*YES this is how Jesus would look doing Faith at Home! You are not alone.
We are here for YOU!
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The ELCA Faith Formation Team is Here to Help!
Helping Parents Nurture Faith - a short article about how to move towards household faith formation supported by congregations.
Family Faith Formation Toolkit - from the Reformed Church, This FREE toolkit will help you develop a vision for family faith formation in your congregation and equip parents and caregivers with family faith practices and resources.
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Coronavirus Specific:Center for Disease Control - One Stop Shop Toolkits
ELCAChurchTogether -Resources to help leaders and members stay connected and resilient during COVID-19.
Racial Equility (during Covid-19) - COVID-19 Racial Equity & Social Justice list includes information that we hope will help communities and activists as they work to understand and respond to the moment and for the long haul.
Coming Back Together Congregation Guidelines - From the three Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod
Institute of Youth Ministry out of Princeton Theological Seminary - come TONS of Resources
LOM Covid-19 Resources - Organized weeks of info.
Pandemic Prayerbook - compiled by Darcy Wiley 
Considering Moving Camp Online? - From ACA camps, for pivoting to online programming this camp season.
Document from Rev. Janelle Hooper, Program Director for Children’s Ministry, ELCA. No! They can’t cancel camp! Guidelines for Parents
5 Practices for Coaxing Order out of Chaos - by Consultant Susan Beaumont for Luther Seminary
Measure What Matters: Faith Leaders Share How to Measure Digital Engagement - From Barna Research
Join the LWR 75,000 Face Mask Challenge - Vulnerable communities are defenseless against COVID-19. Help Lutheran World Relief reach neighbors in need without leaving home. How many will you make?
The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online Edited by Heidi A Campbell - Writers were asked: What are the biggest challenges for churches/religious leaders going online, and why?
What has your experience/research taught you about the important issues religious communities and church leaders must consider when making the move to doing church online? How has the current situation influenced how you do or see the church in a digital age? 
Lutheran Schools: Best Practice Advice
Coronavirius Faith + Lead from Luther Seminary - Resources for Christian communities being church in the midst of a global pandemic.
Covid-19 Time Capsule for Kids - FREE download created by Natalie Long of LONG Creations includes:
Page To Draw Family Picture, All About Me, How I'm Feeling,My Community,What I Am Doing At Home, Handprint Page, Special Occasion Page, Letter To Myself Sheet,Interview For The Parents, Letter From The Parent Handling Schooling at Home from a Homeschooling Mom - from ADDitude Magazine, “I’ve Been Homeschooling My ADHD Brood for Years. Here’s What I Want You to Know.”
Guide to Self-Care for Families Together at Home - from SALT
Talking to Children about COVID-19: A Parent Resource
https://www.nasponline.org/…/talking-to-children-about-covi… This is a comprehensive resource authored by the National Association of School Psychologists. Coronavirus, Anxiety, Children and the Church https://buildfaith.org/coronavirus-anxiety-children-and-th…/ Great, practical advice from the “Building Faith” website based at Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal). Helping Children with Scary News https://www.sallylloyd-jones.com/helping-children-with-sc…/… A blog post by New York Times bestselling children’s author Sally Lloyd-Jones focused on helping children process scary news. Helping Children and Teens Cope with Anxiety https://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/helping-children-and-te…/ A guide from Children’s Hospital in Seattle with strategies to help children and teens cope with anxiety related to the coronavirus. 10 Guidelines for Pastoral Care During the Coronavirus Outbreak- from Christian Century come some timely reminders
15 Ways to Build Faith and Community Virtually During the Pandemic- from Youth Specialties
Online Youth Group Games - from HEALTH OVER HURRY
Encouraging Authentic and Intentional Relationships Ten Tech Tips for Meeting Online - NEXT Church has been operating virtually for the past 7+ years, so we are super familiar with meeting online! Mostly, we have used Zoom, so we refer to that platform here, but we hope these tips will translate across different platforms.
CDC Guidance for Cleaning - Read through this 9 page document for your church...nursery..etc.
Abide for Young Adults - small groups online!
TheoEd: Leading thinkers in the church and the academy giving the talk of their lives in 20 minutes or less. Discussion Guides included.
ChurchNext: Two free courses: Bridging the Political Divide with Parker Palmer and Make Me an Instrument of Peace: A Guide to Civil Discourse, sponsored by the Office of Government Relations of The Episcopal Church. These courses are aimed at helping us have effective discourse across political and social divisions - modeling Christ's teaching and instructions for us to be reconcilers.
These courses join another free offering called Prayer and Worship in Our Homes, a free 5-course class that teach different approaches to prayer. Some focus on particular types of prayer discipline. Others talk about reaching out and praying with others, even when we’re physically isolated from one another. You can use these classes remotely in a couple of different ways. You can either: Have individuals within your parish take the course on their own, or Meet in a zoom-style online classroom and take a class together. In that case, you would guide the students through the classes, opening with prayer, watching the videos together, and then offering opportunities for discussion using the course discussion questions. Resources from the ELCA Faith Practices Ministry
The website: www.elca.org/faithpractices has a variety of resources for individuals and congregations to use not only during our current global crisis, but as tools for faith formation at any time.
Giving in Times of Crisis:Videos on a variety of stewardship topics are now available at
https://vimeo.com/showcase/6659683 Live It Out! is a supplement to The Generosity Project curriculum, created for household conversation about the faith practice of generosity. In this time of the pandemic, talking about household finances and our identity as God’s generous people is more important than ever. Live It Out! is easily adaptable to online distribution and virtual conversation, across generations in households and the congregation. For more information contact TheGenerousityProject@elca.org. Cultivating Generous Disciples: Leadership during a Pandemic Congregation’s “normal way” to worship and thus to receive gifts, tithes and offerings for God’s Mission have been disrupted. Through online facilitation by our Lake Institute trained teachers, leaders in congregations will learn ways to talk about and act on pastoral care matters that concern generosity and money as a spiritual and discipleship practice. Through 6.5 hours online, leaders learn how to use practical resources and tools to inspire movement away from “scarcity thinking” to “God’s sufficiency”. Simply contact cgc@elca.org. |
Faith Specific:Run and Do Not Grow Weary: Acknowledging and Managing Digital Fatigue - from the Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary.
Games for All Ages Via Zoom - from Building Faith comes a handful of games to play together online; paired with faith formation makes for great church fun!
A Remembrance of Baptism During Global Pandemic: By Lutheran Pastor Collette Broady Grund.
Pandemic Hope: A Family Devotional for Life During Covid-19 by a collective of Lutheran leaders.
Milestone Ministries: Coronavirus milestone for small gatherings and households.
IDEAS & RESOURCES FOR LAMENT AND THANKSGIVING
FOR YOUTH AND THOSE WHO MINISTER WITH THEM - This is a resource from the Episcopal church, for individuals or groups (specifically teens and young adults) to name and share experiences of loss, grief, anger, alongside hope and solidarity in the midst of COVID-19. 
Vibrant Faith @Home - hundreds of activities for families with children, families with adolescents, young adults, adults and couples, and activities just for kids.
The activities are short (usually only 5-10 minutes). They are in PDF files with a simple formatting to make it easy to use and download. You can provide these to people in variety of ways through age group programming, family or intergenerational programming, on a website, in an e-newsletter, on social media, etc. You have permission to use these activities in print or digital formats. 
Check-in Time with Teens - from the ELCA Youth Core Leadership Team and Rachel Alley, Program Director for Ministry with Youth
Miss & Mail - A fun idea for some of your church staff to connect with your young ones during our "physical distancing" taken from a public school teacher. You could make a "Flat Preacher" or Flat Children's Director" or "Flat Youth Worker".
NY Times article -- How to Be Mindful Holding a Baby
Worship Services:Worship and Liturgy - from the Institute of Youth Ministry out of Princeton Theological Seminary comes TONS of resources.
Songs for Unsettled Times - From Music that Makes Community Short, come simple melodies that are a powerful balm and can be treated as pocket/zipper songs, which allow us to add words, names, and feelings specific to our context.
We are thrilled to share with you a Mini Mess - a do at home Messy Church for you to share with your families.
https://messychurchusa.org/bringing-home-the-mess/ 
From A Sanctified Art, Singing Together But Apart - Congregational Song for Online Worship curated by Slats Toole, 
Unraveled: Seeking God When Our Plans Fall Apart - from A Sanctified Art, The Unraveled series explores 12 stories of unraveled shame, identity, fear, grief, dreams, and expectations. These are stories where God meets us in the spiraling, unraveling our plans—and us—into something new. We expect you to customize the series, arranging the scriptures into the order and duration that works best for you.
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Blessing in the Chaos
To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence. Let there be a calming of the clamoring, a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you, that have made their home in you, that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you. Let what distracts you cease. Let what divides you cease. Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans, and let depart all that keeps you in its cage. Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm. - Jan Richardson from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief |
Lockdown - Brother Richard Hendrick
Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation. Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness. Yes there is even death. But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again. They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes But blue and grey and clear. They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound. Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood So that the elders may have someone to call on. Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way All over the world people are waking up to a new reality To how big we really are. To how little control we really have. To what really matters. To Love. So we pray and we remember that Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness. Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love. Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now. Today, breathe. Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic The birds are singing again The sky is clearing, Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love. Open the windows of your soul And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing. |
