One of the words we’ve adopted to describe Diaspora is “nimble”. The dictionary describes nimble as quick and light in movement; moving with ease; agile; active; quick to understand, think, devise. Being nimble means we can switch plans, venues or even methods if things suddenly don’t work. It’s about flexibility, but nimble is a more fun word!
I’m not bragging that we’re nimble. (Okay, I am a little) It’s just probably easier since we are small and don’t have a building where we do things. A building is a great asset to have but also could lock you in to where you do things and the money you need to keep things going.
We’ve changed venues, days of events, who’s doing what and even what we’re doing. Being the church doesn’t necessarily mean doing the same thing in the same place all the time. So, we flex! We’re nimble and can adjust most of the time.
So, we flex!
At the last minute, we had to cancel a Senior’s home visit due to a medical lockdown! But it turned out some people we knew were not sick and were allowed to leave so we had them come to our house where we visited and played cards instead of doing it at the senior’s home.
One day as I was driving to the beach for a baptism, it suddenly began to rain. The forecast had said it was a low chance of rain but surprise! We jumped on the phones and switched venues having our people call one another to a house with a hot tub where we could spend most of the time indoors and just come out for the baptism. And as we met inside the weather cleared up so we baptized and had lunch outside — all good!
And with Covid-19 upon us all kinds of churches have had to become more nimble. And the cool thing is that so many have done amazing things with online options! The creativity is really flowing as the Spirit leads. And the uniqueness of different churches is being highlighted as each finds it’s own unique solutions to helping it’s people be the Church in the midst of this.
And now as churches are being allowed to meet again, they’re having to be nimble in new ways. Churches with buildings can only have a percentage of their regular attendance, some people are only willing to connect online and they’re having to do extra cleanings, no handshakes and no singing. It’s been a season of change and churches are proving they can be more nimble than they ever have had to be.
Nimble is a useful quality for all kinds of churches, Diaspora included!
