From the Pastor

As your pastor, I am pleased to share with you some exciting and meaningful worship opportunities in the month of October. Since the beginning of the Covid crisis, we have been unable to experience in-person worship together in the Sanctuary. However, due to the decline in new Covid cases, we are preparing to take the next step. Using the same model as our Vesper services, we will be inviting Sunday school classes to attend in-person worship in the sanctuary. Each class will be assigned two Sundays in October and November. On these Sundays, the invited class(es) will be encouraged to meet together with masks for Sunday school in space that will be assigned with socially distanced seating. Following Sunday school, the class(es) will be invited to attend the worship service in the sanctuary. While we are excited about extending this invitation, we want to recognize and affirm the decision of any members who due to age, medical vulnerabilities, or even out of personal caution feel uncomfortable attending. We will continue to livestream each service using Boxcast, Facebook, and our church’s website.

I know that some in our congregation are eager to move forward more quickly, while others in our congregation may feel that we are already walking too fast. As your pastor, I want to assure you that with the help and input of our Risk Management Committee and our Church Administrative Council, we are working to balance our desire to be together with our commitment to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our congregation. We are excited about this next step forward and hopeful that we will continue to move toward a time when we can all worship together in this sacred space. I ask for your prayers for the church ministers and staff members, our church deacons, and our church leaders who have been a part of this decision-making process. I also want to ask for your prayers for our congregation as we continue to travel through these uncharted waters, confident of God’s guidance in this season and beyond. I am grateful for the deep sense of community and connectedness that exists within our congregation and for the calls being made, the cards being sent, the care being extended, and the prayers beinglifted during this time.

During the first months of the Covid crisis, after so many hours in our home, my family and I began to take day trips to some of Georgia’s state parks. Each trip, inevitably from the back seat, a question arose: “How long until we get there?” And, often, I could honestly reply, “I don’t know. We have never been there before.”

Some of us are asking the same question: “How long before we get there?” Friends, we don’t know, because we have never been here before. We have a choice, not about how soon we will get there, but about how we will travel on this journey. My hope and prayer is that we will make the most of this time. We will be courageous and cautious, enthusiastic and wise. We will learn to treasure the little things and to celebrate each step forward, ultimately knowing that “God, who began a good work in us, will be faithful to complete it until the Day of Christ Jesus.”

The journey is long, but I am thankful to be traveling with you.

Pastor Chris