By now most of you are aware that we have once again opened our sanctuary at 39 Fayette Street for Sunday worship. Last week we had 10 people join us live, while a few dozen more joined us via the Zoom Platform. That's a good start, and we have a long ways to go.
Of course, we asked those who gathered in person to observe some special guidelines to maintain the health and safety of everyone involved. If you are considering joining us live, please read our blog post about those guidelines here.
We want you all to know that we are working hard to include everyone. If you have assessed the risk and determined that it is best if you stay home, we are continuing our zoom feed so that you will still be included. If you have evaluated the likelihood of transmission and decided that it is reasonable to join us, we welcome your presence.
As some of you realized, however, even the live service is not like it was before. In order to include those who cannot attend, the live service is going to look and feel quite different than it used to. To put it bluntly, you will basically be sitting in the sanctuary watching me conduct the service. You will see it on the screens in church instead of in your living room. The main difference is that you will be with a bunch of other people. Much of what made live worship special (before we had to call it "live"), the singing, the choir, the passing of the peace, the seeing and hearing one another -- simply cannot be part of the service right now, and probably won't be for a long time.
But there are some things that do NOT change, ever: God and his promises, the saving work of Jesus, the presence of his Holy Spirit, the power of his Word, and Christ's eternal reign over all creation. None of these things are affected by COVID-19, the stay-at-home orders, or the CDC. So whether you are at home on Sunday morning, or in the sanctuary, make Jesus and what he has done your focus. Don't focus on the production quality. Don't give any energy to thinking about how we used to do things.
In that way, you will bring honor and glory to him who deserves it most, and you will find the greatest possible blessing for yourself.
Grace and peace to you all.
Pastor Dave
Of course, we asked those who gathered in person to observe some special guidelines to maintain the health and safety of everyone involved. If you are considering joining us live, please read our blog post about those guidelines here.
We want you all to know that we are working hard to include everyone. If you have assessed the risk and determined that it is best if you stay home, we are continuing our zoom feed so that you will still be included. If you have evaluated the likelihood of transmission and decided that it is reasonable to join us, we welcome your presence.
As some of you realized, however, even the live service is not like it was before. In order to include those who cannot attend, the live service is going to look and feel quite different than it used to. To put it bluntly, you will basically be sitting in the sanctuary watching me conduct the service. You will see it on the screens in church instead of in your living room. The main difference is that you will be with a bunch of other people. Much of what made live worship special (before we had to call it "live"), the singing, the choir, the passing of the peace, the seeing and hearing one another -- simply cannot be part of the service right now, and probably won't be for a long time.
But there are some things that do NOT change, ever: God and his promises, the saving work of Jesus, the presence of his Holy Spirit, the power of his Word, and Christ's eternal reign over all creation. None of these things are affected by COVID-19, the stay-at-home orders, or the CDC. So whether you are at home on Sunday morning, or in the sanctuary, make Jesus and what he has done your focus. Don't focus on the production quality. Don't give any energy to thinking about how we used to do things.
In that way, you will bring honor and glory to him who deserves it most, and you will find the greatest possible blessing for yourself.
Grace and peace to you all.
Pastor Dave
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