Dear Church Family,
What a blessing it is to see so many people coming back to church! Since reopening our services, I’ve seen more and more familiar faces and some new ones worshipping with us in-person. There are kids and adults coming back to Sunday school. Slowly but surely, some of our grow groups are coming together again. On top of that, we are still reaching a good amount of people through our live-streaming and virtual ministries. This is all very encouraging to me and, I hope to you.
We continue to follow all the developments and recommendations from the federal and state governments and our Annual Conference. The recently announced changes to COVID restrictions have prompted us to update our own policies. Yesterday, the Church Council has approved the following updates which will take effect immediately:
- Reservations for the worship services will no longer be required. Seating will be available on a first come, first served basis. Please be gracious and understanding if you arrive after we have reached capacity.
- Social distancing and mask-wearing are still required until after these restrictions are lifted by the State and approved by Church Council.
- You can now seat yourselves in designated pews. Ushers and greeters will be there to help you as needed. Please, remain in your pews until the service is ended.
- Every other pew will be open for seating and we encourage individuals or pods to stay six feet apart from other individuals or pods.
- Still no socializing inside the church. Please go outside to catch up with each other.
- Grow groups and committees can increase to 25 people per group in the main hall of the Fellowship House. Mask wearing and social distancing guidelines still apply.
As more people get vaccinated and restrictions continue to lessen, I want to encourage you to remain diligent in keeping each other safe with Christ-like humility and grace. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:4, “let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” We have said this from the beginning, we are in this together. With God’s help, we will get through this together. Until then, let us continue to love and serve one another and Jesus loved and served us.
The light at the end of this long tunnel is closer than ever and I thank God for that! I praise God for our church and all the ways we have cared for and reached out to one another in Jesus’ love. I praise God especially for everyone who has been working hard to keep us worshipping, growing, and serving together in Christ through these challenging times.
Finally, mark your calendars. We will have ONE SERVICE at 10am on Sunday, May 30th. Since this will be a combined service, we anticipate reaching capacity quickly. If you plan to attend in-person, get there early. If you’d rather worship with us online, we will live-stream the service on our Facebook page.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor John