Pastor's Thoughts

A few words about reopening!

Hello Church Family,

It’s time to talk about reopening our church for in-person services. A lot of prayer and conversation has gone into this, and I am indebted to those who have shared with and advised and counseled me about this very important matter, as well as the faithful and precious guidance of the Holy Spirit in leading to this decision. We pray that we may do well by our Lord in all of this.

So let’s get to the point.

We plan to reopen for services in the next few weeks, but in stages, and with very clear conditions and guidelines for such, all of which will be regularly reviewed and revised along the way as we do so.

To start with, we will begin with renewing our Midweek Gathering meetings on Wednesday evenings. As we see how that goes, we will decide when and how soon afterward to renew our Sunday Worship services.

Over the past few months, we’ve been accumulating supplies, materials, and equipment for reopening, and we should be good with that. Also, those of our folks who would be integrally involved in the process have been contacted and are ready to see that the reopenings not only happen, but that they are done so with the proper preparation, facilitation, and protection necessary.

In addition, our live Zoom broadcasts on Wednesdays and Sundays will continue for the foreseeable future, and probably beyond, for those who cannot and/or should not attend in person because of health issues.

One thing to keep in mind in all of this talk about reopening is the size of our Sanctuary — It is small; very small. That limits us in some significant ways, like numbers allowed in the building at one time, seating and personal spacing requirements, and realistic mitigation of potential dangers in the air. All of these necessitate some seemingly stringent guidelines and arrangements, but they are appropriate in order to be considerate of each other and prudent in our gathering together. We want to do what is best in our Lord’s eyes, and honor Him when we join with each other in worship.

In a few days you will be receiving a letter from me about reopening. It will flesh out in more detail how we plan to do this, and it will include specifics about the guidelines that will be in place as we do reopen. Please feel free to ask me or any of our actively ordained men (Don Roske, Carlos Gomez, Bob Laughter) if you have any questions about what you will read. Again, the guidelines you will see are flexible and may be revised as we get into the actual renewing of our services. For now though, we feel led that this is the way to go, and with the guidelines that are best for the reinstating of our in-person gatherings.

Thank you for your prayers, patience, and participation during these last seven months. It’s been a long time, I know. May we be faithful to our Lord no matter what the circumstances that we find ourselves in may be. He deserves nothing less!

God keep and care for you and yours!

Pastor Thom