The Pastor’s Garage April 2nd, 2020

Hi again everyone. Bit of a long email but hey, you probably have time!

On Monday I was feeling quite melancholy. I wasn’t thinking about the virus
or anything, but I was feeling blue. I had wanted to go to the
hardware store to pick something up – wasn’t really important or anything –
and then I had this feeling that it was not a good idea because it was not
essential. I then got this overwhelming feeling that I am no longer free –
my freedom is being taken away and there is no end in sight. I went to bed
not feeling too bad, but definitely not myself.

I determined to get up the next morning and spend some really focused time
getting close to God and praying before the kids got up. I’ll be honest,
it’s been a fight this week, but God has been putting joy and peace into my
heart. Even as I write this I sense God’s presence just bringing rest to my
soul. I would encourage you, as you have moments of fear and anxiety or
melancholy, to go first to God. Go to Him in prayer. Read your bible and
pour out your heart to Him. My dear friends, we must all rise in our faith.
We must get on our knees for our nation and for our community and for our
families. Not just for the COVID-19 situation but for the souls of people.
For our own relationship with God. I fear we have been cold and ineffectual
for a long time. May God use this to stir our souls.

*5Alive: *By now all of our 5Alive groups have been activated. There are a
total of 20 small community groups whose purpose is to connect, encourage
and support one another through things like prayer and weekly contact. Each
group has a leader who should have contacted you by now. If for some reason
you have not been contacted let me know and I will see where the wire got
crossed. As this situation continues these will be the lifeblood of our
church.

*Kid’s Church: *This week we will have a separate page for Kid’s Church
apart from the Sunday Experience. The kid’s stuff was there for both weeks
but not easy to find. There will be kid’s worship videos and some material
for the kids to read at home with parents. I’ll send you an email when
these things are live.

*Communion this Week: *There will be a couple options to help you take
communion this week if that’s something you want to do. There will be a
video option for those who would like to just follow along and a printable
option to do it with your family. Which ever you choose have some crackers
or bread or even cereal on hand and juice of some kind. In reality I don’t
think it even needs to be juice, it is just a symbol and so it could be
just about anything, even water – its the heart that matters. I think these
times give us permission (even more so) to be free from religious form.

In closing, I just want to reiterate this, something that I sent to our
5Alive leaders this week. The crisis right now is not that we can’t gather
on Sunday. The fact that we can’t gather corporately is not the crisis. The
crisis is a nation and community filled with people who don’t know Christ.
The crisis is a church who has forgotten that we are all priests and that
we all have access to the throne of God and that we are a body, meant to
care for one another and to lead others to Christ – that we have a mission.
The crisis is a church filled with people who have drifted away from their
first love and a life lived by the power of the Spirit. I pray that as we
care for one another in the days ahead that we realize the call of God on
all of our lives to minister to and care for others. Reach out to the body.
Reach out to our community.

God bless,

Pastor Dave