Almost overnight church life, family life, and work-life were upside down. Here in NC, we have been in Lockdown, Stay at Home orders since the end of March.

This is very jarring and we are having to process things we never dreamed we would.

But here is what is thrilling. The Great Commission is not on lockdown. The Word of God is not on quarantine. The voice of God in a family is not muzzled. The Gospel is not hindered. The Holy Spirit is not under a “Shelter at Home” order. The Church is uncontainable and the gates of hell will never prevail against it.

We are excited about the ways we can meet the challenges upon us. The Lord reigns and He has brought new challenges before churches and families. We want to be faithful to make adjustments that this unique opportunity affords.

Here is what we have been doing:

First, we are communicating with our base of pastors and families. I have been on the phone with many pastors all over the world, praying and talking, getting their thoughts and hearing their stories.

Within the last four weeks, we have conducted three live webinars on the subject, with pastors joining me giving their thoughts. Over 2000 people have viewed these videos.

Broadcast #1: Issues and Opportunities of this Crisis, Scott Brown, Sam Waldron, and Jeff Pollard and Anthony Mathenia.

Broadcast #2: A Christian Response to the Unfolding Pandemic, Joel Beeke, Pooyan Mehrshahi, Scott Aniol, and Scott Brown.

Broadcast #3: Advice for Families, Kevin Swanson, Carlton McLeod, Kris Bains, and Scott Brown.

Tune in to our next Live Video Webinar, April 23 at 8:00 Eastern time.

Second, I have written a dozen or so pieces to help churches and families think biblically about the things that are upon us. You can read them or listen to them by clicking here.

We created a dedicated landing page on our web site with lots of resources: "Thinking Biblically About COVID-19."

Third, We are in the process of adjusting, expanding and re-tooling to meet the current environment. Since we may be deprived of face to face meetings for the near future, for now, we are working on how we meet the challenges of an online audience. We have had to cancel two conferences already.

We have been busier than ever at the NCFIC, triangulating.

Fourth, we are staying on point with our message. We believe it is extremely relevant in these times. The Lord has charged us to speak to the issues of the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life - the heart of the new problems and opportunities presented by COVID-19.

We have canceled two live conferences so far. We don’t know how things will play out but we are remaining flexible but active. 

While we are waiting for things to unfold, we are innovating to switch our thinking toward online events for the balance of this year - at least for our small regional gatherings. 

We have NOT canceled our National Conference but are monitoring the situation.

There is danger in the air: It is a perilous time for the church. Her liberty to do the many of the things that God commands the church to do have been banned. This has never happened in our lifetimes in America.

I’m most concerned about what will happen when all this blows over. 

Earth-shaking changes have taken place at lightning speed. 

We don’t yet know what long term damage will these be for the economy, medicine, travel, church, family, personal relationships and communication.

Here is what we do know: The Church and the family are under attack but what is comforting is that the church and the family are also under very clear divine orders to meet together, sing, pray, take the Lord’s Supper, baptize, practice the ‘One another's and visit the sick and to obey “all that Jesus commanded,” as we are instructed in the Great Commission.

We will keep you updated on our activities. 

In the meantime, remember that scripture is sufficient for church and family life. Your health and the health of the church of Jesus Christ depends on it.

Thanks for listening, and let us know what you think. You can easily send us your comments, questions, and suggestions by responding to this email. We hope to hear from you.

Also, tune in to the webinars and the articles I've written to help us think biblically about the issues that surround COVID-19.

Hello, Scott Brown here for the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. Almost overnight church life, family life, and work life got turned upside down. Here in North Carolina we've been in lockdown, stay-at-home orders, since the end of March. Very jarring, very surprising, and we're having to process things that we've never dreamed that we would before. But here's what is thrilling.

The Great Commission is not on lockdown. The word of God is not in quarantine. The voice of God in a family has not been muzzled. The gospel's not hindered. The Holy Spirit is not under shelter at home orders.

The church is uncontainable and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. And so the opportunities are great for us and we're excited about the ways that we can meet the challenges that are upon us now. The Lord reigns and he's brought new challenges before churches and families and before us and we want to make be faithful to make adjustments at this really unique opportunity. So I want to tell you what we've been doing. First of all, we're communicating with our base of pastors and families and I've been on the phone with many pastors all over the world praying and talking and getting their thoughts and hearing their stories.

And you may have noticed within the last four weeks we've conducted three live webinars with pastors joining me giving their thoughts. Over 2, 000 people have viewed these videos. In the first broadcast, we talked about issues and opportunities of the crisis. I had Sam Waldron and Jeff Pollard and Anthony Metheny with me. On the second broadcast, we talked about a Christian's response to the unfolding problem with Joel Beekie and Pouyan Mirshahi and Scott Anial.

And then the third broadcast we were giving advice for families with Kevin Swanson and Carlton McLeod and Chris Bains. Tune in to our next live webinar on April 23rd at 8 o'clock Eastern Time. At the end of this video, we'll show you where to go to sign up and reserve your seat. The second thing we've been doing is I've written a dozen or so pieces to help churches and families Think Biblically about the things that are upon us. You can read them or listen to them by clicking on the link in the article below.

We created a dedicated landing page on our website with lots of resources called Thinking biblically about COVID-19. The third thing that we're doing is that we're in the process of adjusting and expanding retooling to meet the current environment. Since we may be deprived of face-to-face meetings for the near future, for now we're working on how we can meet the challenges of an online audience and shift what we do. We've had to cancel two conferences already, live ones, and we've been busier than ever triangulating to understand how we can continue to speak. The fourth thing that we're doing is that we're staying on point with our message.

We believe that the message of the sufficiency of Scripture is extremely relevant in these times. The Lord has charged us to speak to the issues of the sufficiency of Scripture for church and family life and that really is the heart of many of the opportunities presented by COVID-19. So even though we've canceled two live conferences so far, and we don't know how things are gonna play out for the rest of the year, we're being flexible. And while we're waiting for things to unfold, we're innovating to switch our thinking toward online events for the balance of this year, at least for our small regional meetings. We've not canceled our national conference, but our monitoring the situation will keep you updated.

There's danger in the air. It's a perilous time for the church. Her liberty to do the things that God commands the church to do have been banned and this has never happened in our lifetimes in America. I praise God for the freedoms we have had. I pray that they aren't gobbled up by excuses that are going to happen after all of this happens.

I'm most concerned about what will happen when all this blows over. Earth-shaking changes have taken place at lightning speed and we don't yet know what the long-term damage will be for the economy, for medicine, for travel, for church, for family, for personal relationships, for communication, for meetings of the church. Here's what we do know. The church and the family are under attack, but what is so comforting is that the church and the family are under very clear divine orders to do particular things, to sing and pray and take the Lord's Supper and baptize and practice the one another's and visit the sick and obey all the things that Jesus commanded as we're instructed in the Great Commission. And we're also commanded to meet together.

We pray that our meeting together will be back on target again soon. We'll keep you updated on our activities. If you've not signed up for updates, please sign up for our mailing list for updates on what's happening. In the meantime, remember that scripture is sufficient for church and family life. Your health and the health of the Church of Jesus Christ depends on it.

Thanks for listening, and let us know what you think. You can easily send us comments, questions, and suggestions by clicking on the web address in the article below. We hope to hear from you. Also, tune into the webinars, read the articles I've written to help us think biblically about the issues that surround COVID-19. God bless you and thank you for listening.