Learning and Adjusting in the Corona Era

RTB Zoom session, April 22, 2020

One of the impacts of the Covid crisis has been on the Atlanta Chapter of Reasons to Believe, of which Rod is current President. It was clear that we couldn't meet in March with the prohibition of gatherings, and the hosting church, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, had ceased all such public gatherings. Approaching the April meeting date, we had to come to the same conclusion, and the national RTB organization had requested that no chapters have public meetings lest we worsen the already tragic consequences of the pandemic.

A nationwide Zoom meeting of RTB chapter leaders was scheduled for April 22 to review with leaders the current status relative to the virus and to review with us changes in the RTB organization.

We had a maximum of 59 participants at any one time. The above collection is a set of three screen shots, which is 75 photos, but there may be some participants omitted since the distribution shifted a lot. Colin Green, Richard Howe and myself represented the Atlanta Chapter. One of the topics we discussed was the high level of activity of the RTB scholars with online meetings of various kinds around the country. In particular, they are participating in the RTB Live sessions on the RTB Utube channel, and a comment was made that the number participating in a session had reached about 480.

Sunday, April 26, 2020

The picture of the Mableton First Baptist congregation above was taken on Homecoming Day, August 17, 1980. At that time the sancturary was in the area of the current Fellowship Hall. Our second Sunday to try a Zoom session with our Sunday School class brought together 17 persons. Together on the screen were Jesslyn and Roger Frater, Brenda and Rod Nave, Karla and Chris Ayers, Stella Davis, Brenda Speight, Keith and Betsy Weaver, Tony Mode, Bob and Gail Wade, Kelley and Doug Brandon, Mike and Cheryl Anthony. We are still learning about having a smooth Zoom session. In the image above, I displayed a slide from a February 2015 lesson which had an appropriate topic. It seemed to work better in editing mode with the slide thumbnails down the left side because it left more room for the members' pictures on the right. The display of the "gallery" of participants can be changed to be able to see everyone, within limits. We started with prayer, sharing of prayer requests, and general sharing about what was going on with us. Then I moved through the slides of this lesson on The Body of Christ with a lot of good sharing from the members of the class. We stayed in the Zoom session for about 50 minutes and then closed to join the livestream worship service from the Mableton First Baptis Church with Pastor Ian Bowers bringing the message and Ryan Ayers leading us in music.

The enormous difficulties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic has of course led to a lot of disagreements about difficult judgments, such as when and how much to open up society. Georgia's Governor Kemp has started cautious opening of some businesses, but our churches are not yet having public services. But we had a lot of discussion about the closeness it has brought to our families and that the Lord is bringing good to our families in the sense of Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

After our livestreamed worship service, we joined the worship service for Jeff and family's church, Northshore Church in Slidell, LA. Andrew Ogea and Brauny Victory lead in a worship song. It appears that they are in different locations and can sync together.

Then Justin and Emily Trussel led in another worship song.

Pastor Larry McEwen brought a wonderful message on David and his pattern of forgiveness of the evils sought against him by Saul. Note the active Chat board on the right where listeners wer eactively posting messages and responses.

We are trying to be helpful to Iglesia de Mableton since the New Harvest (Old Glen Forest) church has been sold to the Torre Fuerte congregation and they have had to move out. Above left, Pastor Javier Lopez and his worship leaders are setting up for a Facebook Live online service on May 3. On May 10 (above right) they tried setting up outside of the breezeway and let worshippers come in their cars.

On May 17 the Iglesia de Mableton service was again done virtually from the Fellowship Hall, with three cameras feeding to Diego's laptop and put online by the church's wireless service. As Covid precautions, they spread out seats in the Fellowship Hall and encouraged masks.

This is the setting for MFBC worship on May 17, with every other row taped off and at least 6ft distance between family groups. The worship services resumed about May 1, but Brenda and I had not yet joined those because we were Zooming with our Sunday School class, joining this service on LiveStream, and then joining Jeff & Darla's worship service online from Northshore Church in Slidell, LA.