Good morning. At the
recommendation of the bishop and others, and after consultation with our church
councils, we have decided to suspend in-person worship through the end of
March. We will be livestreaming our
services instead. That includes all of
our services—Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening during Lent. Also, there will be no church meetings
through the end of March.
Our plan is to use facebook live and youtube for our
services. The services will be
livestreamed on the Wheatland Parish facebook page. They will then be put on youtube and also
shared to my personal facebook page. I
encourage you to share them on your pages as well. The Sunday morning service will be live at
11:00. The Sunday evening service will
be live at 7:00. The Wednesday night Lent
service will be live at 7:30. That means
that tonight, at 7:30, will be our first livestreamed service.
Please bear with us as we work through this process. As of early Monday afternoon, we were still
planning to hold our regular services, so we’re learning this livestreaming
stuff on the fly, as we go. But we will
do our best to provide a meaningful worship service for you.
We hope this will only be for a couple of weeks, and we will
be back to normal by April 1. But the
fact is that no one knows what’s going to happen. For now, we will take things a week or two at
a time and see how it goes.
A few more things I want to say. One is to encourage you to continue to give
to the church. Yes, I know the cliché—all
the church wants is my money. But the
fact is that the expenses of the church do not get any less just because we’re
not meeting on Sunday morning. The money
you give is used for lots of things, from missions to Christian education to
keeping the heat and lights on.
Donations can be sent to the church office, at 101 East Garfield,
Gettysburg, South Dakota, 57442. For
those of you in Onida and Agar, if you want to send a donation directly to your
church treasurer, that’s fine, too. For
those who send money to the church office, please note which church you want it
to go to—Gettysburg, Onida, or Agar.
Again, the address to send donations is 101 East Garfield, Gettysburg,
South Dakota, 57442.
I mentioned Christian education. We want to continue to reach our children,
even though we cannot have Sunday school or Faith Builders for a couple of
weeks. In Gettysburg, our Faith Builders
teachers are working on putting together some packets you can take home for
your kids. I’ll let you know when those
are ready. But of course, it’s going to
be up to you parents to see to it that the kids actually use the materials in
those packets. If there’s anything we
can do to help you, please let me know.
With no public events being held for a while, it’s going to
be harder for me to know what’s going on in the life of our communities. So, I ask you to please keep me informed of
any needs we have. If someone needs a
visit, or needs a phone call, or needs prayers, please let me know about
that. If you need a visit, or a phone
call, or prayers, let me know about that, too.
The church office will remain open.
You can also call me, text me, send me an email, or contact me through
facebook. I remain just as accessible to
you as I’ve always been. Please let me
know what’s going on.
And take care of each other.
Jesus’ command to love our neighbors does not go away, even in times
like this. In fact, in times like this
it’s even more important to love our neighbors and be there for them. Yes, it’s harder, but that just means we need
to be more creative and more intentional about it. I think that last part is the most
important. If we are intentional about
being there for each other, we will find ways to do it. Physical isolation does not have to mean
emotional isolations. Use the
telephone. Use social media. You can even be old-fashioned and use cards
and letters. And don’t just do it once—do
it repeatedly. Elderly people who have
nothing but the television for company need to hear from you. Parents who are home with their children all
day may need an adult to talk to.
Temporary physical isolation may be necessary, but God did not create us
to live in isolation. God created us to
need other people. And other people need
us, too. Let’s love each other and be
there for each other.
Please pray for this entire situation. Pray for those around you as well. And know that we are still your church, and
we are still there for you. This, too,
shall pass. God will see us through
it. As the saying goes, everything will
work out in the end, and if it’s not working out, then it’s not the end. God is still there, and God is always
faithful. Let’s be faithful to God. Have a good day, and I hope you’ll watch the
livestream tonight at 7:30.
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