A letter from our Pastor during week 7 of the COVID-19 social distancing directive:

Friends,
We are now in week 7 of the COVID-19 event. None of us have ever seen anything like this and no one seems to know for sure when things will even begin to get back to some degree of normalcy. I say, “some degree,” because I am sure it will be some time before we can ALL begin worshiping together as we did before this began. When we do start having live worship services again, we will have to make some changes to meet whatever health requirements are put upon us. Most likely, this will include limiting the number of people who can worship together in one place at one time, possibly the need to wear some type of mask, and social distancing guidelines. Our sanctuary is large enough to allow families to observe distancing guidelines and we are working to make sure we are ready to meet any additional requirements. It may be a while before we can restart our Sunday morning Life Groups, but we want to encourage other small groups to meet online, for now, and in homes, once this is again allowed.

When restrictions are loosened:
Should we all rush back to church when the doors first open? Probably not. Those who are elderly, or with compromised immune systems may well want to wait a while to see how things go before coming back to worship. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 91 percent of all deaths related to COVID-19 have occurred among people 55 or older, though they make up just 29 percent of the population. While we desperately want to come back together as a family, we also want to do all we can to protect everyone– but especially the most vulnerable among us. So, for at least a little while, a number of our church family may want to continue to join us via YouTube videos. Currently a video of each week’s message is being posted to YouTube on Saturday evenings. Once we begin meeting again, videos will be posted on Sunday evening or sometime Monday, to give us time to edit and upload the Sunday morning message. May I ask a favor of you? I would like to encourage everyone to help us spread God’s Word by sharing the link to each week’s message. God is using these videos in powerful ways, with some of them being watched by many more people than worship at Crossroads on Sundays. Just reposting a link on social media can greatly help increase the number of people who hear God’s Word being proclaimed from our church.

National Day of Prayer:
The past several years our church has participated in or hosted local events for the National Day of Prayer. We will not be able to physically join together for this event this year due to the COVID-19 restrictions, but we can still pray in our homes. This year’s event is next Thursday, May 7, and the theme is “Pray God’s Glory Across the Earth,” based on Habakkuk 2:14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” What a wonderful promise that is to look forward to! There are seven areas of society we are being asked to pray for this year. They are Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church, and Family. You can join other Christians from all across our nation through a live simulcast from 8:00-10:00 PM Thursday evening. This simulcast will feature Christian leaders from across America. To learn more about the day or the event, please go to www.nationaldayofprayer.org. Hope to “see” you there!

Church finances and the future:
Again, I want to personally say “Thank You” to everyone who has continued to support the church and its ministries through your financial gifts through this time. Through your faithful giving, our church is weathering this period well and will be ready to resume all of our ministries as we are allowed to do so. There are great things coming for our church and God is opening up new opportunities for us to reach out with His love to our community. Stay tuned for more information coming soon about new opportunities to reach our neighbors with His love. ALSO… If you have any needs, PLEASE let us know. We are prepared to help as we can and we are always able to lift you to the Father in prayer. Let us do so.

For the Kingdom,
Pastor Bryan