{"id":22416,"date":"2020-04-22T12:36:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T10:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/"},"modified":"2020-04-22T12:55:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T10:55:06","slug":"from-doing-church-to-being-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"From doing<\/em> church to being<\/em> the Church (Slegs in Engels)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many church buildings have been closed, and various businesses had to shut their doors to cooperate government and worldwide regulations in trying to decrease the spread of the virus. These regulations have not only spread fear throughout the world, but it has also caused the Body of Christ around the world to think of creative ways to continue meeting and to not \u201cneglect the coming together of the saints\u201d as Hebrews 10:25 puts it. Considering this pandemic, could a lockdown be a blessing in disguise where people go back to the heart of Christianity \u2013 our relationship with Jesus and the gathering of the saints like in the book of Acts.<\/p>\n

It is probably difficult to see this virus as a blessing at the moment, as there\u2019s just so much suffering because of it. But the Bible teaches us to look at what happens in life through the eyes of God. And when you look at the current situation through His eyes, amid the darkness, this crisis is changing the way the Church comes together. It\u2019s forcing us to be the Church instead of doing church. China is a good example of this.<\/p>\n

Pastor Huang Lei leads a church in Wuhan, China<\/a>, which is the original epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak. This pandemic has forced them to be the Church. And although their church, which consists of more than 50 groups, is forced to meet online temporarily, it has made him \u201cfeel more connected to them\u201d. Maybe you can relate as our churches have been forced to also meet online during the national lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all the groups are meeting via the internet. [We\u2019re] praying, studying the Bible, sharing, witnessing, praising and worshipping. Among them, we have more than 30 groups which are spending two hours a day to pray, worship, share and testify together, [which is] far more frequent than our normal meetings.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And although their country lockdown (which has now come to an end) gave them more free time to spend in the Word, prayer and worship, he\u2019s very grateful for the opportunity. Not only has it made him feel closer to those in his church, but it\u2019s also been a great encouragement to the elderly who often feel isolated at home alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur elderly and disabled have been thankful to the Lord and are greatly encouraged by this opportunity for online meetings. Before this, they felt alienated, staying at home alone, like they\u2019re abandoned. Now they cherish the connection between brethren more than ever, and they\u2019re more connected. So bit by bit, they started to actively participate in online prayer meetings.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So many different groups of people from the elderly to those in leadership have been impacted by the pandemic in a good way. Those in leadership who only met once a month, started meeting about twice a week, which Pastor Huang feel has brought them \u201ccloser more than ever. We pray, share information, and make decisions together. The virus can\u2019t stop us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, this virus can\u2019t stop us. As the Body of Christ, we serve a living God who is with us during this time. May we not get caught up going through the motions of doing church that we neglect those who really need that connection like the elderly and the ill, who aren\u2019t always able to meet us at church. And may we also not miss building better relationships with our brothers and sisters who\u2019re helping us build the Kingdom of God. While we mourn with those who are currently suffering, let\u2019s use this pandemic as an opportunity to be the Church instead of doing church.<\/p>\n

Please continue to pray to the Lord with us for persecuted believers like those in Wuhan, China who continue to persevere during this pandemic! See how persecuted believers are standing strong in China despite all they face and how you can assist those on the frontlines of our faith. Click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many church buildings have been closed, and various businesses had to shut their doors to cooperate government and worldwide regulations in trying to decrease the spread of the virus. These regulations have not only spread fear throughout the world, but it has also caused the Body of Christ around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":22413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-afr","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"af_ZA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many church buildings have been closed, and various businesses had to shut their doors to cooperate government and worldwide regulations in trying to decrease the spread of the virus. These regulations have not only spread fear throughout the world, but it has also caused the Body of Christ around…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Geopende Deure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Milandre Hartze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Milandre Hartze\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Milandre Hartze\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/person\/5b6e7a6326a7afb19a9433adeb6a17f4\"},\"headline\":\"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels)\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\"},\"wordCount\":677,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"China\"],\"inLanguage\":\"af-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\",\"name\":\"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"af-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"af-ZA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/\",\"name\":\"Geopende Deure\",\"description\":\"The world's largest outreach to persecuted Christians in the most high-risk places.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"af-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Geopende Deure\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"af-ZA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Open-Doors-English-2023.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Open-Doors-English-2023.png\",\"width\":606,\"height\":76,\"caption\":\"Geopende Deure\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/person\/5b6e7a6326a7afb19a9433adeb6a17f4\",\"name\":\"Milandre Hartze\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/Open%20Doors%20\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/","og_locale":"af_ZA","og_type":"article","og_title":"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure","og_description":"Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many church buildings have been closed, and various businesses had to shut their doors to cooperate government and worldwide regulations in trying to decrease the spread of the virus. These regulations have not only spread fear throughout the world, but it has also caused the Body of Christ around…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/","og_site_name":"Geopende Deure","article_published_time":"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Milandre Hartze","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Milandre Hartze","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/"},"author":{"name":"Milandre Hartze","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/person\/5b6e7a6326a7afb19a9433adeb6a17f4"},"headline":"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels)","datePublished":"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/"},"wordCount":677,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png","articleSection":["China"],"inLanguage":"af-ZA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/","url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/","name":"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels) - Geopende Deure","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png","datePublished":"2020-04-22T10:36:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-22T10:55:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"af-ZA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"af-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Wuhan-encouragement.png","width":1000,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/from-doing-church-to-being-the-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"","item":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From doing church to being the Church (Slegs in Engels)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/","name":"Geopende Deure","description":"The world's largest outreach to persecuted Christians in the most high-risk places.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"af-ZA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#organization","name":"Geopende Deure","url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"af-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Open-Doors-English-2023.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Open-Doors-English-2023.png","width":606,"height":76,"caption":"Geopende Deure"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/#\/schema\/person\/5b6e7a6326a7afb19a9433adeb6a17f4","name":"Milandre Hartze","sameAs":["http:\/\/Open%20Doors%20"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org.za\/afr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}