Isolated Church: Week Two – Isolation

Grow with God during the COVID-19 lockdown

Week two: Isolation…

How are you getting on. Are you stuck home with family? Getting fed up of just seeing friends through a screen? Exhausted all the decent shows on Netflix?

Isolation is forcing us to live life in a completely new way. We hope you’re coping O.K. and have found ways to connect with others and maintain friendships. It’s likely your church, youth group and community probably look very different and several weeks in, you might be thinking that connecting online is starting to feel a bit frustrating. But as we look at persecuted Christians around the world for whom isolation is not a new thing, they show us that this time of enforced distancing can actually be an opportunity for us to get closer to each other, and closer to God.

So, for the next 20 minutes or so (see the note on the below if you’re not a big reader), take some time to focus in on God, a source of comfort, hope and friendship in these times of enforced isolation and social distancing.

Week two: Reflection download…

Download this little devotional for prayers, stories, activities and some Bible stuff to help you see this time of isolation as an opportunity to grow with God and your mates. Reading through, with some time to stop, think and pray, shouldn’t take no longer than 20 minutes max, but take your time, we want this stuff to sink in for you! This reflection works alongside the video, so you can either stream it or download a copy…

Download the Isolated Church ‘Isolation’ reflection…

Download the Isolated Church ‘Isolation’ video…

Short on time? Only got five minutes?

If you haven’t got loads of time or aren’t a big reader, don’t panic, you can still use the materials. Try this:

  • Download the reflection and read through the Pastor Huang Li story
  • Then watch the video and think through the two questions in the video section of the reflection
  • Finish by praying the final prayer on page 2 of the reflection

Simple.

Week two: Youth leader notes

We’ve also adapted the reflection above to give you some ideas and content to use in a virtual youth group setting. Have a look at the notes below to see how you can work through the stories, discussion points, prayers and activities with your group in an online chat. You don’t have to use all the material, see what will work for you.

Download ‘Isolated Church: Isolation’ leader notes…

If you’d like one of our team to join your youth group via video – we’d love that! We’re often out speaking at Youth Groups and events and would be happy to present a quick thought or devotional to help your group grow through the current crisis. If you’re interested, then drop us a line at youth@opendoorsuk.org…

That’s it for this week. Thanks for checking out the resource. We hope you’ve found it useful, challenging and inspiring. Let us know what you think and tell us any things you’d like us to cover in future weeks too. Drop us a line at youth@opendoorsuk.org – we’d love to hear from you.

Want to access other Isolated Church reflections?

Head to the Isolated Church landing page to download all the reflections we’ve produced so far.

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