Online Evangelism and Discipleship is a Matter of Life and Death

During this uncertain time, traditional church buildings are suddenly empty. It's being called the new normal. 

Without warning, houses of worship around the world are finding themselves in an unprecedented situation.  The Covid-19 virus is making church attendance impossible.  

Never before in recent memory have believers needed God's presence more, nor have their meeting places been less safe. 

But God's church is never really empty. Sometimes it's merely relocated into our living rooms.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

-- Romans 8:28 

As followers of Jesus Christ, now is not the time for fear or worry. Now is the time to rejoice in the Lord, always.  (Philippians 4:4)

Now is the time for faith, hope and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

March 2020 and beyond, is the time for revival and rededication to God. It is the time for innovation, creativity and resilience. 

Whatever the immediate future holds, God certainly has gained our undivided attention, and it's at times like these that the wisdom of scripture is most vital. 

Consider this verse from the Bible:

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

-- Matthew 18:20 KJV

In the course of human history, God has often used cataclysm to reorganize our thoughts, redevelop our plans and refocus our prayers on what's really important.

Now is no different. Look at it this way:

God is everywhere. It sounds like a simple notion at first, but upon reflection it becomes immensely profound. It is the ineluctable basis of all theology. It cannot be resisted or avoided. It is inescapable. It is the process by which God hears every prayer, wipes every tear and personally responds to every broken heart.

Solitary reflection began long before the time of Jesus Christ, when the Jewish people considered God alone to be omnipresent.  Omnipresence means God is capable of being everywhere at the same time. It means his divine presence encompasses the whole of the universe. There is no location where he does not reign, no spot too isolated for his love to reach, no darkness too deep for his holy light to shine.  

Our job is to listen, and to spread his message to the world.

This Easter Sunday, Rev. Franklin Graham stood before an empty Central Park in New York City, and delivered God's message of love and salvation as powerfully as had his father, twenty-nine years ago, before a crowd of 250,000. 

Against the magnificent backdrop of New York skyscrapers, Billy Graham had delivered God's message for his children. Decades later, standing before the silent white tents of the temporary hospital his ministry had built, Franklin Graham delivered the same message:  God loves you.

Surrounded by suffering and death, our calling is to continue bringing the hope of Jesus Christ to the entire world--one tear drop and one lost soul at a time.