We all long to be able to be near each other again, especially in gathered corporate worship at the church building. The Session is considering the many issues involved in making our desire to "reopen church" a reality. Please continue to pray for the elders as we consider "reopening church". Be assured that meeting together again at the church building is at the forefront of our minds and is something that we all long for.

We have asked the staff to make all the necessary preparations for us to "reopen". One of the major steps toward that is the development of a survey of the congregation trying to ascertain how many would come, what those who do not come would do instead, etc. You should expect to receive that survey in the coming days. Please complete the survey within a day of receiving it as it will greatly aid our work in "reopening church". Fortunately, we are not the only church trying to figure this out and there are lots of tools and ideas available that have proven very helpful.  We are in the process of rearranging seating in the sanctuary and now that we have the live stream capabilities up and running we are much closer to the goal that we are all working toward.

I am in regular and consistent contact with other pastors as to how to best proceed with this endeavor. Believe me, there is no one who is more eager to see us gathered back for public worship at the church than the shepherds of each flock. We long to be with our sheep. However, I want to caution you, there will be no rapid transition to reopening church. Every pastor I have spoken to, and that is over 30 pastors, has agreed that reopening church is far more difficult than it was to "close" church back in March. We will take this deliberately and carefully and we will seek the Lord’s guidance all along the way. You should be aware that for every email I have received asking that we reopen church soon, I have also received emails asking me to take it slow and to not reopen too early. We are working in the tension of keeping the most vulnerable in mind while still providing a way to gather physically at the church. It is not an easy tension.