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Category: COVID-19

How has COVID-19 and Lockdown Affected the Implementation of Congregationalism in our Churches

At this time, in the year 2021, we as Baptists have faced a huge challenge to the principle and practice of congregational church government, in that the lock-down has made it very difficult to hold members meetings, particularly for bigger churches. Here are a few of the difficulties: Congregations That Can’t Congregate South Africa went…
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Relief for bigger churches for a weekend

On 30 March, the President of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, announced an Easter ‘weekend of relief’ for larger churches from the strict controls on indoor and outdoor gatherings. Until now, smaller churches, have been relatively favoured compared to larger churches in that the capped number of gatherers (100 indoors and 250 outdoors) has not…
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The Necessity of Re-establishing Community

With the ease of lockdown and many churches re-initiating corporate gatherings, the primary task that lies before the church, and particularly her leadership, is the necessity of re-establishing community. What do I mean by the phrase ‘re-establishing community?’ I think churches have largely taken ‘together being-together’ for granted. Oh, yes, we congregants knew it was…
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Pastoring a Non-Online Church During Lockdown

Lockdown has affected every one of us, including churches and the way we pastor them. All religious gatherings, including churches, have been prohibited under the present lockdown regulations at the time of writing. We can either fight this regulation or ask God what he wants us to do within the parameters of it. Many churches…
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Churches are closed but restaurants and casinos aren’t: Are churches being unduly targeted?

This week on Monday night (28 December 2020) the State President, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, declared new “adjusted alert level 3” restrictions which included, amongst many other restrictions that, “All indoor and outdoor gatherings will be prohibited for 14 days from the date hereof, except for funerals and other limited exceptions as detailed in the regulations,…
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Christians breathe a masked, ‘level 1’ sigh of relief!

There is no doubt that South Africa has been hit hard, compared to other countries in terms of the closure of churches and the legislated restrictions of gathering, movement of people and trade as a result of the COVID-19 virus. But, it was a with a great sigh of relief, that churches and Christians around…
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Pastors and Churches

There is no doubt that life will never be the same after the lockdown of South Africans on 27 March 2020. As I write this, we are still under lockdown 114 days later. How have our pastors and churches been affected? Some members of the BNA Executive discuss how COVID-19 has impacted them personally and…
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