Tuesday Church Life Update

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