Popular internet preacher and lead pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee, Greg Locke, who insists his church will stay open during the coronavirus pandemic, said Facebook removed his post about this Sunday’s service, accusing it of “promoting a crime.”

“I’m beyond fired up at this point.!!! Y’all need to WAKE UP. Facebook removed my service announcement post and said to keep the church open was promoting a crime. WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!!” Locke declared in a tweet Friday.

The tweet contained a screenshot of a notice that appears to be from Facebook warning him that a post promoting a gathering at his church on Sunday was harmful, saying: “Your post goes against our Community Standards on coordinating harm and promoting crime.”

I’m beyond fired up at this point.!!! Y’all need to WAKE UP. Facebook removed my service announcement post and said to keep the church open was promoting a crime. WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!! #FridayThoughts #CoronaCrisis pic.twitter.com/oBXwxAFzrS

— Pastor Greg Locke (@pastorlocke) March 20, 2020

The Trump administration recently issued guidelines recommending that social gatherings include no more than 10 people to promote social distancing to help stop or slow down the spread of the virus and allow the health care system to more readily care for patients over time.

While some churches are abiding by these recommendations, Locke, explained in a recent post on Facebook why he cannot afford to close his church.

“It seems like every single day the government is giving us new mandates and suggestions from 100 people gathering to 50 people gathering to 10 people gathering and it’s all about social distancing. You know, sometimes pastors have some very difficult decisions to make on behalf of their sheep and their church. Our church is going to respond in a way that I realize many people are going to be critical of. We have to do what we feel is in the greater context and demographic of our local church,” Locke began.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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The Syrian conflict turned nine this weekend. On March 15, 2011, protestors lined the streets and the government cracked down. When opposition forces hit back, the situation escalated into civil war. Read our Syria coverage here.

Today, more than 11 million Syrian people are displaced by the violence, both inside and outside of Syria; half of them are children. Fighting in northwest Syria is forcing thousands to seek shelter somewhere new – again.

Yet out of the darkness shines a glimmer of hope. Program for Theological Education by Extension Executive Director Victor Sadek says some of their biggest classes are within Syria. “The classes and the number of the students is growing and even increasing in the time of the war in Syria,” he says.

“People there are encouraged to carry on and study the Word of God through the time of war and time of persecution.”

Many believers have fled Syria in the past nine years, but some remain. Others left when fighting peaked but later returned. Furthermore, new believers are emerging from Syria’s Muslim majority, and they’re eager to reach their fellow citizens for Christ. Read one example here.

Program for Theological Education by Extension helps these Christ-followers grow deeper in their faith and learn the skills needed to disciple others. Since PTEE’s training is church-centric and done online, it avoids trouble with authorities.

“We are the only theological training program operating in Syria. The students [don’t] have to leave their jobs or their homes, or this field of ministry, to go to the Bible school but the Bible school goes to [them],” Sadek says.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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In fighting this viral disease we focus on stopping the spread of the virus by isolating ourselves and avoid contact with others. Of course,  this is important but this is not the way of fighting the battle. It seems more like a fright and flight reaction. But now it is time for a fight reaction!

We seem to have forgotten that our immune system is able to fight and overcome many viral diseases and the fact that we can boost our body’s defense system. But how do we do this? Here are the four biblical and science-based key pillars to stand up and fight the coronavirus.

Let’s uncrown the coronavirus

Today, all eyes are focused on the coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously provisionally named 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV) disease (COVID-19)). It is spread by human-to-human transmission via droplets or direct contact, and infection has been estimated to have an incubation period of 6.4 days and a basic reproduction number of 2.24-3.58. Among patients with pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus pneumonia or Wuhan pneumonia), fever was the most common symptom, followed by coughing. ^[1] This fever can be dangerous especially for older and fragile people. That’s why it’s important to stop the spreading of this virus.

Corona means crown. It is also a circle of light that can sometimes be seen around the sun during an eclipse when the moon is positioned exactly between the sun and the earth. With this image in mind it is clear that we are fighting a natural and supernatural battle. That’s why we need natural and supernatural weapons.

Aging affects the immune system negatively (defined as Immunosenescence). This increases the susceptibility of elderly persons to infection, autoimmune disease and cancer. ^[2]

Fear, anxiety, inactivity and an unhealthy diet suppress our immune system and make us more vulnerable for (viral) diseases. ^[3]

The 4 Biblical & science based key pillars to boost your immune system are:

1. Prayer
2. Exercise
3. Sleep
4. Nutrition & supplements

1. Immune Boosting Prayer
Weapons: fear not, humble yourself and prayer and the blood of the lamb

Fear not!
The Bible calls on us not to fear but to turn to God. Fear is a weapon of the enemy. Fear and anxiety suppress us mentally, spiritually and physically.  That’s why the scripture calls us to FEAR NOT!

Humble yourself, prayer and seek His face

The blood of the Lamb.
President Trump declared Sunday,  March 15, 2020  a day of prayer for The United States of America, humbling ourselves before God. It was a type of ‘Passover’ as we see in Exodus 12.

Exodus12:7, 13 – 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Karl Noten

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A video clip of a 6-year-old girl teaching a Bible verse, 2 Timothy 1:7, from memory to her 7-year-old brother to calm his fears over the novel coronavirus pandemic is going viral on social media.

“My son Brandon has crippling fear cause of his #autism. His sister taught him a scripture she learned at @FellowshipMiss2 Church to help,” tweeted Sheletta Brundidge, a mother-of-four and children’s author, with the video. “Stop letting your fear of #Coronavirus be bigger than your faith in God. Plead The Blood, pray and wash your hands. Amen!”

The video clip was also broadcast by Fox News and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

My son Brandon has crippling fear cause of his #autism. His sister taught him a scripture she learned at @FellowshipMiss2 Church to help. Stop letting your fear of #Coronavirus be bigger than your faith in God. Plead The Blood, pray and wash your hands. Amen! pic.twitter.com/R2nnSDo3EA

— Sheletta Brundidge (@ShelettaIsFunny) March 13, 2020

“Just yesterday my 24-year-old son who also has Autism and has had to live with severe anxiety, was reading the Bible to me,” a Twitter user responded to Brundidge’s tweet. “He also has a twin sister who was always looking out for him while growing up. Thanks for sharing your story. God Bless!”

According to the World Health Organization, there are 234,073 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in 176 countries and 9,840 people have died.

In the United States, there are 10,442 cases with 150 deaths, as of early Saturday.

The verse 2 Timothy 1:7, which reads, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control,” is frequently being cited by pastors and Christian ministers to help believers respond to the COVID-19 scare.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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Fostering and adoption are typically words connected to families and individuals.

But now the movements are connected to congregations as well. It is an exciting time.

Let’s get my meanings clear so we can be on the same page. Here are three definitions I often use together:

Revitalization is the process where a church seeks to get healthier using its own internal resources of people, funds, and processes.

Adoption is the process where a church seeks to get healthier by being adopted by an external organization, usually another church.

Fostering is the process where a relatively healthy church provides people and other resources for a relatively unhealthy church over a specified period of time.

Revitalization, adoption, and fostering could have different approaches, but the essence of each is consistent. “Revitalization” takes place with a church’s internal resources. “Adoption” takes place externally. I coined the word “fostering” as a natural extension of “adoption.” Both words are used of human families and congregational families.

Here are some essential principles of fostering a church:

The essence of fostering is one church caring for another. The relationship takes place when a relatively healthy church makes itself available to help a less healthy church. Both churches are typically in the same community or in nearby communities.

One common form of fostering is for the healthier church to provide specific resources the less healthy church does not have. It is not uncommon, for example, for the fostering church to provide the foster church a preacher when they have no pastor. Some churches provide musically talented people. Some help with community ministries. The possibilities are many, but this approach has specificity to it.

Another form of fostering is to provide a mass of people with no predetermined roles. One church with which I had familiarity sent twelve of its members to be a part of a dying church of ten people. The commitment was for one year. Though the twelve members from the healthier church did not have preconceived roles at the onset, they quickly began to settle into ministries where the dying church needed the most help, and where the members of the healthier church were naturally gifted. And it was a big boost to the dying church to see their attendance double in one week!

SOURCE: Christian Post, Thom S. Rainer

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Barna Group has released research for their State of the Church report, finding decreased church attendance among American adults since 1993.

In the third century, Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said, “No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.” His words are applicable today as Barna Group reports church attendance is dropping in the United States while Bible reading and prayer hold mostly steady.

Greg Yoder of Keys for Kids Ministries pinpoints a problem in Christian families in America: a lack of Christ-centered training for kids by parents in the home. Christians schools, he says, are no substitute.

Barna Group states one-third fewer Americans are attending church than in 1993, with many finding churches irrelevant. Yoder says, “My challenge to parents is not just to teach kids it’s a priority to go to church. Because I think most kids know that it’s a priority to go to church. But teaching our kids to see the church not just as a place of worship, but a place of love. A place to express love to other Christians.”

And that is what draws people to Christian churches. Not tradition, or structure, or even “love” in a general sense, but the love of Christ as reflected by His people.

Yoder talks about one church in the New Testament that had this kind of love. “You know, Paul talked about this in Second Thessalonians and he talked about it as brotherly love. Now, the Thessalonian church was great. It’s showing brotherly love. Paul, in fact, encouraged them to keep doing what they were doing, because they were really good at it. I mean, these new Christians were amazing, showing love overflowing.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller

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