Right now, we are seeing unthinkable disruptions to life and ministry. But with your support, we will make every effort to ensure the ministry you started will continue.
We do not yet know all that will happen in all the mission fields where your missionaries, church planters, campus ministers, and other mission workers are serving. What we do know is that we are making it a priority to keep them safe and keep them on the field.
You can help make a difference now by helping mission workers stay on the field—choose an amount to make a special gift to the coronavirus relief fund:
Priority: Keeping Mission Workers Safe
For the health and safety of Resonate staff members, ministry leaders, and the communities they serve, Resonate has halted many meetings, trips, trainings, events, and other gatherings until further notice. We will use the public health guidelines of Michigan and Ontario as our minimum standard of when it will be safe to return to our offices. We expect that this return will be phased in gradually.
Physical Well-Being
- All Resonate offices worldwide, including regional offices and ministry offices, are closed
- All Resonate staff are working remotely with the invaluable support of the CRCNA’s IT team
- All Resonate travel has been canceled or postponed, including missionary Re-Connect (formerly called Home Service) and volunteer travel
- The CRCNA has made many significant cancellations including Synod 2020, which you can read about at www.crcna.org/covid19
- All Resonate events and meetings will either be hosted online or be postponed
- All Resonate staff have been briefed on the best available health recommendations from the WHO, CDC, and Public Health Agency of Canada
- All Resonate staff and volunteers working internationally have been briefed on emergency preparedness measures
Spiritual Well-Being
- Resonate continues to meet together online to pray for each other and for God’s mission worldwide
- Resonate continues to provide timely prayer updates so that the CRC can be in continual prayer for missionaries, church plants, and other mission workers
- Anyone can sign up to receive these Prayer Points at www.resonateglobalmission.org/subscribe
- Resonate, working with the CRCNA, launched an employee assistance program in March to provide staff with Christian counseling and other mental health resources
- Resonate staff already engaged in church and individual contact will make a priority of reaching out pastorally as much as possible
- Resonate care coordinators—our pastors for missionaries—continue to check-in with ministry leaders and address their spiritual needs
Priority: Keeping Mission Workers on the Field
Resourcing Missional Leaders
Resonate is providing leadership in equipping and resourcing the people throughout the church who provide leadership in mission. Resonate is providing supportive resources (e.g., training materials, counseling, consultation etc.) to help missional leaders address their own grief and trauma and that of others. We want to ensure that missional leaders can continue to reach out with Christ’s love to their neighbors and communities.
Ensuring that Ministry Continues
Resonate is joining the CRCNA-wide effort to meet the immediate needs of church planters, community mission workers, missionaries, and other gospel workers. Some key strategies:
- Using the Go Local process to help missional leaders discern strategy and opportunities for community outreach
- Providing technology grants so ministry leaders can reach out to their communities through video conferencing and social media
- Providing special grant funding to develop community outreach projects adapted for the COVID-19 reality, especially for church planters, pastors of emerging church plants, missionaries, and campus ministers
- Providing emergency grants for supporting salaries of mission workers including missionaries, church planters, etc.
- Assisting ethnic minority missional leaders in accessing emergency government funding, especially helping pastors negotiate the CARES Act
- Developing resources addressing mission in the COVID-19 context available to be shared with churches and individuals—see www.resonateglobalmission.org/covid19