MOPS has led with unprecedented ministry.
We’ve all heard it. During the spring of 2020 more than ever. Unprecedented.
This word doesn’t roll off the tongue; it’s easy to misspell, and it has nearly as many syllables as required feet for safe social distancing. COVID-19 has proven that, up until now, all previous uses of the word “unprecedented” have been severe exaggerations. Between the stay-at-home orders, quarantine mandates, qualifications for “essential” versus “non-essential,” and face-mask requirements, no one has experienced anything quite like this before, and nothing is unscathed from its effects.
But you already know this.
What’s interesting, and inextricably linked to these unprecedented safety restrictions, is the response of different institutions around the world: governments, brands, businesses, and particularly the local church. Now, we’ve all heard the proverbial “capital-C church” described as a people, not a place. This is true. But what happens when, at a moment’s notice, church can no longer take place in a building?
Over the last two months, we have witnessed Sunday mornings become entirely virtual, alas settling into its two-dimensional groove. The thing is, the ministry that happens in the six days between Sabbaths is equally important to the hour spent together each Sunday. But you already know this, too.
So here is the new and necessary normal: youth group, young adult ministry, worship and prayer nights, home groups, and small group ministry have largely been placed into the category of cancelled until further notice. Unlike Sunday morning services, mid-week ministries have often not found an online alternative for gathering (undoubtedly due to the excessive resources it takes to pull off such a thing). It appeared MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meetings fell into the cancelled until further notice category as well, at least for the time being.
Or so we thought. But almost immediately, something incredible started happening.
As soon as stay-at-home orders began to sweep across nations, MOPS leaders were the first to spring into action. Within a matter of days, MOPS meetings were transformed into online gatherings via Zoom, Google hangouts, and other video call platforms. MOPS groups celebrated birthdays, childbirths, sobriety milestones, graduations, and overall life To the Full with drive-by celebrations…
front porch deliveries…
and virtual dance parties…
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MOPS is still fun, even if we can’t be together! 🎶 @mops_international @lfc_mops
This was not a couple hundred women – we’re talking tens of thousands of moms and their families. More importantly, we have witnessed the Gospel shared and darkness defeated “… by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” (Who knew Zoom calls would be the third component to this equation in Revelation 12:11.)
