What a year it has been?! The LORD’s providence is so often unexpected, and this year has certainly been evidence of that fact. But thanks be to God! – we have an Anchor for our souls (Hebrews 6:19) knowing that while the times may be constantly shifting, our God is a Rock (II Samuel 22:3) and His promises are constant!
It’s been a few months since we’ve officially communicated with you and therefore, we wanted to do so, giving you an update on our plans for the fall. Of course, we do so, knowing that all of our plans depend on the direction of our heavenly Father and submitting to His good will.
While we are thankful for the time that the summer months have afforded us to worship outdoors, those days are quickly coming to an end. As we wrote to you a few months ago, moving indoors is a second stage that brings with it some changes.
Now we recognize that some of you still have concerns about worshipping in person. We understand this and while we long to be with you again soon, we plan to continue to live-stream our service so that you can ‘attend’ and be part of our worshipping community.
For those of you who are able to come to worship, we again want you to know that a number of measures will be in place to promote health and safety. Some of these will be following recommendations and/or mandates from our civil authorities, some will be mirroring the measures that Edmonds Church of God has put in place for their facility, and others are our own concerns.
We are quite certain that some of you will think that these go too far and that others will wish that they had gone further. Know that we are not seeking to please men but rather faithfully follow the Lord’s direction through His Word and by His Spirit. So we’d like to ask you to trust us and be respectful of differing opinions and views that exist within our congregation.
Fall Discipleship
With the times being what they are, we will be unable to gather for our normal Lord’s Day morning discipleship hour. However, to continue to be challenged and grow together, we will be giving two opportunities for further gospel formation.
Firstly, as election day fast approaches, Theo Vander Wel has offered to help us think Biblically about our role as citizens of this nation, while at the same time being citizens of heaven. Therefore, he will be leading all interested adults in a virtual book study. The book is titled, How the Nations Rage by Jonathan Leeman (we have about 10 copies ready to give out to those interested). Lord-willing, this study will begin in October and go through November. More details coming soon…
Secondly, Pastor Nate will be posting regular videos to our YouTube page leading our kids through the New City Catechism. The NCC is a great resource that we went through several years back as a church body – now the next generation needs to hear of these foundational truths!
We would like to invite you parents to be a part of this learning, both by watching the videos with your kids and by engaging the catechism and its truths together as a family. You can purchase physical copies through Amazon or simply use the mobile app downloaded on your device – see newcitycatechism.com for more info.
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While all these needed changes are certainly far less than ideal, and this fall’s ministry will look much different than last year’s, we are thankful that we will still be able to gather together, and still have the opportunity to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord.
Please continue to pray with us for an end to this difficult season through the eradication of this virus, wisdom for our leadership (including your elders and deacons), and the preservation, and even prospering, of Christ’s bride, the Church.
Grace and peace to you,