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Blog — COVID-19

Moving Those Milestones

Posted by Liz Perraud at Aug 03, 2020

Liz PerraudExecutive DirectorGenOn Ministries How many celebrations, recognitions, or special gatherings have I missed since mid-March? Weddings, graduations, birthdays, moves; religious holidays, church trips, dedications, and gatherings; annual conferences, meetings, and Youth Summits. Lots. There’s grief as each one passes and can’t be celebrated or experienced as hoped.What have you missed or experienced in radically different ways during the past few months? Many of these happenings are milestones. Milestones are actions or events that mark something of significance, often a stage in development. We think of recognizing milestones as something accomplished (driver’s license) or reached (50th birthday). A milestone, literally,...

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Tags: COVID ministry, COVID-19, Intergenerational faith formation, relationships

Silver Linings, Even Now

Posted by Liz Perraud at Jul 16, 2020

As the church, we wrestle with how separating from one another, as the Body of Christ, does (and will do) damage. We believe we are meant to gather, to be in community and relationship with one another, to share common meals.

Two Questions: Tammy Tolman

Posted by Liz Perraud at May 20, 2020

Tammy TolmanPastor, Author, Intergenerate Australia Planning Team Member What keeps you up at night? As a leader and someone who is passionate to help all ages grow closer to God, what keeps me up at night is the space the Church of today seems to have found itself in. We have found ourselves consumed by the comfortable, known, and seemingly successful way of “Sunday Age-Segmented" gatherings, which are most often focused around a 40-minute sermon and some professionally presented worship songs. That we call this “Church,” is something that keeps me up at night. Even in this pandemic,...

A Simpler VBS During COVID Season

Posted by Betsy Dishman at May 19, 2020

Betsy Dishman serves her local church as Director of Children and Family Ministries in Harrisonburg, VA in addition to serving as GenOn’s Training Coordinator. Here’s how her church is navigating this summer to offer a simpler Vacation Bible School during the COVID-19 season. How has the coronavirus affected your church’s plans for VBS this summer? In the past, VBS has been a growing ministry for us with more than 50 percent participation from outside our church, which involved more than 100 children and 50+ youth and adult leaders. We recently decided to shelve our large publishing house curriculum that we...

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Tags: children's ministry, Christian Education, COVID-19, VBS

What Are We Learning from the Pandemic?

Posted by Liz Perraud at May 19, 2020

Liz PerraudExecutive DirectorGenOn Ministries My grandmother introduced me to hot tea at a young age. I love it, and I’m picky about how I drink it. Black tea, nothing fancy, decaffeinated, brewed dark, squeeze of lemon, no sugar. I reheat (and reheat) it if I don’t drink it quickly enough so that it stays hot. I have little “lemon” packets to take when I travel so that I always have my lemon flavor. Oh sure, I’ll drink black tea plain or even green tea, but I’m just enduring it. Until this pandemic hit. I recently heard Tammy Tolman...