An Update To Worship
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
Friends,
Is anyone tired? Feeling worn out?
Raises hand during zoom meeting… um yes."
How many different kinds of tired can we experience?
There is the full-body fatigue of hard physical labor. There is the red-eyed lack of sleep that parents to newborns and cramming college students for finals know too well. New and challenging mental, emotional and spiritual undertakings may energize but they also extract a toll that is its own unique fatigue. There is the exhaustion that comes when we realize the drip of toxic relationships, wrong roads, and misadventures have become a flood. Many know that there is the numb and grey tired that comes with grief and loss.
There are more examples but, I am…well…tired.
The good news is that Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to him and find rest
Jesus also holds up a mirror for us to see that one reason we are tired is that we are trying to haul burdens that only he can lift and we too often try to carry loads that aren’t our responsibility. So trade them for the life you were meant to live Jesus says, and then your souls will find rest. Lay down all the broken, toxic burdens and pick up enough forgiveness, hope and love to share.
We have been practicing and praying the discipline of perfect love driving out fear like soap and hot water clean our hands. In the same way, we who are weary and overburdened must get to Jesus to find the rest our hearts, our minds and our souls require. We need to leave some things with Jesus and then we find our place within the work of the rested, redeemed and loved family of God.
As we continue this journey through the wilderness, I hope you are praying daily with us that God will pour out the Spirit upon us and our community with Pentecost like power.
We remain on schedule to offer physical worship in the building alongside virtual worship options for Pentecost Sunday, May 31st. Please note that the services and our gathering will be greatly modified to limit the possibility of viral transmission and we encourage anyone within vulnerable populations or caring for vulnerable communities to continue to worship with us through live stream.
While we will remain entirely on live stream this Sunday our service schedule will be tweaked to begin the implementation of our plan to bring people back in the church facility. This allows us to use both campuses most efficiently and to ensure proper sanitation between services in the same space. Please be aware of the tweaked schedule below:
Traditional | 8am
Modern | 9:30am
Traditional | 11am
We also will be using a registration system to ensure we have adequate spaces prepared for those who are physically entering the building for worship. I confess that the idea of reservations for a spot in worship sits oddly with me but in addition to assuring adequate spacing it will also help us know when to add additional services.
Look for a video this coming week in which we will highlight how the facility will be organized and what to expect if you choose to enter it for worship.
I do not know when everything will be ‘back to normal’ and it is all enough to make us quite weary. Praise God for the rest and redemption in Christ Jesus now and always that is ours.
We are not defeated, hope is not canceled, and we are not alone.
Pastor Ben