ancient tool to hold fast to Him is a rule of life.”
“As the name suggests, this simple practice focuses on saying a short quiet prayer - usually less than 6-8 syllables long and said in a single breath - to help fix your mind on God...This prayer can be done in an undistracted place to help you focus and/or can be done throughout the day whenever you need to be reminded of God’s presence and truth.” (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
Managing Your Screen Time (How to Digitally Detox)
“When we allow such entertainment and distraction to eat away at our time, we not only don’t create space to spend time with Jesus, we unknowingly develop habits that make it increasingly difficult to spend time with Jesus. Without fighting for margin in our schedules to focus on Him, we become people marked by distraction, worry, and busyness rather than people of peace, love, and joy that God intends for us.” (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
Resources on Apathy
TEACHING
Sermon - “The Things You Don’t Do Do Things to You” from our Personal Liturgy series (Downtown, Two Notch, Lexington)
Missional Life in the Time of Coronavirus
Through serving others, we take the focus off of ourselves. This article provides some practical ways we might serve and be missional to others during this pandemic.
Sermon - “Losing Your Fight” from our Warriors series
Sermon - “Apathy” from our What’s Killing Me series
PRACTICES
“It’s easy to view apathy as a feeling of neutrality when in reality, apathy is really disobedience that needs to be repented of...Let’s not settle for disobedience, but instead, press into the abundant life made available to us now in and through Jesus.” (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
“Lectio divina is not an exercise in primarily in mentally critiquing or exegeting a text for the sake of pulling out information, rather, this practice exists to further your relationship with Jesus as He invites you into His presence through His Word.” (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
Midtown Downtown “Book of Songs” playlist on Spotify
Singing reorients us to who we are in Christ despite what our feelings may say. Through this practice, we use our bodies to cultivate a deeper love for the Lord.
Resources on Loneliness
TEACHING
Sermon - “Fellowship” from our In Columbia as it is in Heaven series (Downtown, Two Notch, Lexington)
How to Socially Distance without Social Isolation
“As our governments debate drastic measures to curb an economic recession, how can we as a church family fight to keep the necessary social distancing measures from leading to a “social recession” in our community?”
“While this pandemic feels like an interruption for many, we see this as an opportunity to be the church all the more. By worshipping from home for a season, we step into an ancient practice brought down by our spiritual ancestors and we stand in solidarity with the global church.”
PRACTICES
Give and Serve Practical Needs in our Church
“In a variety of different ways, whether that be physically, emotionally, or financially, we are entering a historically difficult season worldwide due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus. During these trying times, we long to continue to be the people of God working together to advance Jesus’s kingdom.”
Biblical encouragement is a command that we see throughout Scripture regardless of our circumstances; however, because of sin, we can easily lose sight of this. We are called to encourage others so that we do not grow ‘hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’. (From FollowingJesusTogether.com)
Below are some recommended articles to read through during the pandemic. We’ll be regularly updating this page so come back often for new content.
See also: Coronavirus Parenting Resources
“What Courage Might Corona Unleash?” by Marshall Segal, Desiring God
“God has prepared good works for us...He has prepared us for days like these...Father, in the name of Jesus, use your church.”
“Love in the Time of Coronavirus” by Andy Crouch, The Praxis Journal
“At this extraordinary moment, local leaders — people who lead groups of 10 to 1,000 people — have perhaps the greatest opportunity to shape culture in the United States that they have ever had. This is a guide for those of us who are Christian leaders at this moment.”
“20 Prayers to Pray During this Pandemic” by Jen Pollock Michel, Christianity Today
“The crisis is urgent, and I feel powerless. But perhaps feeling small is the best reminder to pray...Prayer is never the last resort of God’s people. It is our first point of action.”
“C.S. Lewis on the Corona Virus” by Matt Smethurst, The Gospel Coalition
“It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic, and all necessary precautions should be taken. Still, C. S. Lewis’s words—written 72 years ago—ring with some relevance for us.”
“Don’t Waste Your Quarantine” by Summit Church
“As a church family, we want to ask ourselves this question: ‘How can we use this season to grow as disciples of Christ while making him known to others through our words and actions?’ We want to use this time well. We don’t want to waste this moment, rather we want to trust that God will redeem it.”
“The marriage supper of the lamb is a feast that cannot be delayed and will not be canceled. The plans of God, often perplexing and always perfect, can never be thwarted.”
Below are some recommended books to work through during the pandemic. Many of these can also be found on our Bookstore page. Also check out our Recommended Articles page which we’ll be regularly updating during this time.
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The challenge for us now is, how can we continue to fight together and do life together even while we socially distance from each other? Even though this book is over 80 years old, it paints a beautiful picture for what the church is called to be no matter the circumstances.
The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg
In a time of confusion, spiritual disciplines are the means to anchor us to the hope we have in Jesus. This book is one of the punchiest, simpler books I’ve read on spiritual disciplines in a long time. (And if you haven’t read it yet, check out the “Developing a Daily Rule of Life While on Lockdown” resource.)
Family Worship by Donald Whitney
For many parents at home with kids, this is a great opportunity to be present with your children, play together and point them to Jesus. This book offers a practical framework for how to structure daily family devotional times. (Also, make sure to check out the Coronavirus Parenting Resources.)
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke
In God’s sovereignty, Covid-19 impacted us in the middle of Lent as we were fasting together from tech. This book is a helpful reminder for why we fasted from screens, and why we need to remember to continue limiting our screen time.
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk who’s sole aim in life was to fix his mind on the love of Jesus, no matter how mundane the task was at hand. While many of us will feel the boredom set in in the coming weeks, this short book offers a simple way to guide your thought life. (A runner-up is Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rolheiser. It’s similar in size and scope but bent towards parenting. While not a wholesale-endorsement, his chapter on young children, interruptions, and the monastic bell is wonderful.)
We’d also recommend reading some good fiction books during this time. If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, carve out some time to read The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings.
Below are some recommended podcasts to listen to through during the pandemic. To date, these podcasts are are updated regularly.
A resource from Bridgetown Church in Portland, this podcast provides a daily meditation on Scripture, a quote, or the life of a saint. Everyone needs to hear this episode in light of everything going on.
From seminary president, Al Mohler, this podcasts looks at the major headlines each day and provides cultural commentary from a biblical perspective.
The guys that brought you dozens of amazing Bible videos just released a guide called “Church at Home.” When you subscribe to their weekly newsletter you get sent to your inbox a video to watch, passages to read, questions to discuss, and a short devotional that ties all that content together.