This article was originally posted on Scott Catoe’s personal blog, Replanting Me. It has been posted here with permission.

Replanting a church is crisis management on multiple levels simply because a church that is in decline is facing a series of crises on multiple fronts. Lack of workers, lack of resources, and a tone of despondency are all common factors in many struggling congregations. As leaders engage in the work of replanting, there seems to be an endless string of internal crises that can suck all of the time out of a pastor’s week. The ability to address the important issues when every issue seems urgent, quickly becomes an invaluable trait for church replanters.

The whole world has now entered into crisis mode because of COVID-19. As a result, our inboxes are flooded with resources, suggestions, and strategies for retooling churches or preparing congregations for the changes that are coming and the last thing I want to do is add to the noise. I have found, however, that this time has led me to ask some important questions, some of which are specific to the work of replanting, that have helped me not just weather the current changes, but also to help think about the unique work of replanting in the midst of a unique time. Here are five questions I am asking myself:

1. What have we stopped doing that we probably shouldn’t restart? There has been a giant pause button pushed for many (for some, all) of the activities and programs of the church. For many of us as replanters, there is a giant elephant in the room: some of the things that we have stopped doing were things that should have been stopped many, many years ago. How do we leverage this time to ask good and important questions to our leadership teams, so that we can utilize the time wisely, and in a way that keeps us from using energy restarting things that should most likely be stopped for good?

2. What have we started doing that we probably shouldn’t stop? One of the surprising things about this time for me is how much time I am spending doing some things that have been tremendously meaningful to our community. My temptation, and most likely yours to, is to get back to “business as usual” as soon as we are allowed. However, I am doing some things now that may be extremely valuable even after the pandemic is over. For instance, since I no longer have the option of face to face contact with people, I have started calling people on our membership roll, beginning with the A’s and working my way through to Z. There is no reason I should stop doing this; in fact, it is a really helpful practice!

3. What have we learned that was missing from our mission? The silence of lack of ministry activity in our congregations can be deafening. A few weeks prior to our world changing so dramatically, we had already identified that loneliness, especially for our singles and senior adults, was a critical problem that needed addressing immediately; self-quarantining and shutdowns have exacerbated that problem. Our intentional care for those people was something that was missing from the mission. We need to utilize this different time to ask ourselves what was missing. What did we just think we were doing that was, in reality, lacking from our mission? For example, the last sentence of our mission statement is to “go into our community and around the world with the Gospel.” As our church decentralized, and families around the community gather in their own homes on Sunday, it has become clear that we were pretty lacking in the actual work of going into our community with the Gospel. I’m not proud of that, but it was reality. This pandemic has helped us see the reality of this problem.

4. What is the real focus of our congregation? Most of the lament I hear about our current situation is the lack of being able to gather on Sunday morning. I feel this. It is painful to go to an empty building on Sunday mornings. It is difficult to even think about what my weekly schedule looks like without the consistent encouragement I receive from gathering on Sundays. But, there is another reality at play here: Sunday is only part of the picture. The programs we offer are really nice, but they are not supposed to be the focus of our church, nor are they actually supposed to be the focus of all our energy. Times like this, when we do not have the ability to gather in large groups, or attract people with our programs, reveal to us as leaders what the actual focus of our congregation is, and where we are actually spending our energy.

5. What is next? This one is critical. The Great Commission has not stopped being the Great Commission because of a Global pandemic. Throughout history, the church has experienced revival and growth during the times of greatest adversity. But it will not happen if we passively wait for things to get “back to normal.” Revival on an individual, local church, or global scale will not happen by the church being in a holding pattern. Now is the time to act. To pray. To really think about what matters and focus on creative ways to continue to be the church and fulfill the Great Commission. How are we doing this? How are we utilizing the time we have (and the copious amounts of time our people have suddenly discovered) to reach our communities for Christ? What is next?

There are many more questions we should be asking than these five, but these five have occupied my time over the last couple of weeks. May we as leaders see this not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity. God is not surprised by COVID-19, even though we may have been. May we rest in Christ, and beg God for wisdom as we seek to lead His church for His glory.

One of the most encouraging things about being a Southern Baptist is knowing the SBC’s desire and passion to send missionaries all over the world. Not only do we have the North American Mission Board (NAMB) but also the International Mission Board (IMB). This blog post is going to focus mostly on the IMB.

The IMB president, Paul Chitwood, said that the International Mission Board has served the nations for 174 years. That means for 174 years, missionaries have been sent to proclaim the gospel to all peoples, tribes, and tongues. Chitwood said, “Every church, regardless of size and resources, has a role to play in every nation hearing the gospel. And the nations are waiting.” One way, as a local church, that we can play a role in this endeavor is through the Annie Armstrong (NAMB) and Lottie Moon offerings (IMB).  All the money raised from these two offerings goes straight to sending people out with the gospel.

But our giving of money is not the only way we can support missions through our convention. One of the main ways we can support missions is through sending people out and then praying for and over their ministry. We as a church have this amazing opportunity! Heather Tolbert has accepted God’s call on her life to serve in Argentina and we have the amazing task and mission to support her through our prayers.

As believers, we all know the importance of missions and that God calls us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Paul Chitwood said, “The gospel is being preached among the nations, and we are privileged to be a part of it.” Even after typing these thing though I fear that, even with this knowledge, we are quick to lose sight of this command or forget about it all together. There are missionaries all over the world living out this call and how quick are we to forget them in our prayers. We are quick to say that we will stay in touch and intentionally pray, but we are often quick to let the distance drive us apart.

I know this firsthand from my service in West Africa, and, even though I served for the IMB for 2 years, I am still guilty of allowing myself to get so busy that I forget to lift my brothers and sisters in Christ up to the Lord. I plead with you. We cannot say we are sending a missionary out without committing to pray regularly for them and their ministry. We may still be in the comforts of the United States, but we must stand by our missionaries.

This was definitely a conviction I experienced during the International Mission Board Commissioning service at the Southern Baptist Convention. We were able to take part in commissioning 26 missionaries who are accepting the call of missions on their lives all over the world. There were people from all over the US and they were all going out with the same goal, to make Christ known. What a sobering thought and moment. To hear the hearts of all of these people and their longing to go to a culture that is not their own. But even with this in mind, God’s call to share the gospel with the lost far outweighs the comforts of home. Paul Chitwood challenged us as we heard these stories to do 3 things: Listen, Pray, and Consider. Listen to how God is at work in these people’s lives, pray for the missionaries/the people they are going to serve, and consider how we as the local church can be a part of God’s global mission.

Heather actually had the opportunity to share about her passion and why she was going to serve in Argentina. I loved how she worded it. She said, “Throughout my life God has filled me with joy in my salvation… He has called me to take the gospel to those who haven’t heard so they might know that same joy.” What a beautiful way to describe the precious gift of salvation that Christ has given us.

One of the really cool parts of the commissioning service was when each missionary being sent out carried a flag with the name of the overarching people group that they will serve. So for example, Heather will be serving in South America, so she carried a flag for the Americas. They had music going and we could see how people were going all over the world. It was a beautiful picture of seeing fellow Southern Baptists/believers displaying their willingness to go to the nations.

Another interesting aspect of the commissioning service was that they had the lights off. Why, you may ask? Well, as I’m sure you already know, not everywhere in our world is open to allowing Christians into their countries. This means missionaries go in under particular job titles to protect their identity. For example, someone going to the Middle East as a missionary may have a cover job of a photographer or maybe even a businessman. This is the IMB’s way of enabling these individuals to get into the country without signing their death warrant. Having the lights out was their way of protecting the people who are going to difficult and unreached locations which are hostile to the gospel.

I have to admit, I got choked up during this part of the convention. Serving with the IMB firsthand, I had a small glimpse into what they must have been feeling during that moment. The excitement, the unknown that awaits, the sadness of leaving family/friends. Let’s just say, a big mix of all the emotions at one time. But in the midst of my emotions, Paul Chitwood charged us as Southern Baptist churches and, more importantly, as believers to go alongside these missionaries through our prayers. He called us to not look on these people as untouchables but to remember that they are just like us.

This is why it is so important to pray and stay connected with our missionaries. We must find meaningful ways to keep these individuals, particularly Heather, in our prayers. One way that David and I have found helpful is a weekly prayer calendar on our fridge. Each day of the week, we have a particular missionary or church that we intentionally pray for. Other ways are to keep prayer cards in your Bible or around your house in places that you see on a regular basis. It does not matter what method you choose just as long as we are praying for our missionaries.

The mission field is hard. You are in the midst of a culture, and usually a language, that is difficult to understand and Satan is trying everything that he can to hinder your ministry. But our Father is good and he called these individuals to go. We cannot take that lightly.

On June 11 and 12, my wife and I were sent as messengers from Slater Baptist Church to the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, Alabama.

Unless you are very familiar with the way Southern Baptists operate, the sentence above probably does not make a lot of sense to you. Don’t worry, there are a multitude of members of Southern Baptist churches that would not understand what I mean by “messenger” or why I went to Birmingham, so you are in good company. To be honest, I’ve been a Southern Baptist for years (even went to a Southern Baptist Seminary) and I didn’t really understand what being a messenger to the Southern Baptist Convention would mean until I was one.

Over the coming weeks, Savannah and I would like to share what we learned from our experiences at the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention, but I thought it would be helpful to start by giving a picture of what the Southern Baptist Convention is.

One of the things that makes this discussion confusing is that there are two ways to define “Southern Baptist Convention.” Most of the time, when people talk about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC for short), they mean “a network of like-minded, autonomous churches that cooperate together for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission.” The word “autonomous” is super important to that definition and I’ll explain why in a later blog. Southern Baptists are known for holding The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a statement of their beliefs as well as giving to the Cooperative Program to support mission efforts. The Cooperative Program supports 11 Southern Baptist entities, including seminaries, the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, and the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission.

But there is another definition of “Southern Baptist Convention.” The second definition goes something like this: “the annual meeting of representatives from Southern Baptist Churches that come together to conduct the business of the Convention and hear reports concerning issues affecting all Southern Baptists.” When using this definition, the technical name is “Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting,” but I’ve never actually heard anyone say that. Everyone just says “Southern Baptist Convention.”

These representatives from Southern Baptist Churches are called “messengers.” The Southern Baptist Convention meets together once a year (during the month of June) for two days. During these two days, Southern Baptists vote on all of the business facing their network of churches for the entire year. Yes, you read that correctly. Southern Baptists only come together to vote on SBC business once a year, so they have to handle all the important matters facing the convention in just two days.

You might be asking, how does this work? Well, think about your church’s business meetings. At Slater Baptist, we hold business meetings about once every three months. At those meetings, members hear reports on what has happened in the past few months, share ideas on what the church should do in the future, elect church officers like pastors or deacons, and vote on any relevant items of business. In the time leading up to those meetings, a lot of work is done by the leadership of Slater Baptist Church to prepare proposals and update the church on what is happening. In many ways, the decisions made at our business meetings affect how the church is run after those meetings.

The Southern Baptist Convention is like a church business meeting on a grand scale. During the two day meeting, every institution that receives Cooperative Program funding gives a report to the messengers. Messengers have the opportunity to make motions and share their thoughts about what the SBC should do. Messengers vote for officers within the SBC, like president, vice president, etc. The leaders of various Southern Baptist entities discuss what they believe the Southern Baptist Convention should do in the future. And, lastly, messengers vote on items of business related to this particular network of churches.

The elected officers and items of business that are voted on can have a huge impact on the way the SBC operates year round. As an example, the election of officers and the voting of messengers over a number of years actually pulled the SBC out of liberalism in the 1980s and 1990s. Without the actions of the messengers at the Southern Baptist Conventions during those years, the SBC would not be the conservative denomination that it is today.

So, essentially, the Southern Baptist Convention is a business meeting for all the churches within the network of churches known as the Southern Baptist Convention.

So, let’s try this again. On June 11 and 12, my wife and I were sent as messengers from Slater Baptist Church to the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, Alabama. And we are excited to share our experiences with you in the coming weeks!