03/18/2020
Our mission to know and share the love and grace of Christ requires knowing and living it personally and as a body... as well as understanding how best to share it with our friends, our loved ones, and our community. At this particular time in our history and location, there are a couple of ways that we can best share Christ's love and grace to those around us.
First, is to demonstrate the peace and security we have in Christ by remaining calm and trusting our Saviour who is sovereign even over the broken, decaying, and deadly things in this fallen world. By not panicking, hoarding, spreading fear or anxiety, but rather sharing with, caring for, helping, and comforting others around us. Get involved in reaching out and staying in touch with those you are physically distanced from right now. Just "hang out" on the phone or via video conferencing apps.
Second, is to love both our church members, our community, and complete strangers enough to be willing to take extreme precautions not to spread this rapidly spreading infection to them. You may never catch this virus, or you may catch it and never present symptoms. I pray that's the case! But on the chance that any of us do catch it... looking back a year from now none of us want to recognize that we put somebody close to us through a painful trial, one that could lead to death, simply because we didn't care enough to distance ourselves for a time. Having people close to me who are at highly elevated risk for extreme complications or even death, it might be easier for me to keep this at the forefront of my mind. But as those who are literally Christ's active and living body present on this planet right now, we all have the responsibility to follow the lead of our head, Christ, who inspired Paul to write these words:
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Phil 2:1-4)
"Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." (Rom 12:10)
"Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." (1 Cor 10:24)
This post would be dozens of pages long if I laid out all of the evidence of Christ's heart of humility in serving those he loves and how he has called us to serve and love one another within his body, as well as lovingly proclaiming his good news to our communities around us.
Because of this, our local church body at LMVC will be moving most of our regularly scheduled meetings to a digital medium for the time being, and postponing certain other events.
Gatherings being moved to digital format for the time being:
Sunday morning worship service is temporarily being held via a Zoom meeting. We are thankful that there are alternate ways to continue worshiping God "together" while apart on Sunday mornings, and ask that you be diligent in your flexibility by continuing to participate in these alternative ways. Please contact us if you would like to join our worship service on Sunday mornings.
Waypoint, Logos, NextGen - meetings are all online for the time being. Please contact Mike or another leader for more information.
Tuesday Night Prayer - meeting via Zoom every Tuesday at 4pm. Please contact Janet, Carrie, or Monique for more information.
Thursday night community group is meeting online via Zoom. Please contact us for more information.
Gatherings postponed until further notice:
Women's Bible Study
Friday fellowship
Any other meetings or one-off events that were planned for the next three weeks
Please call each other! Those little computers most people carry in their pockets are actually phones 🙂 Call a few people each day and say hello, ask how they are, and pray for one another.
Please remember to reach out if you need anything at all! If you are self-quarantined because you are sick or at risk and you need some groceries or basic supplies, please call John and Melissa H.
If you just want to talk or pray, call any one of the members of the body. We are all here for one another!
As things change (which they are on a daily basis) we will update you with how that impacts our worship and fellowship as a local church body.
