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TABLE OF CONTENTS A WORD FROM NICK 01 MINISTRY IN A SEASON OF SOCIAL DISTANCING TAKING CHURCH FROM THE PEW TO THE SCREEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA DURING COVID-19 EFFECTIVELY WORKING FROM A HOME OFFICE DURING COVID-19 HELPFUL PRACTICES FOR ONLINE WORSHIP ONLINE SMALL GROUPS KIDS MINISTRY RESOURCES STUDENT MINISTRY RESOURCES COMMUNITY OUTREACH HOSPITAL WORKERS’ CHILDCARE DAY CAMP COMMUNITY OUTREACH FEED THE 479 02 03 04 05 06 07 09 11 12 14 All content is available for customization upon email request. Please contact communications@crosschurch.com for further assistance.
A WORD FROM NICK Thank you for visiting our Called to Lead website. Our desire has been to encourage and equip pastors and church leaders during this season when so many are working at home or from empty church buildings. As you know, this has been a totally free conference with no strings attached. We hope you’ve been ministered to by the speakers as well as these resources. We have prepared this PDF document that includes all the things we have implemented during this COVID-19 crisis. Feel free to take any of this information and adapt it to your church’s needs. Contact us at communications@crosschurch.com if you would like us to send you an editable PDF that allows you to replace our logo or wording with yours. More than anything, we hope you walk away with the necessary tools to become a better leader in the church of Jesus Christ and that this crisis spurs us all on to greater effectiveness in the Great Commission. Nick Floyd Senior Pastor Cross Church
r MINISTRY IN A SEASON OF SOCIAL DISTANCING THREE MAIN PRIORITIES 1 Go deep with God 2 Stay connected to as many people in your ministry as possible 3 Serve the most vulnerable in our church and community GO DEEP Our #1 need during this season is to be daily filled with the Spirit and the Word of God so that we are ready to be active participants in what He is doing. We cannot stress this enough—do not waste this moment. Above Disney+ or browsing social media, or even time with your spouse/kids, prioritize time with the Lord early in your day and as often as you can throughout your day. We need to hear from the Lord and to be empowered to accomplish His purpose during this unique time. STAY CONNECTED Below are some minimum expectations of our staff team during this season: • Send 5 hand-written notes to people in your ministry every day. • Make contact with 10 individuals or more through text message or phone calls every day. ■ Focus first on key leaders, dream team members, small group leaders, etc. ■ Ask questions to find out if/how this season is impacting them professionally, relationally, and spiritually. Pray with them when possible. ■ Encourage leaders to make contact with group members at least once a week. ■ Engage with your people on social media more than you normally do. • Think creatively about how to keep your people connected to God and one another (Zoom online groups, Facebook Live prayer gatherings, online devotional materials for families, etc.). SERVE THE VULNERABLE This season is an opportunity for our church to shine brightly with the gospel through tangible demonstrations of care and service. Coordinate with your campus team to do the following: • Call church members that have indicated “I Need Help” through the website to pray for them, discern key needs, and coordinate follow-up. • Contact church members that have indicated “I Want to Help” through the website to connect them with opportunities to meet needs we learn about during the week. • Call all church members that fit within the vulnerable/“at risk” category to discern needs and pray with them. In these phone calls, encourage individuals not to go to the grocery store or other settings where they may be around a lot of people. Ask specific questions that highlight how Cross Church might be able to serve them (grocery shopping, servicing their car, and other tasks during this season). • The majority of individuals indicating a need have resources to pay for these items. The primary assistance should be shopping for/ delivering items to them. If they don’t have financial resources, assemble and deliver an “essentials” grocery bag from the “Feed the 479” ministry. • Be ready to assist “Feed the 479” in bag assembly/delivery as needed. • Creatively consider other ways to meet needs and serve our community (help with childcare for hospital workers, host homes/ supplies for international students, service to medical professionals, birthday drive-bys, etc.).
r TAKING CHURCH FROM THE THE PEW TO THE SCREEN As with anything in Production and Media, opinions abound on best practices. Our hope is that you can use this as a starting point, and work together with your teams to make it work best for your church. AUDIO • When mixing for the web, the greatest danger is overloading the audio signal so it sounds garbled, otherwise known as distortion. Normally you would hear that in your room through your sound system. First and foremost, watch the audio meters on your streaming boxes and make sure you are not distorting. We always have a live stream going somewhere that we will reference to see how it sounds. (Usually on a phone, because that’s the worst speaker people will listen on. Make it sound good there and it will sound good anywhere). • Prioritize speech in the mix. If the audience cannot understand what is being said, then you have missed the mark. • If you have the ability to mix for the web, and you are changing camera shots, make sure your mix reflects what is on camera. If you see a guitar, then you should also hear one. • Do your best to balance instruments and vocalist so everything can be heard. Refer back to your livestream often to see how you are doing. VIDEO • If you are using multiple cameras, focus, focus, focus. Nothing will get people to turn off your stream faster than out of focus shots. • If you have an operator for your camera, tighter shots on the pastor will help communicate his message, but wider shots will help the audience feel like they are in the room. Use both strategically, go wide while he is telling a story, go tight when the gospel is being presented. • If you have the ability to show the audience the sermon graphics or song lyrics, that will help drive engagement. If you do not have that ability, consider using a wide-shot that shows your screen and your pastor at the same time. • White balance all of your cameras before each service using the lighting you have prepared for your pastor. This will ensure all your cameras match. LIGHTING • Lighting for video doesn’t have to be complicated. Make it bright. Cameras need lots of light to make the picture look sharp and clear. • You want to have 3 primary aspects to your lighting: Key Light – The light directly in front of the stage. Fill Light – 45 degree off center light to fill in shadows. Backlight – Lights up the shoulders and the tops of heads. This light will help separate your subject from the background, and give your video more depth. This light doesn’t have to be as bright. • Look at your lighting through a camera. If you can, put a multi view next to your lighting console, so you can see all the cameras at once. The lighting engineer needs to work closely with the video team. • If you don’t have any production lighting. A trip to Home Depot for some work lights and wax paper will do the trick. The wax paper will soften the light and even it out. STREAMING There are various platforms that allow you to stream your church services; some which are free. These include: Vimeo LiveStream, LivingAsOne, Church.Online, YouTube, and Facebook. Different services will require owning different gear, but with most, all you will need is a computer, a capture card so you can input HDMI into your computer, and an audio interface that will accept XLR connections. Having the right look and sound is important, however having the backbone to push it out to your audience is critical because without it, people watching your stream will have problems. Over the years, Internet infrastructure has come a long way. People are now able to get higher download speeds in their homes, as well as on mobile devices with the spread of LTE and 5G signals. But why does personal Internet speed play into streaming out your church services? It has to do with the bandwidth you are pushing out. On the church side, you need to focus on your upload speeds. A lot of Internet providers will boast on great download speeds, but it’s the upload that will make or break your stream. To stream Full HD video to your viewers you will need a minimum of 4 Mbps on your upload. The lower quality you stream out, the less bandwidth it requires. This is for the streaming device specifically. If you have other devices on your network, make a mental note that those devices as well are probably using a portion of your Internet’s bandwidth and plan accordingly. On the flip side, since you are streaming at 4 Mbps your audience will need a minimum of that same speed to be able to watch your stream. Most streaming services offer a feature called “Adaptive Rate” which will take that Full HD signal and lower the resolution down for the best viewing experience. This feature is very critical to enable as it will expand your viewership and allow people who live in rural areas to watch your service, even though the quality might not be the best. Once you have done your research and found the best service and bandwidth limit for your church, you are ready to stream and start sharing your feed with your church members! 03
USING SOCIAL MEDIA DURING COVID-19 The question of whether social media is effective for churches was never in question. The question has arisen during this time, “How do we use social media most effectively in a time when we can’t be together in one place?” For Cross Church, we were typically using our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to advertise, encourage, and capture the attention of seekers. When we were forced to cancel events and close the doors of the buildings we shifted to a model of communicating hope, and engaging, and guiding our people through the rough waters which we are currently living. In a way, 04 we stripped down our normal stream and built it back up with laser focused intentionality. We realized quickly that if the world was going digital, our messages had to be worthy of the time for someone to settle on us. Also, we wanted to give the people in our church a firm sense of connectedness with the ministers, ministries, and mission. The important thing for us to remember is the mission of the church will continue and we will communicate it effectively. Here are some guidelines we have followed to help us during this time. 1. Say what needs to be said, but only say it when needed. Don’t flood your communication streams with unnecessary noise. This is the loudest megaphone right now, make sure it’s worthy of attention. 2. Keep the mission of the church high. 3. Point to your online experience as much as anything. Make sure they know where and when to join online. Make sure you don’t confuse what is the most important — Sunday service online. 4. Brag on what people are doing to help during this time. Remember, the church is the people not the building, so highlight that! If you are doing a food drive make sure it’s celebrated with pictures, video, text. 5. Cross post with other ministries to your main accounts. If the Kids Ministry, Student Ministry, etc., are doing fun things during this time, highlight the ministry by sharing to your main accounts. 6. Take short videos from pastors and post encouragement. Your people need to know you care and not just see verse memes. The opportunity to be personal, transparent, and engaging is high during this time. 7. Be intentional, be thoughtful, be effective in how you communicate during this time 8. Be who you are in social media as you are in person. Let people know your culture digitally so when you return there are no surprises.
EFFECTIVELY WORKING FROM A HOME OFFICE DURING COVID-19 Proactive planning in technology, equipment, and software creates flexibility that is important, both when the crisis hits and after it is over. Links to CC social handles: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe in remote work capabilities. Even if you don’t think you’ll use them regularly when operating normally, implementing tools like Zoom, Slack, and project management platforms like Asana (which our media/creative team uses) and allowing occasional remote work can help prepare your team to quickly adapt to situations like this one. No matter what industry you’re in, catastrophe can strike at any moment. It’s critical to take the time to plan for a variety of potential scenarios. You can’t possibly cover them all, but focusing your efforts on a few will go a long way toward insulating your church or business from risk. ZOOM TIPS FOR THE MODERN AGE / sethgodin.com 1. Sit close to the screen. Your face should fill most of it. 2. Use an external microphone or headset. Regardless of how you’re amplified, remember that the microphone is only a foot away, which means you don’t have to strain or raise your voice. 3. When you’re not talking, hit mute. If you’re on mute, press and hold the space bar and you can be heard. 4. Don’t eat during the meeting. 5. When you’re on mute during an audio call, you can do whatever you want. But when you’re on mute on a video call, you need to act like you’re truly engaged. Nod your head. Focus on the screen. 6. Don’t sit with the window behind you. A little effort on lighting goes a very long way. 7. When you’re talking, spend some time looking at the camera, not the screen. 8. Don’t walk if you’re using a phone. And if you’re using a laptop, don’t put it on your lap. 9. Do not use an animated background. Do not use a funny one either. If we’re noticing 05
. FOR ONLINE WORSHIP PR AY Ask God for his manifest presence to be present in your home as you worship. Pray for God to use this time to work in your heart, and in the hearts of each family member in your home. If you live with family, or roommates, pray together before the service begins. PREPARE Set a start time for when you will be engaged in front of your online service. Gather everything you need before the start of the service (Bibles, journal, pen, coffee). PUT ASIDE PAR T ICIPAT E Consider putting aside any electronic device not being used to stream the online service. We encourage you to fully participate in our live services just as you would if you were attending the service in our building. This includes engaging in worship, prayer, giving and the sermon. Don’t forget to join us before and after services for our Online Lobby experience. 06
. A GUIDE TO PRIORITIZING COMMUNITY WITH VIRTUAL SMALL GROUPS While we are limited in contact with others face-to-face, this should not limit community with God and with others. We believe that “People Need Each Other” and being a part of a Small Group is where big Church becomes small and intimate. In the midst of social distancing and the inability to join together in a large gathering, this is the time when Small Groups become even more vital. STAY IN COMMUNICATION • • Let your group know that you’re there for them. If they have concerns, fears, or needs, this is the time to pick up the phone or talk online. The Small Group leader will host the virtual meeting and send out invites. SOUND • • Be aware of where you are setting up the call in your home (dogs, dishwasher, tv on, etc.). Learn how to mute and unmute yourself. You should keep your microphone muted while you are not speaking to help sound quality. • Avoid noisy activities like typing while your microphone is on. • VIDEO • • Think about the angle. Are we seeing up your nose? What is behind you? Keep your background clear of distractions. When speaking, it is more personal to look at your webcam instead of the screen. LIGHTING • Lighting should come from in front of you in order to best light your face. HELP EVERYONE FOCUS • When multiple people talk at once, it becomes quite hard to hear anyone. HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE WITH YOUR Set a time and link for people to join. SMALL GROUP • • Text reminders with the Virtual Small Group meeting address. STRUCTURE THE SMALL GROUP TIME • • • Read/watch prior to group time. Consider using the sermon-based curriculum during this time. Add a fun element to the beginning! Trivia game? Get creative (A great idea – download the “Steam” application and purchase Jackbox Games for $15. Then you can screen share and everyone can join in to play). Pray together each time with specifics. SECURE YOUR GROUP • • • • • • Create meetings from the Zoom website (not mobile device or app). This allows you to choose more secure settings. Always make sure there is a Host. Never have a meeting without a Host. Use the meeting password feature. This will give participants a password to enter the meeting. Use the waiting room feature so that only the Host can give permission to join the meeting. Disable screen share for all users. Only allow for the Host, if you need that feature. Also, the Host can lock the meeting so that no one else is able to join. 07
FREE VIRTUAL GROUP MEETING PLATFORMS ZOOM • 300 Max Participants • Screen Sharing • Recording Capabilities • IM Chat in meeting SKYPE • 20 Max Participants • Screen Sharing • Recording Capabilities • IM Chat in meeting • Background Blur (if you don’t see what needs to be cleaned up behind you) • Mobile and desktop capabilities • Works with all OS • Free signup • Mobile and desktop capabilities • Works with all OS • No signup • No downloads • Join meeting via shared link GOOGLE HANGOUTS • 25 Max Participants • Automatic Focus • Screen Sharing • Intelligent Muting • Sharing Options in call • IM Chat capabilities • Recording capabilities • Mobile and desktop capabilities • Integrated with Google ecosystem • Works on most OS FACETIME CALL • 32 Max Participants • Works on most Apple devices • Record video calls • Transfer video calls from computer to phone mid-call • Apple mobile and desktop capabilities • FaceTime call from goup message conversation • No signup • The free version only allows for 40 minute meeting duration for 3 participants or more • No toll-free dial-in numbers • Need to download plug-in prior to use • Best option for larger groups • Easiest setup option for smaller groups with various mobile and PC operating systems • Small participant max • Need a Google account to access (free account creation available) • Does not work well with non-Chrome web browsers • No recording capabilities • Best option for those familiar with Google • Probably the worst option for most groups • Best option for groups who already have an iPhone group conversation going with blue text bubbles • No IM chat during call. Done through messages • No screen sharing • Only works on Apple devices 08 CONCLUSION CONS PROS FEATURES
KIDS MINISTRY RESOURCES HOW TO REACH AND CONNECT WITH FAMILIES ONLINE Goal: To keep kids and families connected to God, church and each other and to challenge parents to take a bigger role in discipling their kids. PRESCHOOL 1. Main Bible Content • Strategy: Provide families of preschoolers with an engaging and fun church experience at home using our Sunday morning curriculum. • How? • Online Sunday Services: crosschurch.com/live • Parent Cue App: https://theparentcue.org/app. We customize our preschool families’ app experience by uploading additional activities and crafts for parents to use to engage their preschooler throughout the week. 2. Stay Connected • Strategy: Stay connected to our preschool families and Dream Team members (volunteers) to love, support, and encourage them during this season. • How? • Personalized, hand written cards to preschoolers and Dream Team members on a regular schedule. • Texts and phone calls to preschool parents and to Dream Team members. • We use Facebook and Instagram accounts for our ministry as a way to inform parents of ministry opportunities and to stay connected with them online. 3. Get Creative • Strategy: Come up with fun, creative opportunities to engage with families of preschoolers during social distancing. • How? • Drive-thru events: Opportunities for parents to bring preschoolers and pick-up activity bags. An added bonus to the drive-thru was staff dressed in character costumes. • Awana drive-thru: We hosted our end-of-the-year Awana Awards Celebration as a drive-thru. • Chalk driveways: We leave birthday messages and special “We miss you” messages to families on their driveways. • Sunday craft bags: We have provided craft bags for Preschoolers that go along with our Sunday morning lesson. • Social media challenges: We posted various social media challenges for preschool families to do together such as scavenger hunts, service challenges and scripture memory challenges. CHILDREN 1. Main Bible Content • Strategy: Provide kids with an engaging and fun church experience at home using our Sunday morning curriculum. • How? • Children Sunday online service: https: //www.dropbox.com/sh/ l54wvihj22svbfl/AABetY-cSmeB3Wa8rOq4koGTa?dl=0 • Parent Cue App: https://theparentcue.org/app. We customize our families’ app experience by uploading additional small group lessons for parents to use to engage their children throughout the week. 2. Social Media • Strategy: Expand our online audience. To provide fun activities to kids and families that they can do together with the goal of laughing together. • How? • @homechallenge. Each week we offer a different, simple challenge. CHILDRENS’ RESOURCES (Continued) • Challenge ideas include: Whip cream challenge, chubby bunny challenge, blanket fort challenge, scavenger hunt challenge and paper airplane challenge. 3. Make It Personal • Strategy: Help kids and Dream Teamers feel loved and appreciated during this time of social distancing. As well as build relationships with families and keep them connected to the church. • How? • Personal notes to every child as often as possible from the staff and small group leaders. • Phone calls/text to Dream Teamers every week. • Birthday Patrol: Drive-by parades for kids and Dream Team members on their birthday. • Chalking driveways 4. Stay Connected • Strategy: To keep kids connected to small group leaders, our staff, and each other, and to have fun! • How? • Zoom Calls (age-grade) • Invite Small group Leader to be a part of the Zoom calls. • Keep Zoom calls short. 20 minutes max. • Keep it personal by introducing family members, showing off pets, also let them see your silly side. • Play games such as Speak Out, silent karaoke, and scavenger hunt. • NOTE: Be ready for a bit of chaos because the younger they are the less they understand the mute function. Continued on page 10. . . 09
CHILDREN / ABILITY 1. Main Bible content • Strategy: Provided special needs kids, adults and families with biblical content for them at home. • How? • Online Service • Packets mailed to them with Sunday bible stories • Parent Cue • Any social stories about the COVID-19 that can help them understand what is going on. • Family Resources: https://www. dropbox.com/sh/l54wvihj22svbfl/ AABetY-cSmeB3Wa8rOq4koGTa?dl=0 2. Social Contact or Staying Connected • Strategy: Continue to build a relationships and be a support for them. • How? • FaceTime • Text • Letters • Phone calls CHILDREN / DEAF MINISTRY 1. Bible Content. • Strategy: To continue to reach the deaf in our community and keep our current members spiritually fed. • How? • Interpret all online services • Wednesday night online Zoom classes • Sunday morning online small group 2. Social Media • Strategy: To build relationships and give them support. • How? • Family picture boards in church seats • Text • Letters • Facebook post • Easter baskets delivered with invites to watch online • Grocery shopping • Rides to work MINISTRY
01 STAY CONNECTED Strategy: Help students and Dream Team Members (Cross Church volunteers) feel loved and appreciated even during a time of social distancing. How? • Handwritten note cards • Mail handwritten cards to all students and Dream Team members (volunteers). • Pull last 60 days of first-time guests and send personalized handwritten notes. • Text and Phone Calls • Pull a 6-month report and contact every student via text or phone call. • Ask Dream Team members to contact students in their small groups. • Weekly Text System Mon: Prayer, Wed: Remind about Groups / Connection / Check In, Fri: Encouragement Text • Multiplication Investment Meeting with 5 students & going through a plan on the Bible App that is 5-7 days. At the end, they then meet with 2-3 friends and do the study together. 02 GET CREATIVE Strategy: Come up with ways to stay connected with students/ parents using social media. How? • We post weekly devotionals every attach Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4pm on Facebook and Instagram. • Along with the devotionals, we also the same content into a parent email in case students or parents are not on social media. • The content is taken from our Pastor’s Sunday message (sermon-based devotionals). • On the other days of the week, we post challenges and interactive content to keep students engaged and laughing. Examples: Trick-shot videos, Instagram Live Sessions, etc. • Encourage Sunday small groups to use platforms like Zoom or FaceTime to interact and checkin. How? • Contact your local public school administrators and don’t just ask, but offer your assistance. • We’ve helped our local school districts deliver food to students. • We’ve also helped administrators sort through and handout Chromebooks. • Hand deliver handwritten notes to administrators. • Deliver donuts/coffee/Sonic drinks - something small to let them know they are not alone. • Hopping on Zoom calls with FCA’s . 03 MINISTRY IN THE COMMUNITY Strategy: Our goal is to continue to have strong partnerships with our community partners by continuing to love on them. 11
CROSS CHURCH HOSPITAL WORKERS’ DAY CAMP STEP 1 Identify the need. Is it something your medical community needs and are they willing to partner with you? Make sure your area medical community is on board and helping you promote this. Note: Our hospital provided staffing to do all our medical screening each morning and everyone had to wear a colored bracelet to show they passed. This is vitally important to ensure safety for all. In addition, they provided scrubs, masks, and gloves for our leaders, if they wanted them. STEP 2 Identify who is willing to work the day camp. Many may not be able to due to the high risk of exposure that comes with the parent’s profession. STEP 3 Determine if this is something you provide for free or will you charge? STEP 4 Contact your local childcare licensing agencies. In Arkansas, we are only allowed three weeks of childcare-type events. Anything beyond the three requires a license. Note: We were able to appeal to our local state leaders and granted special permission to offer our Day Camp. Failure to do this could affect your ability to offer VBS, Day Camps, etc. Also, it’s important to note that childcare for children below kindergarten age brings on a whole different set of guidelines and exposure for workers. We chose to only offer for elementary age as our preschools were not closed. 12
STEP 5 Determine your capacity. Much of this will be determined by how many leaders you have and/or space available. Important things to consider: a. Number of kids per class. We chose to have 8 kids and 2 leaders per class to stay within the limit of 10 meeting in groups. We kept them separate throughout the day. The number of leaders will drive how many kids you can have. Note: Background checks are a must for ALL leaders. In addition, 2 non-related leaders per class is highly encouraged. b. Keeping facilities clean. We have an ongoing schedule for our custodians to continually clean our facilities and “high touch” surfaces throughout the day. Each day, we give the custodians a list of every room we use... even if it’s brief. The more kids you have, the more space used and the greater need for custodial staff. c. School work. This is complicated because the kids aren’t all one grade or even from one school. We divided our kids into 2 groups, K-2 and 3-5th. We asked them to bring assignments with them as well as their own devices to work on as needed. Parents understood that kids might not finish all their work each day (though they have all been able to so far). The more kids, the harder this is. Note: Also, make sure Wi-Fi is available and can handle the number of kids you plan to have, as all kids will require access to Internet to do their work. STEP 6 Create a schedule. We try to incorporate time for school work, time for physical activity, time for art/ craft, and lunch as well as bible/worship time. Important things to consider: a. Lunch. We ask our kids to bring their own lunch each day. Our church members have jumped on board and provided lunches for leaders each day. They bring in individually boxed lunches from local restaurants each day. This allows them to be a part of ministry, blesses our leaders, and helps our local restaurants. b. Bible Curriculum. We found that the kids we have enrolled have little to no exposure to church. We feel it is imperative that we use this time to share Christ with them. We have recycled old curriculum to make this work rather than recreate it. We treat it much like a Sunday morning with a bible story, activities, and crafts that center on the story for the day. c. Playgrounds, equipment, etc., all need to be included in cleaning regiment. d. Hours for your Day Camp/Children. We opted to fill the gap left by school closures. Most hospital staff work 12-hour shifts, 7 AM to 7 PM. We could not offer childcare for that length of time, so we opted to offer it from 7:30 AM to 4:15 PM, to cover the times the kids would normally be in school. We also only offer screening until 10 AM. No child or leader can come after that time. STEP 7 Security. This can vary according to each church’s preference. However, some sort of check in/out process needs to be in place. We require parents to sign kids in/out each day and only authorized people can pick up and they can only pick up if they have the security tag provided at check in. Beyond this we have armed security on property at all times. STEP 8 Have FUN... love on the kids and families. Be the hands and feet of Jesus... God can use this in amazing ways in your church and community. OTHER IDEAS TO CONSIDER: 01 Add your families to your email lists to receive your Sunday content for kids and adults. 02 Our church families have provided gift bags each day to send home with the parents with encouraging notes, and various gifts like candy, popcorn, red box download cards, etc. 13
COMMUNITY OUTREACH FEED THE 479 Matthew 25:40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Compassion NWA established in September 2011 is a non-profit regional ministry of Cross Church that reaches thousands each year through its mission: To create locally sourced opportunities to give, serve, and engage a community in need while building a grace-driven organization that feeds the most vulnerable. Feed The 479 is a food insecurity ministry within the Compassion NWA organization serving the most vulnerable through a client choice pantry. Established in 2015 at Compassion NWA, this ministry of Cross Church serves over 47,000 hungry individuals annually. During the COVID-19 outbreak adjustments and adaptation to the circumstances helped us continue to fulfill the promise to feed the hungry in NWA. Here’s how! 14
.loca 03 STAY PREPARED • You just think you’re busy now. i. First wave (We are here.) 02 STAY ENGAGED 01 STAY SAFE • Ensuring the safety of your staff, volunteers, and clients should be priority #1. i. Implement temperature reading of all staff and volunteers before event. ii. Provide gloves, masks, and sanitizer to all staff and volunteers before event. iii. Practice safe social distancing with a zero-contact expectation. • Move out of the building i. What was once done inside should now be moved outside. We did this by moving our pantry experience to a drive-through distribution format. ii. Keep clients in their vehicles. iii. Gather all important information. • Use Technology i. Replace information forms within iPads or cell phones that can be sanitized. • Now is the time to recruit. Never let a crisis be wasted. i. Recruit FROM relationship • People you know who are being paid, but are at home. • People you know who are out of work, but want something to do. • People you know who have a passion to help and now have the time. ii. Recruit FOR relationship • Corporations who are ready to donate now in a crisis and in the future because of how your non-profit or church handled the crisis. • Organizations who are looking for effective non-profits and churches to partner with during a crisis. • Note: During a crisis there are organizations and corporations who allow specific grants to be written to fund projects that meet certain criteria related to the crisis. Apply NOW! www.grantwatch.com (fees apply) • Specifically, during this crisis, the first wave is the panic wave. Prepare for what you have previously served to increase by 20%. a. If you buy food for your ministry, plan to buy more. b. If you get your food is donated, reach out to your donors for more. c. Recruit more volunteers to help with the increase in clients. d. Increase your supplies. v. Second wave (It’s coming.) • This is the wave that will increase by 40% or more depending upon the area you serve and the local unemployment rate. • See above and continue to grow in all areas of recruitment and donations. vi. Resources • Your local or regional food bank. • Your local grocery stores. Many of them would love to donate their produce and meats to make room for fresher foods. • Your congregation. They want to help! • Bread companies love to donate overstock. • Restaurants love to donate meals or overstock. 15
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