City Church COVID-19 Update - March 12

***From the City Church staff and elders***

We love our City Church family, and are comforted that Jesus loves us even more and provides perfectly for our needs.

As of now we are still planning to hold services at 9am and 11am on Sunday morning, 3/15. This decision could of course change at any moment, and we will provide you with daily updates. City Church, Creekside, and Christ Community intend to make a joint decision on this matter. We (the staff and elders) are staying up-to-date with the information provided to us by the CDC as well as state and local authorities. We also appreciate the various outreaches from City Church members via text and email with additional information for us to consider.

A few adjustments for Sunday morning's services:

1. Sadly we will not be serving communion. We thought about serving it in an alternate way (and acquired supplies for this), but we recognize that some would still be uncomfortable taking communion given the current climate. We don't want to inadvertently pressure people to take communion when they don't feel comfortable doing so.

2. We will only be serving wrapped snacks for refreshments, and we will not be serving coffee, tea, or water. Please feel free to bring coffee or water bottles from home into the service.

3. We will not be serving snacks to the children. If you want your children to have something to eat or drink on Sunday morning, please bring something from home and feed it to them yourself.

4. Greeters and other church leaders/staff will not be shaking hands. We encourage you to do the same. We also encourage your to wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds (in keeping with CDC guidelines).

5. We will be sanitizing public surfaces before and after the services, and possibly during services as well.

6. If for any reason we need to cancel our Sunday gathering, I (Chipper) will make a video recording of the sermon on Saturday and post it by Sunday morning (we will record from the sanctuary to maximize audio quality and lighting). 

Additional Notes Plus Opportunities to Serve:

1. If you haven't already, consider reading the pastoral letter I sent out a couple of weeks ago and posted on the City Church blog.

2. Speaking of opportunities to serve our city (again, see the letter), we are actively brainstorming ideas to serve the most vulnerable people in our city plus those involved with providing healthcare.

For example:

A) We are looking for an efficient means to coordinate deliveries (groceries, medicine, etc.) for older adults to make it possible for them to avoid leaving their homes.

B) We are looking for ways to bless healthcare workers who may be working extra hours and under significant stress.

C) In the event that K-12 schools close, we are looking for ways to provide childcare for parents or guardians who need to work (particularly healthcare workers, first responders, etc).

If you would like to help us plan any of this, don't hesitate to let me know. We may not respond to you immediately, but we'll do so as soon as possible.

3.  Anything you can do to help promote charitableness among folks will be huge. We probably won't all agree with one another here at City Church (or in our city) about next steps - so I'm also praying hard that the Lord will grant us unity and Christ-like attitudes. Pray that the Lord would protect us from letting passionate opinions and ideas morph into anger and factionalism.

4. As I said in the above letter, pray a lot! Pray for miracles. Pray for people to be drawn to Jesus in this season of uncertainty.