Dear First Pres,
Here are a few things that are important for you to know:
Sunday Morning Worship
Our plan is to continue to make our 10am live stream service our primary focus for Sunday worship. I truly encourage you to keep making that a priority in your week. One way you could enhance your worship time is to invite a few others to regularly join you at your home for the service. I referred to this a few weeks ago as a “worship pod.” My encouragement is to keep your worship pod consistent and to be careful to follow CDC guidelines to avoid virus spread. But even with these guidelines, a worship pod can be a wonderful way to connect meaningfully with others while participating in worship.
And for those who are particularly longing for an in-person gathering for worship, the Session has approved the launch of an outdoor worship service. Starting on August 30 at 8am, in the shade of our Patio, we will be offering an “unplugged” service that will not be live-streamed. As we launch, we will be limiting the service to 75 people so that we can start small and grow from there. Those who wish to attend will need to register online or with the church office and agree to abide by our guidelines for keeping each other safe. Kids are welcome, but there will be no care or classes offered specifically for them. Registration will open weekly on Monday morning at 9am and close on Friday at noon. For now, it will be a “first come, first served” registration process.
As we heard from Jamie Franklin on Sunday, one of the best ways we can love our community (especially those who work in our hospitals) is to continue to do our part to keep each other safe from this insidious virus. But we also all need to intentionally pursue spiritual health in Christ. I pray that the Lord gives you wisdom in that decision as you consider how you can best participate in corporate worship this season: on your own, in a worship pod, or at our 8am outdoor service.
New Staff
The hunt for an Assistant Pastor/Director for Disciple Making has been narrowed down to the team's finalists. Please be praying for the search team: Charity Whitney, Ben Wiele, Ann Morgan, Molly Tatum, Randy White, and me. May God give us discernment.
The Session also decided recently to open a new position to lead our worship tech team. The Technology Director will oversee all our livestream and sanctuary technology while helping us connect with our digital audience. This pandemic forced us to think much more seriously about ministry in the digital world and all the opportunity that it holds. So, we’re not just doing digital ministry to get by, we believe that the Lord can use it to reach more people with the good news of Jesus. Have any of you invited your friends to watch our service online? Our vision is to use the online platform to help viewers become friends, and friends become disciples. The Technology Director will be an important piece of that effort.
Summer Prayer Groups
I continue to give thanks to the Lord for the ways that He has worked in and through our summer prayer groups. As we near the end of August, I encourage you to have a conversation with your group about life after the Summer Prayer Project. For pre-existing groups, I hope the discipline to pray together this summer will impact the way you continue to meet in the months ahead. For those groups that just launched for the summer, might some or all of you continue to meet for prayer? There’s no shame in moving on to something new, but I hope you’ll at least have a conversation with one another about this.
Blessings,
Pastor Jeremy
P.S. Keep praying, Beloved, and don’t give up! Particularly, let’s pray that the Lord brings relief from all the fires in our state right now, protects those who are fighting them, and draws people unto Him.
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