We’re coming back!!!
Our COVID Task Force has been working diligently to have in-person worship safely, and together with our Trustees and Worship Team we have a date for our first worship in the church building in nearly a year and a half.
Our target date is October 17 @10:30am
It might seem like a way off, but it gives us time to install some new equipment, to work on new patterns of worship, and to smooth out the details about cleaning and social distancing. When we come back it won’t be every week right away. We will stagger our opening so we can make sure everything is running as smoothly as we can expect. Our schedule for in-person worship will be:
- 1st in-person worship – October 17 (soft opening)
- Online – October 24 and 31
- 2nd worship – November 7
- Online – November 14
- Worship in-person every week beginning – November 21 (Official Grand Re-Opening)
As with everything, there will be some changes when we return. These are for everyone’s safety and to make things better for everyone.
- Masks are mandatory in worship regardless of vaccination
- Please keep socially distant from people not in your household
- No social hour after worship (but we will have take-away goodies the first few gatherings)
- As much as we love you, please do NOT come to worship if you aren’t feeling well – just join us online
In the meantime, we will be encouraging everyone who can get vaccinated to be vaccinated. We realize there are always exceptions and not everyone is able to, but if it is at all possible, we want to encourage you to help stop the spread and get vaccinated. It’s for both your own health and those around you. We want you to be as safe as possible when you come back to worship. We’ve missed you all terribly and are anxiously looking forward to seeing you!
Peace in Christ, Rev. Craig
Why are we upgrading our worship space?
It’s good enough for me!
That’s often the sentiment when upgrades happen. I like things the way they are so what’s the purpose in shelling out the hard-earned dollars of our church? Especially when funding is tight. Why spend money needlessly? Or people take it personally. As if we’re saying it wasn’t good enough before. Except it’s not needless. And just because it was good enough before doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look to make it better.
Think about car seats for children. I survived. You did, too. But looking back now, I’m not sure how that was possible. A lot of luck, some good fortune, and the hand of God? Car seats now are SO much better than they were before and have saved the lives of countless children. So why upgrade? Because we can make it BETTER and better just might mean saving another life. cont on back
The same is true for worship. If we can make it easier for people to find us, if we can show them how committed we are to quality worship, if we can transmit our love and care for Christ and one another through a computer screen, we might be saving lives – and souls.
In the olden days (and believe me I lived in the olden days), people would find churches in the Yellow Pages. Do you know what the Yellow Pages are? Then you lived in the Olden Days, too! We would “look up” what we wanted, see a listing and just show up. People stopped doing that about 20 years ago. Today, the front door of the church ISN’T our front door. It’s the Internet. And not just our website. Social media, Yelp!, YouTube, streaming – ALL OF IT is how people are finding us today. Before they walk in the door, they look you up same as they always did, but now they look you up differently. And right or wrong, people decide if they want to come to your church (or any business) LONG before they actually walk in the door. So how we present ourselves online is important. Hence, the upgrades.
But it’s more than even upgrades for outreach. It’s also for the people who are homebound. Back in the Olden Days, if you couldn’t make it to worship, you just stopped coming to church. And so many people I know missed being in our company. They missed being a part of worship, seeing people’s faces, feeling comforted to know their church was still going. Sure, pastors and friends would visit, but they really missed being in person. And what about people who lived far away? They might still consider BMUC their home, but could never join in on what was going on. How easy it is to become disconnected from the places and people we love. Now we see friends we hadn’t seen for a long time. We see people who can’t always make it in person joining us online with the help of family and friends. It’s great to expand our reach to those we want to stay connected to.
So that’s why we are spending our hard-earned church dollars on upgrading the worship experience. For the love of Christ. For the love of our people. For the love of those who are just now exploring their faith. This isn’t the future of church – it’s the reality.
