Churches are ordered to close services in my Germany!

Saints, what I thought was a long way off has now come to our doorstep. Please pray for us. In an effort to fight the Coronavirus, anything that envolves gatherings of people has been prohibited. That envolves business, sports, entertainment, conventions, and religion.

This affects our little fellowship. We decided to meet in homes. What will Churches do that have not organized themselves in house groups, I do not know.

Hope this is only temporarily. In neighboring Austria, gathering of more than 5 a prohibited, that would affect even house fellowships.

Is this the beginning of the end?
Please pray for wisdom, courage, and that we will know how to extend grace and mercy to the needy and light to those in darkness.

We have a fellowship of around a 100 persons in the Netherlands. We have decided to split in small housechurches. I think it's great to know that Jesus said: "Where 2 or 3 are gathered, I'm in the midst".

Many of the more institutional-fellowships hold online services (the sermon is the center of there gatherings). I pray that they will also go to the houses to meet each other, pray together and open the word.

We are using Zoom meeting to conduct our church. No ban in USA but we want to respect the states orders to avoid group gathering.
1.We all will sing in Zoom conference during our worship time.
2. Prayer time - few brothers and sisters can pray. Whoever is praying, Zoom will show their video to others. This way, others can see the person praying. The moderator will put rest in mute so that their videos will not appear. Prayer is an open call for all to pray.
3. Kids bible verse time- the elders will call each family by name and their video will be enabled, their kids stand before the Cam and tell their memory verse.
4. Message time - the main speaker will alone remain unmuted so that others can hear and see his video.
5. Church sharing time - open call for the church to share and confess their faith. Again whoever shares, they alone will be unmuted.

This is closest we can get to meeting in person as a church. Zoom gives 45 mins free meeting with free accounts and upto 100 people can join. If we register with 1 account for $15 a month, then there is no 45 mins restriction. The quality is very high.

Hi Sree, Thanks for your advice. I keep this in mind or check this out, others have asked from YouTube streaming. Problem is, we have a number of elderly, working class people, who are not so tec-savvy. We will probably just meet in homes, going underground.

Zoom is different from youtube streaming because in youtube streaming only one person will participate and rests will be passive watchers. But with zoom, you can do an interactive session.

From tech perspective,
1.all should join Zoom meeting using either phone app or laptop browser.
2. activate your video when you join which is simple click of a camera button.
3. Whenever you have to speak or pray then unmute yourself.
4. A techsavy operator will host the meeting and he can take care of muting non speakers. So non tech people cannot mess up the meeting.

Even in our church, most are not techsavy and elderly people.

The question is, if you want a life online meeting where other should also actively participate then zoom meeting is the best.

Hi
Our Church in Ireland have cancelled all services until further notice.Its the only safe thing to do.The elderly and the sick need to be protected .The governments are doing the best they can in the most cases.Its important to note that this virus isnt effecting food production or supply and for most people its not life threatening but for the sake of vulnerable we need to cancel Church as we know it for the time being.All things work for good for those in the Lord,staff

narrowpath and friends,

Take this time to not worry but prepare and organize. Have others check on your elderly to see what they need and even prepare a small Bible study for them with prayer.

I see this as a shot across the bow, so to speak, a warning that God is giving to use this time to get organized for when we really must go underground. The church in the US is not prepared b/c they think they are going to escape what is coming. And if you believe that, that is ok, I'm not arguing but please, have something in place for those left behind at least.

Use this time wisely,
God bless,
Lisa