Greetings, EMC family!

As we find ourselves in the midst of a growing outbreak of coronavirus infections in our country, it’s important that we remain calm, vigilant, and above all else prayerful. The good people of northeast North Carolina are no strangers to storms. You are a tough, resilient people who know what it takes to persevere, and we will weather this storm together.

That’s the key: together. We have made it through the initial bands of change and adaptation. Services and groups were cancelled. People have been staying in their homes. Church services have been moved online. You have done amazing with all of this change. Your attitudes and response to it all has been a beautiful witness to the presence of the Holy Spirit who is at work in you. But things are going to get worse before they get better, so it is important that we all stay informed and in touch.

Below are a few things I’d like to update you on concerning our church’s life for the coming days. Please take a few minutes to read everything:

• Join us for our Wednesday Night Prayer and Bible Study Gathering on Facebook Live tomorrow evening beginning at 7pm. You can find the church’s Facebook page at facebook.com/ecityemc. Be sure to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ to see all of our posts and get notified when they drop.
• For those who want to watch, but don’t have Facebook, I have created a Live page on our website for viewing our livestreams. Go to ecityemc.org and click “Live” in the top right-hand corner of the page.
• To submit prayer requests, fill out the prayer requests form on the website. Go to ecityemc.org and click “Contact” in the top right-hand corner of the page. There is a link to “Request Prayer” that will send your message directly to the EMC ministry staff.
• Please remember to support our local businesses impacted by the economic fallout of this crisis. Many are having to radically adapt to new restrictions that are crippling their business. There are a number of helpful resources out there to assist you, including groups on Facebook such as the Elizabeth City Take Out and Delivery group, which has a running list of local restaurants still trying to operate despite not being able to offer dine-in service. Our very own Mike and Holly Audette with the Culpepper Inn have adapted by offering delicious takeout breakfast/brunch options throughout the week. Their menu is located here. Please consider helping them and other local small businesses as much as you can!
• The church office, in conjunction with the Visitation Ministry Team, is currently coordinating the development of a congregational care infrastructure that will be making sure the needs of our most vulnerable and marginalized are being met on a weekly basis. Please inform us if you know of someone needing any form of congregational care, such as meals, groceries, medications, church service DVDs, a simple phone call, etc.
• The staff is also prayerfully brainstorming ways our church can serve the extended community. We will be sharing those thoughts and plans as they crystalize and the Lord leads. Please be poised to do your part in this local body to be the church!

I know this is a difficult and scary time, but our God is greater than even the mightiest of foes! Stay safe, trust Jesus, and stay connected to one another however possible. I love you and am praying for you.

In Him. With you.
Pastor Sean

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is a quick update for you concerning our plans for Sunday worship this weekend.

• We will be streaming our worship service live on Facebook. If you have not ‘Liked’ our Facebook page yet, please do so now (facebook.com/ecityemc). This will ensure you get all the latest news and notifications we post there throughout the week, and it will help you to more easily see and connect to our livestreams when we are broadcasting. We have decided to stick with Facebook Live because of its integrated social features. We love seeing your faces and comments show up in the chat!
• We have moved our service broadcast to the Worship Center. The livestream will feel more familiar and worshipful to you. We also will have more of our instrumentalists accompanying Pastor Jeff during the songs of praise and worship, as well as on-screen lyrics for you to sing along at home. (We ask for your patience and understanding for any technical difficulties we experience. Much of this is all still very new to us!)
• If you wish to avoid using Facebook, I have created a dedicated streaming page on our website at live.ecityemc.org. There you will be able to watch any livestream that is ongoing, or watch the most recently broadcasted stream. (Please note you will not be able to see any of the Facebook comment section from there.)
• For those unable to access our online streams, we will try to provide DVDs of our services to you. If you, or anyone you know, falls into this category, please inform the church office.
• Here is the order of worship for Sunday:
  • 9:45 – We will fire up the livestream so folks can begin to get tuned in.
  • 10:00 – Pastor Aaron will be offering a kid-friendly lesson for families with children to participate in together.
  • 10:10 – Parents will be invited to discuss the lesson and pray together while we reset the platform in preparation for the main worship service to begin.
  • 10:15 – We will begin our main worship service, which will include songs of praise and worship, camp testimonies from select youth, congregational prayer, and the morning sermon.
• Please don’t forget your tithes and offerings along with giving toward the Building Fund, Faith Promise, etc. Mail checks to the church office or give online:
  • Mail: 820 Old Okisko Rd. Elizabeth City, NC 27909
  • Online: ecityemc.org/giving.php

We still have no idea how long this season of church life will go on like this, but we are confident that Jesus is present and at work in our midst. Keep caring for one another and reaching out to each other, and please let us know whatever needs or prayer requests you might have.

In Him. With you.
Pastor Sean

Greetings EMC Family,

The ministry staff met the entire day today to discuss all the issues we currently face as a local body of believers. What follows is a summary of issues that pertain to the next 2 weeks of our church life together:

• As you probably already know, President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force issued a new list of guidelines accessible on the CDC website for how to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the United States for the next 2 weeks. As it pertains to groups, the guidelines recommend avoiding social gatherings in groups of more than 10 people. We believe our church needs to do its part to assist with slowing the spread of this virus in the interest of public health. Therefore, in keeping with these guidelines, we are closing the church campus to all group activities for the next 2 weeks. This includes all normally scheduled Sunday and Wednesday events. Beyond the 2 week window, nothing has been cancelled or postponed. We will address all those issues when the time comes.
• We spent a lot of time with Patrick Dail from the a/v team today discussing how to improve the quality of our livestream. We are putting plans in place that will allow us to offer services online in a much higher quality, while also incorporating more people and instruments and on-screen song lyrics.
• We have decided to stick with Facebook Live as our streaming platform because of its social integration. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing each other online and communicating in the chat. For those who do not have Facebook, we will provide a link via email to a dedicated page on our website to watch the livestream. We will also continue uploading sermons to our podcast and YouTube channels.
• To make our livestream more relevant to families with children, we will start the stream on Sunday mornings at 10:00 AM with a special kids-focused lesson for families and children to watch together. At the normal 10:15 AM time, the regular worship service will begin for everybody else. We hope this will help us minister to whole families and not just to adults.
• We are also very concerned about access to these services for members of our congregation who do not have the ability to stream online. I will be working with Vickie Brady to generate a list of these individuals to whom we can provide DVDs of the services.
• In addition to services, we want to put into place a congregational care system that assists folks most susceptible to getting sick however we can. All of this is happening very fast and we are working extra hard to think things through, but in the meantime if you know of someone who is in need that the church can assist, please contact the office ASAP so that we can begin attending to those needs in order of priority. Between the ministry staff, Board of Stewards, Visitation Ministry Team, and anyone else who wants to be a part of this, our church should have plenty of people to help care for everyone represented here. No one should be left out or behind. Let’s be the church and care for one another!
• In the event that these social distancing measures persist longer than the next two weeks, we plan to make communion for April 5 available by providing Fellowship Cups (individually wrapped wafers and communion juice cups) to everyone in advance of that Sunday’s online service. We will incorporate a time of communion in our livestream, with folks participating from their homes. Fellowship Cups will be available in the church office for you to stop by and pick up, or we can deliver them to your home if you are not able to come get them from the church. There will be more information on this next week.
• Pastor Aaron, Pastor Jeff, and Marcy are all adapting their ministry responsibilities in light of the current situation. Marcy, in particular, is coming up with creative ways to minister to our youth and children. Parents, please be on the lookout for communications coming from her.

I am planning on putting together a Facebook Live prayer gathering for tomorrow evening at 7 PM. If you are able, please tune in and you will be able to submit prayer requests in the chat or via private message and we will lift our prayers to the Lord together. Keep an eye on your Facebook page for details on how to get connected to that.

I so look forward to the time when we will be back together again in person. We have no idea how long it will be until that day, but I know that in the meantime our church life will continue by using the tools and resources available to us in this digital age. As soon as it is safe for us to begin meeting again, we will. As soon as I am able to physically visit with those of you who are most vulnerable, I will. Until then, we will do our best to be safe and smart and prayerful, looking forward to the bright future God has for us on the other side of this difficult season of tribulation.

Please let me know how we can pray for you or be there for you. Please be on the lookout for one another. Please keep paying attention to our channels of communication. And, above all else, keep your eyes on Jesus!

I love you all,
Pastor Sean

Saturday, March 14th Update
We will still be having our full slate of Sunday morning activities tomorrow. Please note the following adjustments that are being made in lieu of coronavirus:

• We are asking visitors to limit all physical contact, including handshaking.
• Extra hand sanitation stations have been installed.
• We will not be having the normal post-announcement greeting time.
• We will not be passing offering plates. Ushers will hold onto them during the collection time.

We are continuing to plan for further changes as the situation unfolds. Please come back to this site for additional news in the coming days.

Beloved EMC Family,

I’m writing you this morning concerning the current situation involving the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes (COVID-19). My intention is not to brief you on the medical facts of the outbreak, but on its current and potential impact on our church’s life. For information on the epidemic itself, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there are presently 7 presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in the state, with Virginia reporting another 8. Without sensationalizing the situation like the daily news or dismissing it altogether, the Board of Stewards, ministry staff, and I are taking this event seriously and will be taking whatever precautions necessary to ensure EMC is as safe of a place of worship as possible and that we are caring for one another as the family of God that we are.

What follows is a list of bulleted items for you to review, in no particular order. Please take a few minutes to read them thoroughly.

• There are currently no plans to cancel any church worship gatherings or events. In the event we sense the situation becomes one where it would be best to cancel church activities, we will inform you via email, the church website (ecityemc.org), and the church Facebook page (facebook.com/ecityemc). Please bookmark these pages and check them regularly for updates.
• If/when the time comes to cancel a worship gathering, we will utilize the platforms made available by Facebook and YouTube (EMC’s channel is available here) to ensure the ministry of the Word at EMC continues. Online giving will also remain available through the church’s website at ecityemc.org/giving.php.
• We are working to ensure the church is being properly cleaned and high impact areas are being regularly sanitized. Bathrooms, door handles, light switches, drinking fountains, and other commonly used hard surfaces are receiving extra attention in between gatherings. Marcy has informed me that the KidZone/Preschool area is being cleaned more deeply and regularly each week. Please note also the presence of hand sanitizer stations located across campus. We are installing temporary signage to assist you in locating them on the walls.
• To help ensure our gatherings are as safe as possible, we request your assistance through responsible personal hygiene and interpersonal interactions. If you feel sick, please stay home. Please wash your hands regularly. Please cough and sneeze into a tissue (and dispose of it) or into the inside of your elbow. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with your hands. And please be gracious to others at church who may wish to avoid physical contact (hand shakes, hugs, etc.).
• We will continue to offer communion on the first Sunday of each month. Volunteers who serve the elements are already given Purell sanitation wipes to use immediately prior to coming up front to assist. We will be adding hand sanitizer pumps to the front for them to use as an extra measure and for the benefit of the congregation’s peace of mind. For those who do not wish to receive the elements by intinction, we will be expanding our offerings of the individually wrapped communion elements we normally offer on the far (organ) side of the worship platform.
• Please be extra diligent in your watchful care for one another. It is precisely during times such as this that we must live as the Body of Christ. “Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith” (Galatians 6:10). “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Check in on each another, especially those among our fellowship who are further along in years, are more isolated, are less independent, or are prone to getting sick. Above all else, pray continually for one another (Ephesians 6:18; I Timothy 2:1; James 5:16).

As your pastor and brother in Christ, I exhort you to worry or be anxious about nothing. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) God is sovereign and in control of the events in the world and your life is hidden with Christ in him (Colossians 3:3). Be smart, stay vigilant, keep the faith, and stay focused on Jesus and helping one another and we will make it through this together.

In Him. With you.
Pastor Sean