Creekside and COVID-19

I’ve been getting several questions about Creekside’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak so I thought I should send out a quick message to bring everyone up to speed with what we are asking Creekside people to do:
1. Doing your part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is an important way that we can love our neighbors and seek the welfare of our city. The World Health Organization and John’s Hopkins University are two sites that I’ve found have helpful information. If you haven’t already, please examine their recommendations and follow the steps recommended.
2. On Wednesday, March 11th, Governor Kate Brown announced a closure of all events over 250 people in the state of Oregon for at least the next four weeks. For those of you that have school-age children she also instructed Public Schools to remain open but to cancel extracurricular and non-essential activities. Creekside’s typical attendance is below 250 people, so we are planning on continuing our Sunday services unless the situation or her recommendations change. Please use precautions in our meetings together.
If you have health conditions or are of an age that put you at high-risk for COVID-19 the recommendations are to limit your exposure even further.  Our sermons are usually posted online within an hour of the service concluding. This should go without saying, but if you are feeling at all ill, please stay home and seek medical help.
3. Be in prayer for all of those that are impacted by this outbreak—not only for those who are ill, but for all of the health-care workers and others who are on the “front lines” of serving people with this illness.
4. Remember in whom our trust should reside. Psalm 146 tells us not to “trust in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation,” but that blessing comes to those “whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” The Christian life can be characterized by walking in faith, hope and love. We can walk confidently in faith knowing that nothing in the future can separate us from the love of God. We have a certain hope that God will use every circumstance for our good and for his glory. And we have the responsibility to love our neighbors well in the midst of this. Our posture as those who have been brought into relationship with the God of the universe can be a clear opportunity for the gospel to go forward. I might write more about this in the days to come.
By God’s grace,
Steve Mansour