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Happy Monday, Church Family!
 
I’m going to do my best to regularly communicate with you this week as we plan to gather indoors for the first time since mid-March! My heart cannot wait to experience the unique joy that comes from being with other believers—and especially those with whom I regularly worship and grow in Jesus!
 
I won’t try to overwhelm you with information today, but rather I will try to share specific pieces of information each day this week. Some of the information will purposely remind you of why we gather together as a church family. Some will be to provide you with the information necessary for you to make a wise decision about what you and your family should do. Some will be to point our eyes to Jesus—who alone is the Truth.
 
I know that there are many different opinions about returning to church. (Believe me, I’ve heard them. ) And I want you to know that I am completely fine with hearing yours too. There are so many factors that determine how someone forms an opinion—and rarely do we all face/know/experience the same factors. Therefore, my guess is that every single person has a unique opinion about what should be done and when. All I ask from each of us is grace and kindness towards one another.
 
There are strong stances that stretch from believing that we should have returned many weeks ago (or never stopped meeting in the first place) to believing we should not yet be returning to church yet. And as I mentioned earlier, we each have complete freedom to form our own opinions—let's just be sure to extend grace towards others who may have formed a different opinion than you. Remember, we are a family—and our greatest commandment is to wholly love our Father and to love one another as much as we love ourselves.
 
Let me give you one reason why I am excited about coming back to church. My excitement stems from a truth found in Ephesians 1:18 where Paul states his desire for the church to have “the eyes of your heart enlightened so that you will know...the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
 
At first reading that may not sound all that exciting, but the Gospel Primer explains it this way: “When God saved us, He made us members of His household, and He gave us as gifts to one another. Each brother and sister is a portion of my gospel inheritance from God, and I am portion of their inheritance as well. We are significant players in each other’s gospel narrative, and it is in relationship with one another that we experience the fullness of God in Christ.”
 
You may need to read that paragraph again to fully understand the implications. But, at salvation, you became a gift to me—and to every other believer. You became a part of my inheritance from God. But also, I (and every other believer) became a part of your inheritance from God as well. That means you are to be a part of my story from this point forward in growing in the Gospel—and I am supposed to be a part of yours. Me without you—and you without me—leaves the inheritance God has gifted to His children as incomplete. I need you! And you need others! And the others need you!
 
I shared this truth at the beginning of the year with a friend who had been out of church for some length of time. This one simple truth brought great encouragement—and even revival—to his heart. He had assumed he could live and grow in the Christian life on his own. This truth brought great conviction to his heart—and a great change has been made. We are now a part of a Gospel Circle where we daily share what God is doing in our hearts and lives. And because of that, he has become instrumental in my Gospel growth—and I have been the same for him. (It’s almost as if God knew what He was doing. )
 
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there because I want to give you just a few details today about the return to church this Sunday morning:
 
1. We will have only one service this Sunday at 10 a.m. Upon arrival, you will see signs asking you to enter the building through the hallway with the classrooms and bathrooms. We will reserve the glass doors outside the auditorium for exiting and handicapped entrance.
 
2. We have taken many chairs out of the auditorium to allow for social distancing. But there is plenty of room for families to sit together—as well as individuals or couples to sit with social distancing still in place. (Also, please feel free to move the chairs in order to accommodate your family. We are simply setting out the chairs to provide social distancing, but they can be moved, if needed.)
 
3. We will not be opening children’s classes or the nursery, so you can either sit together as a family in the auditorium—or we will be livestreaming the service in the cafeteria for those who would be conscious and concerned about your children (or husband ) disturbing others.
 
4. We will be streaming the service live at 10 on Facebook, YouTube, and our website.
 
I will continue to share more about our return to church in the coming days. Thank you, in advance, for extending grace and patience to this poor man who is incapable of leading such a flock. Thankfully, we have a Chief Shepherd who knows just what we need and just where to go! What a Savior!