Dear First Baptist Family, 3/14/2020
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic that our country is currently facing, our church leadership has been meeting and praying about what the Lord would have us do for ministry this weekend. We have developed a response that has taken medical and governmental advice and sought how we could respond in a way that shows measured caution and concern.
As you know, the information this week has changed each day, so in light of a heightened awareness for this weekend we have decided to maximize the number of people we can minister to and do it the safest and most effective way we can. This means that we will not be having services tomorrow and will instead be having a time of teaching from our current “Knowing Jesus” series that will be online HERE at 10am tomorrow morning.
We see this as an opportunity for everyone: families, children, and at-risk individuals to be able to huddle around the Word and their computer, tablet, or phone and grow on Sunday morning. It is important to remember that the church is not a building and we should relish the opportunity to take God and His Word seriously, even if it is not in our normal setting. We also see this as an opportunity to grow and minister to one another in ways we may not normally be accustomed to. We are encouraging you to do this in 4 ways this week:
Along with watching the service – prayerfully share the following link on your social media page or in an email by copying and pasting it. There is no better way to help point people to truth in uncertain times than to share the Word.
Would you purposely reach out to someone else in our church, especially those who will be alone or may need assistance? We recently finished our Family Directories, take the challenge as a family to pick someone out, give, them a call, and see if they have any needs.
We have actually been working over the last 2 months to provide a way for our church to give online. We wanted to assure a secure platform to help provide new ways to give. We are very pleased with this new opportunity. You can click on the “Giving” header at the top of this page to go to our new First Baptist Church Giving page. From there you will not only be able to give, but also to get more information on our new Online Giving Platform, why we chose it, and it’s security features.
We all will have adjusted schedules this week. While we may have projects, or maybe just more free time, let’s use some of our time to get in the Word. I will be posting a daily thought on our website from our Luke readings and then sharing them on Facebook. I want to encourage you to be part of reading and commenting as you engage.
Finally, we see this as a rapidly changing situation, and assure you as we move forward we will be meeting early next week to assess how we move forward for next weekend. Let’s remember, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.” We want to move forward with love and a sound mind as we take steps that will allow us to worship the Lord and be able to see God alleviate this situation. We will be keeping you informed through our website and emails. As of now the only event on our schedule for this week is our Wednesday Noon Day Prayer at 12pm.
Thank you, church, for your understanding and let’s move forward, expecting God to use this in our lives for His purposes and our growth.
Trusting God’s Wisdom and Power,
The Leadership at First Baptist Church