My sermons probably give away the fact that I like movies and there’s nothing quite like opening night. If there’s a movie I really want to see, I can probably tell you the release date off the top of my head. At the very least, I can assure you it’s on my calendar. Opening night is special because there’s an energy to it. After all the build-up and anticipation, the moment has finally come. It’s here!
This Sunday is something like an opening night for us as a church. Our search committee has been diligently looking for our next Senior Pastor for over a year. When the search was narrowed down to one candidate, the committee announced that Rev. Jon Anderson would be coming to visit us soon – and now that time has come.
I’m excited and I know that a lot of you are too. Because the Coronavirus has brought on some strange times, this post is intended to highlight some important details about what to expect.
The Worship Service:
Jon will be preaching the sermon this Sunday during our worship service. We will continue livestreaming the service just like we’ve been doing for the past few weeks, so please don’t feel pressured to come in person if you aren’t ready yet.
If you do decide to come to the church building, we need you to be thoughtful about where you sit. The Governor’s executive order requires us to keep three empty chairs between families during the service. Here are two ways you can help us do that:
Try to fill as much of a row as you can. For example, if you have a family of five, filling a whole row of five is better than filling most of a row of seven.
Fill in from the ends. If a row has seven seats, it can fit two couples if they both sit on the end and leave the three seats between them empty. But if one couple sits in the middle of the row, those same seven seats can only fit two people instead of four.
That might seem obvious to you, but maybe not. These times have us all thinking about things we haven’t considered before. We believe we can safely accommodate everyone who wants to be here– but we need everyone to give some extra thought where they sit if we’re going to make it happen.
The Congregational Meeting:
We will roll into the congregational meeting directly after service. All the meeting’s business will also be on the livestream for anyone who can’t attend in person. Every member gets one vote, but you’ll have two ways to cast that vote.
If attending service in person, we’ll have a ballot already in your seat and you can vote before you leave. Please bring your own pen, as we’d like to avoid passing pens from family to family. We’ll have some extras on hand, but it will help if people can remember to bring one too.
If you are streaming the service, we will have ballot boxes at the church for you until 3:00 PM. You can drive by anytime between when service ends and 3:00 PM to drop off your vote. Weather permitting, the ballot boxes will be outside the front doors. If the weather is bad, they will be inside the foyer. We’ll have ballots available at the church or you can print one here.
If you have any questions about this process, please reach out to me or anyone on the search committee. In the meantime, please keep the Andersons and our church in your prayers. This process is all about one thing: learning God’s will for our church. Jesus loves his church – even enough to die for her – which means we can trust him to guide us here too.