New Building Prep and Update

June 25, 2020
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
 
We are just a little over a week away from starting worship in our new Worship Center! This has been a long time coming, and words cannot describe the excitement I feel toward finally stepping into this beautiful new house of worship. Our Lord has certainly blessed us beyond all imagination! Our first worship in the new space will be Sunday, July 5.
 
A couple notes about our new building:

1. This is a soft opening, so we are not advertising in the community just yet. The big Grand Opening celebration will come later, when the COVID concerns have lessened. Nevertheless, we will still be practicing social distancing, and encouraging the wearing of masks, especially for those who are most vulnerable.
2. Not everything is complete in the Worship Center, thanks to delays caused by the virus. This means we will not yet have our new altar, pulpit and baptismal font, nor will the stained glass window be installed. Those should be ready by mid-July.

 
With this new chapter in our ministry about to be written, we also need to enhance our security measures. I need not tell you about the world we live in, and the time has come where we will take extra precautions to keep our Family and families safe while they are here in God’s House. These steps have been carefully and thoughtfully vetted by a team of members with knowledge and experience in the security field. They’ve done their homework.
 
We have already implemented locking the doors during business hours, with a doorbell and camera at the new Atrium entrance by the covered drop off. The office staff will be able to buzz you in from there.
 
Our security team, along with our Facilities Ministry Team, have devised a plan for locking doors after worship begins, and similarly on Wednesday nights after DOGs and youth group begin. Beginning in July, the doors will open an hour before large group events like worship and DOGs, and then will be locked again 10 minutes after starting time. We will have doorkeepers posted by the Atrium and MMC entrances to open doors for latecomers.
 
While this will be noticeably more inconvenient and take awhile to adjust to, the obvious goal is to hinder bad actors from inflicting harm on anyone in the building. We are also working on an Active Shooter Plan, along with other security measures that will be designed to help keep our minds at ease, knowing that we’re doing all we can to keep all God’s children safe while they are here together to join in Word and prayer.
 
This will also create the opportunity for more servants in the House. We need more ushers, greeters, and doorkeepers. With the advent of a new worship space, we are offering training for all worship helpers on one of two upcoming weekends:

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WORSHIP SERVANT TRAINING
for all ushers, greeters, doorkeepers, worship assistants, altar care:
 
Saturday Worship Helpers:  Saturday, June 27 - 6 p.m. or Saturday, July 18 – 6 p.m.
Sunday REACH Helpers: Sunday, June 28 – 10:45 a.m. or Sunday, July 19 – 10:45 a.m.
Sunday Traditional Helpers: Sunday, June 28 – 11:30 a.m. or Sunday, July 19 – 11:30 a.m. 
Please choose just one training session of your preference. Meet in the new Worship Center.

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Keep in mind also that starting July 5, we are restoring our regular summer worship schedule:
          Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. (REACH Worship **No Saturday worship on July 4th**)
          Sundays at 8:00 a.m. (Traditional Worship)
          Sundays at 9:30 a.m. (REACH Worship)                         
          Mondays 7:00 p.m. (iWorship Blended Worship **No Monday worship on Labor Day**)
 
Finally, our next Drive Thru Communion will be Sunday, July 19, 11 a.m. – Noon, by the MMC entrance.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Steve Kline