Healthy Chi Alpha During COVID-19
By E. Scott Martin in Chi Alpha Connection
National Chi Alpha has four critical areas that develop healthy Chi Alpha groups. These quadrants serve us in discipling university students to fulfill their purpose in God’s global plan, which are healthy leaders, disciple-making groups, Holy Spirit empowerment, and cross-cultural missions. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they serve as a beacon to remind us in challenging times that our Kingdom priorities must not change.
We desire the leadership of Chi Alpha at all levels to be healthy in body, soul, and spirit. Throughout the pandemic,
we have encouraged our missionary staff across the nation to exercise, get up and get going, and use the pandemic window to refresh themselves with adequate rest. We have provided counseling services and support raising coaching. Healthy leadership is a priority.
Everything we do in ministry is through the lens of discipleship. We have not stopped discipling students throughout the pandemic. In the nascent stages of the pandemic, we worked through online platforms and media for the implementation of one-on-one discipleship, small groups, student leader training, and large group meetings. As things began to open up and where permissible, we began to meet in person according to the university standards. Students have been discipled!
We continued to teach on and pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the lives of students. Many students were
baptized in the Holy Spirit while on Zoom calls with their healthy leaders! We have also received multiple reports of
divine healing. The pandemic has not hindered our priority of Holy Spirit empowerment.
The pandemic brought our missions teams to a screeching halt. Overnight, all overseas and domestic Expedition trips were cancelled and brought home. Our cross-cultural missions team adroitly developed the concept and implemented virtual missions trips what we termed “Virtual We Live Missions Experiences” with the partnership of Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM). Students interacted with missionaries and nationals overseas virtually. They prayed together, heard testimonies, and processed what God was saying. Many students have made commitments to missions as a result. We further implemented our inaugural We Live Missions Week where our local groups in harmony and in conjunction with AGWM made the campus week focus on missions.
In the midst of a pandemic, Chi Alpha has remained true to its priorities of health and we are seeing the results of our steadfastness! Thank you for standing with us.
All views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., U.S. Missions, and The General Council of the Assemblies of God.
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