We met as a Session Tuesday night via Google Meet to continue our discussion of worship and other ministry matters.

We came to the difficult decision to keep communal worship closed for now but to keep going with our Live Streaming worship on Facebook. With the new technology we procured, we hoped to work out all the digital bugs and provide a clearer worship experience. We also hope to explore other ways of transmitting our worship services beyond Facebook, if it is possible to do so.

The decision we made as a Session was quite difficult. On the one hand, we want to open up the sanctuary and see all our smiling faces once more. We want to renew the fellowship that we have and get on with the ministry we love to carry out without distance between us. On the other hand, we want to keep everybody safe, which means we cannot be as close as we want to be. We do not want one person to get sick, for such sickness could be life-threatening. 

A task force of our Elders was created to consider ways to prepare our church for reopening. Our two-page document includes the cleaning of the sanctuary, limiting access to parts of the church (of course, the bathrooms would be open), welcoming people at a designated time before worship, and modifying our worship service to promote social distancing. The task force has looked at resources that the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta offers on their website. They provide recommendations that coincide with the CDC and the White House as to how churches should prepare the facilities for reopening. 

The Presbytery recommends no time limit as to when we should reopen. We discussed the possibility of having communal worship on June 14, but we are still concerned about safety. As I said before, we do not want to create the opportunity for somebody to become ill and endure the effects of a virus that could be detrimental. 

We do not make decisions out of fear. We as the leaders of Morrow Church are prayerfully discerning God’s will for our community. We have no blueprint for what we should do next, and so we throw ourselves into the arms of our loving God. We humbly look for God to give us the right time and the right ways to reopen our church, and we believe God will be faithful in giving us each. 

Isaiah 43:2-3 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” The waters we must pass through do not form a narrow river but more like a wide ocean. The fires seem more like an all-out inferno. Our passage through is slow, but we are not deterred. We may not know what will happen tomorrow, but we give our future to the God who knows how all things will turn out. 

Keep meeting as you are able through social media. Have Bible studies over the Internet. Orchestrate Life Groups from one computer to another. Worship with us through Facebook Live. We may not be in the same room, but we are still community together. The Lord is still near in our special spaces. 

Pastor John