Dear Church Family
There has been a lot of discussions around us about returning to, or opening up since the quarantine and lockdown process began. There have been several presentations made by zoom, from our Annual Conference and the CDC and advisors from all over the country related to church and worship gatherings. Most recommendations are not yet, until we find a vaccine or we see a drastic reduction in the number of cases. One of our challenges is that most medical professionals warn that those who are over 60 and who may have preexisting medical issues, need to stay home. That pretty much includes a majority of our church and most of our staff. We value your health and safety above everything else. So I think we are looking at waiting in place for a while.
I also know most of us have some form of cabin fever and are longing to get out of the house. As the weather gets better that only adds to the desire to be back to normal, back with friends, joining in worship etc. We have to be very careful.
So I understand what we are going through, and I long for a time that looks more like what we have known. That is not going to be possible for a while. So let’s make the most of our situation and keep on sharing together in zoom, our worship, our meetings and as we improve our ability to use high tech, gatherings and Bible Studies that we will benefit from.
I am writing to you as the provider of our worship zoom experience to share with you some of my thoughts related to what is being planned and what you have seen so far and what is yet to come. We are blessed with a very strong and supportive turnout for our zooms (zurch – zoom+church). We are also very blessed to have more and more non members finding us and joining us in worship this way. I urge you to keep inviting your friends to join our zoom. All you have to do is forward the flash with the code, when it comes, to several of your friends who might enjoy being with you in worship. These conditions have raised the spiritual needs of many people, and we can provide a place and a source of comfort through our zooms.
We are also recording our services and putting them up on youtube, on our channel, so they could watch us at a better time for them. We just cannot put the zoom information on our website, because some have been known to jump in and provide insults, pornography and other very bad material in a zoombombing effort, when they find the direct access to our zooming on a website. That’s why we ask for individuals to share the code with friends.
We may be at this for a while, so we will continue to be creative with our services. It is easier to be in our sanctuary, but that is not an option, so we must be creative. I am keeping in mind both our current congregation and our future potential congregation, with a balance of material in zoom. I’m also keenly aware that as we all watch from our phones, laptops, computers or TV’s the importance of the visual impact of the presentation. Therefore, I look for music and videos that are beautiful from a photographic and inspirational nature, It can’t just be words on the screen only. Unless that is the only way we can share a good song. I am also aware of the blessings that our congregation already has of many styles of music preference, so I try carefully to vary the music in honor and recognition of all the varieties of preference in our midst. This means of course, that what touches your heart, may not touch the heart of someone else. So I try to be as flexible as I can to find that something in the music and service will touch your heart, maybe not all of it. But I am also touching the heart of those who are longing to connect to God, and I hope you can bear with me, when I try to reach someone else’s heart.
Our most important responsibility is to help people connect to God. Our second important responsibility is to connect God to each other. Our third important responsibility is to connect ourselves to making a difference in our world. I pray that our zoom experience will connect us to God and God’s comfort in our trying times. I pray that our zoom experiences help you connect to one another. I hope that the zoom experience is clearly focused on the message of God’s love to us. That message is the focus and it inspires the songs to reflect the message. It inspires the prayers to reflect the focus. I shapes the scripture and message to reflect that focus. The choices of the music will always be to tell the old old story in ways that we can understand and reinforce the focus and the message. Not every song will fit any service. They are chosen to be reflective of the focus. They are chosen to touch the heart of somebody in our midst. Hopefully they will touch your heart.
May God bless each of us as we journey together in this unusual time. Let’s continue to pray for one another as well.
Blessings, Pastor Jeff
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