I can tell you that media is a very effective tool in such times as these.
An Interview with Pastor Samuel Lam, General Supt. of VietnamQuestion 1: When did you begin to see that online media would help your churches? Did COVID impact your decision? Since we move out of small houses to a bigger place, we rented a place that has capacity of 300 to 500 peoples, and that was the time God put in my heart a concern for media, how to share God’s blessings to people from different places and how to bring God’s messages to this lost world and how to share powerful testimonies of changed lives, healings to people that are in need. We thank God how He has led us in this new and exciting ministry. Then when Covid broke out at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, we were pushed even further to do more things on this platform.There were many quarantines, lockdown in different areas. Really if we did not step into this ministry, we would not know how to care for the congregation because we could not meet them in person. Question 2: Describe what you’ve done in terms of online media ministry from the church? What we have learned from Pastor Bill and the AP Media team was to start doing this ministry with what we can do, by God’s favor. First, we did online Sunday services that would help the congregation to continue to worship God. We also did services through Zoom. We also broadcast 3 times a week with short messages to bring some encouragement to our people. We also have a Bible verse and some word of faith daily on our Page. We also post sermons weekly on Youtube so anyone could listen at anytime. One thing that we never thought of and we did it for the first time, was online evangelism. This was a spectacular idea. We planned to have rally every 3 months. At that time the government ordered a quarantine due to current breakout. There was a young man said to me, Pastor, let us do the online rally. So all the cell groups invited their friends to join the virtue meeting. Everyone had to watch the service through their screens. And we thank God for the wonderful result. We had 22 people come back to Christ through the online rally. Question 3: What did you do to help build a team of workers? Since God placed in me a concern and a vision for this ministry I started to pray and ask God for someone to be a key person. And thank God that He brought a man that have passion and is gifted in this field. As I shared my heart with him, he caught the vision and started to run this ministry. Through him, God raised a few more young people that have shared passion, burden for this ministry. When Pastor Bill and his team came to train us, I sent our team to learn in the seminar. We thank God how step by step they learn and practice. Question 4: What results have happened as you’ve been emphasizing this outreach? New contacts? Praying with people? Visitors? I can tell you that media is a very effective tool in such times as these. We still could do our trainingand discipleship programs through media. We keep our cellgroup meetings going online so our people would not be scattered. We have used media thoroughly for different people groups, i.e staff, members, believers, and even unbelievers could come in touch with us through Facebook Page or our Youtube channel. We also have had prayer meeting for healings that we could invited people and unbelievers to log in and pray with us. Question 5: What have you learned as a leader concerning using online media in ministry? If we don’t use media it is a disadvantage and regretful to us as leaders for this is a sharp tool that God is using for His church today. It is free and if we are not using it, we limit the church to being insidethe 4 walls of the building. When we use media, we bring the church impact outside the 4 walls. We bring testimonies and God’s messages to go over the walls to God’s people and to unbelievers so they would know our God. I am 60 years old and I know media is a hard thing for the older generation. For we were not born in a time of digital and internet development but I have tried my best to learn and use this tool as I see it effectiveness. And I also believe there are young men and women who would help us. So please don’t say that its impossible. My brethren, we can do it if we wish. Question 6: How did Asia Pacific Media help you cast vision and train your workers? Pastor Bill was moved by God to connect with us. We invited AP Media to train our church leaders and pastors, and our young people about media. It was a significant and great time to be in the training and Pastor Bill had helped us to understand the importance of this ministry. This training helped our leaders to see media is a new open door and a new field that the churches have been unware of. Then after understanding the field, they started supporting young people in their churches. We want to thank God for the media team for your help in training our people to know how to use this great tool. And we are so thankful that even in this time, we are not confused about what to do or how to do it for we have had learned from you and your team. Our church services are still going well as if was a real gathering. We have also multiplied this ministry by sharing this tool to our brothers and sisters in the Highlands and remote areas. I pushed them hard to start learning this new tool. This is the time to use this internet to connect with our members. There are some people who have to go up to mountain to catch the wifi. We had a national conferences for more than 500 leaders and pastors last July. So even though people far away from us (more than 2,000km) they could sign in and meet with us. We will have another big conference for young adults (up to 1,000) in beginning of August.
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