This past week, like many of you, our family attended community group virtually using Zoom. What a blessing it was to connect with some of our church family members, hear how they are doing, and pray with them.

Technology like Zoom is a huge blessing in times like these, when many of our regular iron-sharpening-iron avenues have been put on hold. But it can also be a little challenging. Someone’s audio cuts out for an unknown reason, someone gets dropped from the meeting, everyone’s dog barks at the same time. We all know what that’s like.

Zoom is a powerful tool, but it is also different from what we’re used to, and that means we’re all on the same learning curve together. 

Here are some questions you may be asking, and a few helpful hints we’ve learned along the way.

How to Get Started With Zoom for Your Sunday Class, Bible Study, or Community Group

Is this your first time leading a Zoom meeting? It’s easy, we promise! Here’s what you need to do:

1. If you are the leader, you will likely be “host” of the meeting. To get started, visit www.zoom.us or download the Zoom app to your mobile phone. You can also download it to your laptop, although you are not required to – you can do it just from a browser.
   
2. Sign up for a free account. It’s super easy. All you need is your email.
   
3. Schedule a meeting. Once downloaded and logged in to your free account, find a convenient time that works for most people in your group and choose to schedule a meeting. You can set the date and time. NOTE: For free accounts, you are only allowed to schedule for forty minutes. This is not a problem since most of us will meet for less time and Zoom will often extend the time for free. However, if you run out of time, simply schedule two meetings back-to-back, each 40 minutes long. 
   
4. Invite people to your meeting. Choose “Copy Invitation” and paste this into an email to your class. All they need is that link in the invitation to join the meeting.
   
5. Launch your meeting! When the time comes, click “Start” on the meeting in the app and the people in your class can then click the link and join your meeting. Voila! They should start to appear. UPDATE: For security, Zoom now has the host “admit” all participants to prohibit hackers from joining. Be sure to click “Meeting Participants” to admit your group into the meeting!

How to Plan Your Virtual Meeting Time

Virtual meetings are tough, because everyone is dealing with a different environment and a different set of distractions. As a leader, you can’t control what is happening in everyone’s home, but you can help your group plan ahead so you all benefit from a time of fellowship and encouragement.

1. Plan ahead. What will you talk about? Will there be specific times for interaction vs. teaching? Should people just jump in if they have something to say? The answers to these questions will be different depending on the nature of your group, but it’s helpful to think about them ahead of time.
   
2. Spend time caring for one another. Hopefully we are calling and messaging people throughout the week as we have opportunity, but plan to take some time during your meeting to see how everyone is doing and pray for each other. Also, find out whether anyone has needs you can help with (such as grocery shopping, getting to doctor’s appointments, or even understanding the technology).
   
3. Encourage one another in the Word! The news and social media are filling us with panic or frustration. Here’s a chance to focus on truth with people we love!
   
4. Make sure everyone has a chance to contribute.It’s even tougher to speak up on a Zoom call than it is in real life. There may be a delay between your video and theirs, so some people might start talking at the same time, while others hesitate to interact at all. Don’t let that stop you! Encourage everyone to participate and pause long enough after questions for people to say what’s on their mind. You can also mute everyone in the group and then go person by person, having them unmute themselves when they want to speak.
   
5. Create connections. Be careful that your Zoom meeting doesn’t just become a bunch of people watching one person talk. If people are hesitant to jump in and contribute, you might have to be very intentional about asking for input. For example, look for people who haven’t said anything and ask them what their thoughts are. You can also consider directing each question to a specific person initially before asking others to offer thoughts. When you are ready to pray together, ask each person individually to share prayer requests rather than just asking generally. This will encourage more people to share what is on their heart.
   
6. Embrace the awkward! Things may be very interesting the first time or two. The technology may not work probably. Don’t worry – during one recent Community Group meeting, nobody’s video worked but we still met anyway and had a good discussion!

Questions You Might Be Asking

Don’t get frustrated if things don’t go as planned. We’re all used to technical issues cropping up now and then, so just roll with it! Here are some questions you might be asking:

What if I’m not tech-savvy?

1. There are likely people in your group who have used Zoom for work or for school. Ask them to set up and “host” the meeting for you.
   
2. Do a test run ahead of time with a friend so you have a chance to work out any bugs before your scheduled meeting.

What if my class is too large for a video call?

1. Zoom free accounts can hold up to 100 people.
   
2. If you think the size of your class limits interaction and participation, you could split up into smaller groups. 

What if I’m still confused on how to use Zoom?

• Matt Wells has created a video that walks you through how to set up a Zoom call. Watch it and then try it out yourself!  Watch here.

A Few More Helpful Tips

Zoom has lots of options you can use to help you make the most of your time together. Here are some additional features you might find useful:

• Record the meeting. This might be helpful if someone is unable to attend or if you want to refer back later for prayer requests or other information.
  
• Share your screen. If you are teaching a lesson and you have a PowerPoint or other resource you would like to share, you can press ⌘Cmd+Shift+S (PC: Alt+Shift+S) to share your screen with everyone else in the group. To pause the screen share, press ⌘Cmd+Shift+T (PC: Alt+T).
  
• Mute your own audio. This is helpful to do when someone else is talking as it cuts out any background noise from your end.
  
• Mute everyone’s audio. When you are teaching or praying, mute everyone else’s audio by pressing ⌘Cmd+Ctrl+M (PC: Alt+M). This reduces the environmental distractions and background noise coming from everyone else’s location.
  
• “Raise Hand.” When people are muted, they can virtually raise a hand if they have something to say. The keyboard shortcut for this is Option+Y (PC: Alt+Y).

• Use a password. The FBI has shared some concerns about “Zoom bombing,” where unwelcomed hackers jump into a Zoom call and cause distractions. You can avoid this by setting a password for your meeting when you schedule it – just be sure to let people know what it is before the meeting! UPDATE: Passwords are now required for all Zoom meetings – so be sure to send it when you invite your group!

We hope these tips are helpful as you gather around the Word and practice community in a virtual environment this week! God bless!

Here’s some pictures from our groups at Calvary using Zoom:

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