Tools for Live Streaming Counseling, Small Groups or Corporate Gatherings
You have likely heard about instances of “Zoom-bombing” or hijacking Zoom meetings occurring to such a frequency that the FBI has gotten involved. The danger is largely related to how Zoom is being used more so than the security of the software itself. If your church is sharing your meeting links publicly such as on a website, then you will need to take a greater level of precaution and apply meeting controls which will eliminate the ability of attendees to share their screen or take control of the meeting. If you are keeping your meetings private to small gatherings, less precaution is required.
See here for an informative article written April 1, 2020 by Mike Snider at USA Today. We have copied tips from the article for using Zoom at the bottom of this resource page as well.
How to Livestream Your Sermon this Sunday Webinar hosted by Send Network. Download the slides to the webinar here.
Christ Redeemer Church Sample Livestream Instructions to Congregation
Want personalized help setting up a Zoom account for your TCT church? Contact our Director of Operations, and he will share insights from TCT’s use of video conferencing over the past five years and also help you setup your own account.
How to Livestream Your Church Service: A Practical Guide by Phil Thompson, TheGospelCoalition.org
These brief video tutorials will help you understand how to use Zoom, a reliable, affordable video conferencing software.
How To Join a Meeting (the download portion will only be required the very first time you use Zoom)
Tips to control your Zoom meetings¹
Don't make meetings or classes public. You can require participants to use a password, or the meeting manager can make participants first appear in the waiting room and be admitted individually.
Invite with care. Do not share links to your meeting on social media. Email or text them directly to participants.
Limit screen sharing. Hosts can prevent others from posting video by changing the screen sharing options to “Host Only.”
Lock the door. You can close your meeting to newcomers once everyone has arrived. Hosts can click the Participants tab at the bottom of the Zoom window to get a pop-up menu, then choose the Lock Meeting option.
Use your silencer features. You can disable video for participants and mute an individual or all attendees.
Cut out the chatter. The host can disable the ability to text chat during the session to prevent the delivery of unwanted messages.
Boot the uninvited. Hosts can remove a participant by putting the mouse over that name and choosing the Remove option. Allen says you can block people from rejoining meetings if they were removed.
Preparation. Make sure participants have the latest version of Zoom's software, which was updated in January. That update added meeting passwords by default and disabled a feature allowing users to randomly scan for meetings to join.
¹ Snider, Mike. “Zoom Issues: People Hijacking Streams, Possible Security Flaws.” USA Today, April 1, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/04/01/zoom-demand-zooms-but-problems-coronavirus-drives-stay-home-video-chats-zoom-has-issues-beyond-deman/5102150002/.
Additional Resources
Family Worship Guide
The following originally appeared as a blog post written by TCT Member Pastor Lance Parrott of Christ Fellowship Church in Bowling Green, KY on March 23, 2020.
We are living in interesting days. These days are like nothing that we have ever experienced. The good news is that the Lord is not surprised by these circumstances. He didn't wake up last week wondering "Where did this virus come from?" The Lord is and always will be reigning on his throne. He is always bringing about his providential purposes for his people.
One of the purposes that I have been pressing is to "be still and present with your family." The Lord in his kindness has given us more time than ever to be present with our families. We have the opportunity to be intentional with our spouses and our children like we never have before.
We want to provide this resource to Christ Fellowship families every week. Maybe family devotions are unsual for your family. That's OK. Use this guide below to help your family focus on the Lord this week. It should take less than 10 minutes. It would be a great tool for around the dinner table or in the living room before bed.
Day 1. Monday.
Have someone read Hebrews 1:1-3.
Discuss these questions as a family:
What are the ways that the Lord spoke to his people in the Old Testament?
How is Jesus the clearest and fullest revelation of God?
What do we learn about who God is and what God is like by looking at Jesus?
Close in Prayer: Ask the Lord to show us more of the beauty and glory of Jesus.
Day 2. Tuesday.
Have someone read Hebrews 1:3
Discuss these questions as a family:
What does it mean that "he upholds the universe by the word of his power?"
How do you feel knowing that Jesus is in complete control of everything?
Why is Jesus being in control better than you being in control of your life?
Close in Prayer: Ask the Lord to give us peace and trust that he is in control.
Day 3. Wednesday.
Have someone read Hebrews 1:3
Discuss these questions as a family:
What did Jesus do to make you and me clean from all our sins?
How does it give us hope knowing that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God and is reigning as our King?
Close in Prayer: Thank Jesus for his sacrifice for our sins and for him being our King
Day 4. Thursday.
Have someone read Hebrews 1:3-4
Discuss these questions as a family:
Why is Jesus more worthy of praise than anything else in the world?
What are some things that we worship more than Jesus?
How can we as a family focus on Jesus being most important in our lives?
Close in Prayer: Ask the Lord to bring about worship of him above everything else in this world.
Day 5. Friday.
Have someone read 1 Peter 5:6-7
Discuss these questions as a family:
How can we as a family humble ourselves under God's mighty hand?
What are the worries and cares that you can "throw on the Lord once for all?"
Close in Prayer: Ask the Lord to take our worries and to carry all of them for us.
Additional Resources
4 Steps to Help Small Churches Implement Online Giving
4 Steps to Help Small Churches Implement Online Giving
Author: Ed Marino
Published: March 23, 2020 at The Gospel Coalition.
Additional Resources
Heaven's Favorite in a Human Body: An Advent Meditation
Jesus is embodied. Right now, and forever. Upon this truth our eternal salvation depends.
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.
John 20:27
Jesus is embodied. Right now, and forever. Upon this truth our eternal salvation depends.
JESUS' EARTHLY BODY
Christians believe that a human baby born in Bethlehem is God (cf. Isaiah 7:14). To believe anything less is entirely unchristian (cf. John 8:24). J.C. Philpot wrote, “As all true Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God and man, this spiritual, saving knowledge of his Person and work, his love and grace, his blood and righteousness, divides itself into two branches: a gracious acquaintance with his Deity as the eternal Son of God, and gracious knowledge of his humanity as the Son of man.”[1] All Christians joyfully confess “The fullness of deity dwells in Him bodily” (cf. Col. 2:9). Indeed, “great is the mystery of godliness: He was revealed in the flesh…” (1 Timothy 3:16).
The very one who created and sustains all things dwelt among us as man (cf. John 1:3, 14; Heb. 1:2-3). But it gets complex. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal God who flung the galaxies into existence (cf. Heb 1:10; Rev 4:11). While we’re at it, we might as well be as clear as possible; we believe he made his own mom (cf. John 1:3; Col 1:16-17). Isaac Ambrose pondered, “Is it not a wonder, a mystery, a great mystery, without all controversy, that the Son of God should be made of a woman, even made of that woman, which was made by Himself?” (cf. 1 Cor 8:6).[2] Digest that sentence again, slowly.
At the incarnation, God gave to Jesus—His eternal Son—a “flesh and blood” body…just like yours (cf. Hebrews 2:14). At His death, Jesus presented that same body to God to make you God’s child forever (cf. Hebrews 10:10). Beneath the shadow of the cross the Lord Jesus cried out, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me” (Heb. 10:5). What vile men did to His body is stomach-churning. They covered His face and sucker punched Him (cf. Mark 14:65; Jn. 19:3). They spat on Him (Matt. 26:67). Others beat Him on the head with a reed (Matt. 27:30). Trained soldiers lacerated His exposed back with whips (cf. John 19:1). They peeled a robe from His back after it adhered to the wounds (cf. Mark 15:20). With increasing mockery, they pressed a crown of thorns into His brow (Matt. 27:29). I assure you, those wicked men believed Jesus had a real human body.
After inflicting as much pain and mockery as possible without killing Him, godless men nailed His hands and feet to wooden beams in accord with God’s eternal plan for Him to endure our curse in His body (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21). After He died, and before His body was removed from the cross, a soldier speared Him in the side from which blood and water flowed (cf. John 19:34).
We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal God who flung the galaxies into existence. While we’re at it, we might as well be as clear as possible; we believe he made his own mom.
JESUS’ GLORIFIED BODY
Three days after His crucifixion, Jesus was raised in His human body (cf. Rom 1:3-4). He “presented Himself alive.” Perhaps it was for the especially weak that Jesus demonstrated His resurrection “by many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:3). Among such “proofs,” Jesus ate in His risen body (Luke 24:42-43), cooked and served breakfast (John 21:12-13), and breathed on His disciples (John 20:21). Thomas touched Him (John 20:26-28). Overcome with joy and awe that “the gardener” was her God, Mary spontaneously “clung to Him” (John 20:17). On one occasion, five-hundred men saw Him at once (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:6). The Apostle John heard Jesus, saw Him, and touched Him with his own hands (cf. 1 John 1:1-3). The disciples met with the risen Jesus many times during the forty days following His bodily resurrection. Then, He gathered them together to instruct them one final time, and they watched as He ascended to heaven bodily. Then angels proclaimed to them He will return “in just the same way” (Acts 1:9-11).
JESUS’ ETERNAL BODY
When Stephen was being stoned to death for preaching the good news of salvation in Jesus, he saw “Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Standing presupposes that Jesus retains His human body in glory. But we need not only speculate. The Scriptures are clear that Jesus is forever embodied. As we read the New Testament, we find that Jesus is even now “appearing before the face of God for us” (Heb. 9:24). When He returns “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him” (Rev. 1:7). In glory, the saints will need no temple “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 19:22).
On one occasion in His earthly ministry the body of Jesus was transfigured and shone like the sun (Matt. 17:2). In glory, there will be no nighttime, and yet, the sun itself will not exist. How will heaven be brightened? “The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (v. 23).
The operative question is not whether the risen Jesus forever bears a human body but whether we have marinated in the blessings that are ours because He is human forever? Our Lord Jesus ever-lives as Man that men may live with God. Erase His enduring humanity, and we are doomed. As long as He remains “the Man, Christ Jesus” so long will we have an adequate “mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5). The nano-second the Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus assumed humanity for the remainder of eternity. Since the incarnation one among the Triune is ever clothed with true humanity (cf. Micah 5:2). To deny the truth of Christ’s enduring humanity is to defect from Christianity entirely (1 John 4:2-3). The Athanasian Creed states this truth clearly.
…it is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also believe in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.Now this is the true faith:
That we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,
is both God and human, equally.He is God from the essence of the Father,
begotten before time;
and he is human from the essence of his mother,
born in time;
completely God, completely human,
with a rational soul and human flesh;
equal to the Father as regards divinity,
less than the Father as regards humanity.Although he is God and human,
yet Christ is not two, but one.
He is one, however,
not by his divinity being turned into flesh,
but by God's taking humanity to himself.
He is one,
certainly not by the blending of his essence,
but by the unity of his person.
For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh,
so too the one Christ is both God and human.
Allow Octavious Winslow’s meditation on Christ’s incarnation to catapult your heart into the third heaven:
…between two finite things there is always some relative proportion; thus a grain of sand bears some proportion to the Alps, and a drop of water bears some proportion to the ocean; but between the finite and the infinite there can be no possible proportion whatever. Now, in the person of the Son of God, the two extremes of being—the infinite and the finite—meet in strange and mysterious, but close and eternal, union. The Divine came down to the human,—Deity humbled itself to humanity. [3]
The operative question is not whether the risen Jesus forever bears a human body but whether we have marinated in the blessings that are ours because He is human forever?
GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY…FOREVER
The Bible minces no words about God’s will for your body. “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). The only reasonable response to Jesus’ bodily sacrifice for us is to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:2).
Jesus “took the form of a bond-servant and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:6). At the cross “God condemned sin in the flesh” of Jesus (Romans 8:3). Through Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead, God causes us to be born again (cf. 1 Peter 1:3).
The Bible teaches that Jesus took on flesh and blood to save you from Satan’s grip (cf. Hebrews 2:14). Jesus is Immanuel and came to save us from our sins (cf. Matt. 1:21, 23). The primary reason His Father gave Him “a body” is so that He could give that same body to His Father as a sacrifice for you (cf. Hebrews 10:1-10). The evening before He was crucified Jesus explained His love would be demonstrated in giving His body for you (cf. 1 Cor. 11:24).
The day He rose from the dead, Jesus told His frightened followers, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.” If you struggle to believe that, you’re not alone. The people who were in the room that day were so overcome with elation they couldn’t believe it. So, the merciful Jesus took it a step further. “While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?' They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them” (Luke 24:41-43).
Don’t be jealous that you weren’t there. One day soon every believer will sit down in our glorified body with the same glorified Jesus for a better meal—“the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9). And forever, we will join Jesus in the bliss of ‘glorifying God in our body’ (1 Cor. 6:20).
Jordan Thomas is a TCT pastor at Grace Church in Memphis, TN.
Saturating the World with Eternal Joy
Saturating the World with Eternal Joy
2019 Eternal Joy Conference, Memphis Keynote
Speakers: John Piper
Additional Sessions
Hyper-Calvinism & Christian Hedonism
Hyper-Calvinism & Christian Hedonism
2019 Eternal Joy Luncheon Q&A with John Piper
Speakers: John Piper
Additional Sessions
TCT National Call with John Piper
On September 4, 2019, we sat with Pastor John via video conference call and he shared some thoughts on maintaining wonder in pastoral ministry and answered a variety of personal questions from TCT pastors and planters.
An Hour with Pastor John
For the video and audio versions of this resource, click on the image below.
Members Only Content. This resource is only available to TCT Members. If you are a member and experiencing difficulty accessing the resource, please view this help.
On September 4, 2019, we sat with Pastor John via video conference call and he shared some thoughts on maintaining wonder in pastoral ministry and answered a variety of personal questions from TCT pastors and planters.
John Piper is known as founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary; however, he’s affectionately known among the network as “Pastor John” who in many ways is the “grandfather” of our network.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons.
TCT National Calls are hour-long video chats / webinars during which TCT features guest speakers who will share wisdom and focused content from their experience as pastors, planters, or ministry component strategists.
Quickened To Worship
What is the most important thing humanity can do? According to Jesus, it is to love the Lord our God with all that we have and all that we are (Matt. 22.37).
What is the most important thing humanity can do? According to Jesus, it is to love the Lord our God with all that we have and all that we are (Matt. 22.37).
To love is not merely to feel emotional about God, but instead it is to choose to excite blessing and honor toward the highest and best of all things, toward the one true God who is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ by the Spirit.
Therefore, there is no higher priority for our churches than to quicken or excite this love. This is why the first of Treasuring Christ Together’s dimensions is worship. Worship is the active participation of that greatest of all loves. Here is how we explain worship:
“Enjoying and displaying the worth of Christ in God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-led, Bible-saturated corporate worship, including congregational singing and expository exultation.”
There is no shortage of church planting networks for aspiring church planters- for this we praise God. However, we at TCT want to make it clear from the beginning that the reason for our existence is to plant churches and foster a community of those churches whose priority is to worship in this way.
At the heart of our network is the establishment of assemblies whose main intention is the diffusion of joy as they manifest the excellencies of the greatness of our Trinitarian God in congregational singing and expository preaching.
Congregational singing and expository exultation are not the only ways that churches worship; however, we do believe these to be two of the most important ways that we are quickened to love God. Congregational singing is the familial response of the people to the wonderful truths of God. Expository exultation allows God’s voice to be heard above the din of lesser voices, and it does so in a manner that is triumphant!
How easy it is in planting churches to lose sight of worship. Between evangelistic initiatives, financial planning, and counseling (not to mention the throngs of other voices we hear day in and day out), we are tempted to focus on other things.
I’ve been there myself. I can recall in the early years of our church plant being so focused on evangelistic encounters that I lost sight of why I was doing all of it in the first place. I had gotten a part time job, joined a tennis league, a softball league, and was also helping coach a little league baseball team. I would leave my wife and small child alone most of the day and return weary only to wake up and do it again the next day. After a few months of this my energy was sapped, my marriage was strained, and my affections were cold. But why?
Was it all for the formation of a community whose purpose was to “enjoy and display the worth of Christ in a God-centered way?” Had you asked me, I would have said, “of course.” But this intention was leaking out of the sweat glands of my soul in favor of only gathering a crowd quickly.
I needed a community of people both here in the city I was planting and a network of brothers and sisters in other places. A community that would help quiet my soul to enjoy God and help quicken my soul to plant a community whose aim was also to enjoy God and display God in the fullness of worship.
It’s easy to talk about having the love of God for our aim in church planting. It’s another thing to drink it in and be quickened toward that pursuit.
At TCT it is our intention to make the love of God the heart and soul of our network. Consequently, allow me to make a couple practical suggestions for how you can facilitate this kind of environment.
To begin with, make sure to open all your gatherings with God-centered prayer and Bible reading. Not the kind of perfunctory methodologies that use these devices as mere starting points, but instead see prayer and scripture as invitations to worship the greatness of God. Use rich blessings and robust supplications for God to be glorified in the gathering. Read passages with unction that express the infinite worth of God.
Next, choose songs that not only a band on the stage can sing, but instead choose God-exalting songs that all God’s people can sing together. Historic hymns like, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” fit this description, but also more recent songs like Matt Papa’s, “Come behold the wondrous mystery,” will serve this end as well.
All this builds toward the moment of preaching. The preacher should properly explain and apply each passage with a view towards highlighting God’s faithfulness and the Gospel’s invitation to respond in praise. Let us not leave our people with directives without devotion. In this way, we can lead our churches to be quickened towards our great end of enjoying God forever and ever.
