COVID-19 Update 2 March 13, 2020
Yesterday I sent out a notification stating that we would plan on continuing our Sunday services unless the situation or Governor Brown’s directions changed. Late last night she had a press conference and ordered all of the K-12 schools in the state to close until April 1. Her willingness on Wednesday to keep the schools open was one of the factors that was considered in continuing to have our services on Sunday. With her new actions last night, we’ve decided to cancel our service for this Sunday and will be considering how to best facilitate ministry in the days to come.
In Jeremiah 29:7 God tells his people who find themselves in exile to, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” We believe that moving forward in this way to slow the spread of the virus is a real and tangible way to seek the welfare of our city. We would ask you to do your part and “Pray to the Lord on its behalf.”
While these things are all subject to change, here is how COVID-19 will impact some of our other ministries:
- The Morning Women’s Bible Study will NOT meet on March 17th and March 24th. We will re-evaluate when it will start back up as things progress.
- The Evening Women’s Bible Study will continue to meet as scheduled.
- The Youth Ministries are meeting as previously scheduled (No High School group this week). We will continue to evaluate these events and notify you of any changes.
- We would encourage each Missional Community to evaluate their meetings on a case-by-case basis, meeting if they can do so in a way that minimizes the risk of infection. For those MC’s that have individuals that fall into the higher risk category, we encourage you to minimize your group contact, especially if an outbreak in our area occurs.
- In lieu of our Sunday Service I’ve put together this devotional that you can use in your family, your Missional Community, or in your interactions with other members of the body here at Creekside. This might be a topic for a future post, but the cancellation of our Sunday services doesn’t mean that your life as part of the body here at Creekside should end—it might even require a greater effort to connect with and minister to those in need.
- If you haven’t read the communication from yesterday, I would encourage you to do so. In it are links to helpful resources to learn how to protect yourself and others around you. At the end I had a few brief thoughts about where are hope and confidence should be placed that several people have told me were really helpful.