Churches and COVID-19 #2: Mariners Church with Eric Geiger

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Eric Geiger, senior pastor of Mariners Church. They discuss the following questions: What are the current government restrictions in your location? How have you led through this time to bring clarity to your culture? And clarity to why you are doing what you are doing? What does your Sunday service currently look like? What are you planning on doing moving forward? What are you doing in each specific ministry? How are you moving people from online into a deeper relationship both with the church and with the Lord? What are the biggest challenges you are facing and how are you overcoming those? How have you adapted existing staff and volunteer responsibilities to meet your current needs? If new roles have emerged, what are those roles and responsibilities? BEST QUOTES “Just like an offensive coordinator, we would call plays based on what we saw in our culture.” “In June, we called play two, which is Mariners hosted at home and we started giving resources for people who wanted to invite neighbors and friends who wanted to watch the service together.” “When we go to a new play, we are going to keep the previous one running.” “Whatever level of comfort you have this is how we are going to serve you during the pandemic. You go where you feel the most comfortable.” “We are using our campus mainly outside other than a few staff that are in the office.” “We are starting to build more outside thinking for the physical version of these current digital programs.” “In the summer we experimented with an online theology class. We had about a thousand people sign up to study systematic theology for eight weeks.” “This fall we are going to do three more different types of theological classes that we may not have been doing if it wasn’t a pandemic.” “We are trying to use this time to deepen our people, not just put our services online.” “All kinds of destructive behaviors that are implications of isolation, those are rising too.” “There are smart people all up and down the spectrum of should we meet or not meet. That means that the ministry leader is just going to be disappointing people at all times.” “The number of people who serve weekly in outreach right now is essentially the same number of people that would serve during a big campaign.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Identity by Eric Geiger Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger