MTS COVID-19 Situation Report #3

Hello Friends,

This is the MTS COVID 19 Situation Report #3.

I hope you’re travelling well despite all of the turmoil and uncertainty.

I wanted to bring 9 words of Scripture to you from 2 Tim 4:2:

“Preach the Word, in season and out of season”.

Let me briefly comment on them.

The first three words are, “Preach the Word”.

This is important for Pastors to remember during Covid 19.

We are to preach, herald or broadcast “the Word”

• Not our opinions, but
• The powerful, eternal, authoritative words of Scripture

And when are we to do it?

• In season and out of season

The word “in season” is used in only two places in the New Testament. The other place is Mark 14:11 where Judas looked for an “opportune time” to betray Jesus.

We are to “preach the word” when it is an opportune time and when it is not.

When it is convenient and when it is not.

Now I think it is easy for us to get a bit mixed up at the moment.

We may think that Covid 19 is an inconvenient time to “preach the word” but I think it is the exact opposite.

• We might be tempted to think people are isolated
  • But they’ve never been more connected via technology
• We might be tempted to think people are stressed and therefore NOT keen to think about God
  • But characters like King Hezekiah in Isaiah 37 are evidence that it is stress that sometimes turn people to pray their first heartfelt prayers to the Lord.
• We might be tempted to think that people don’t have time
  • But they have more time now than ever
    • No-one can commute to work
    • No-one can go to Tuesday Night footy training, or play the Saturday footy game
    • No-one can go for a quick getaway on the weekend to the country

I want to suggest to you that now is probably a very convenient time to appropriately, and prayerfully and lovingly to “preach the word”.

So, friends. What’s happening in MTS Land at the moment?

Many things, but let me just mention two:

Friday Arvo Ministry Training (FAM) Zoom-casts

In order to support MTS Trainers, Apprentices and keen Christians in the MTS Movement, we started up, FAM Training.

We’re looking at how to do different ministries during Covid 19.

• Week 1 was “Ministering to Seniors during Covid 19”
• Week 2 was “Sharing Jesus Online during Covid 19”
• This week we’ve got Sandy Galea sharing her thoughts on “Children’s Ministry during Covid 19”

This training happens every Friday from 3-4pm Eastern Standard Time

The Zoom URL is in the comments below.

MTS’ national & global online ministry recruiting conference in Oct

The second thing that is happening in MTS Land is the nation / global online recruiting conference in October.

We are very excited to be able to announce this.

This is the first national apprentice recruiting conference in the history of MTS and since:

• it is online and
• Covid 19 is impacting the whole world … we’ve invited the nations to come and join us.

We need to “preach the word in season and out of season” and Covid 19 is not a hinderance to raising up harvest workers … it is a help because everyone globally is going online.

Stay tuned for more detail.

Well friends, that the end of MTS Covid 19 Sit Rep #3.

Remember 2 Timothy 4:2.

“Preach the Word, in season and out of season

When it is convenient & inconvenient”.

Over and Out.

by Ben Pfahlert, MTS National Director