What a wonderful Easter! About 100 people came to our outdoor gathering, including many children who brought much joy to the day. We had a small crowd for the indoor service. And many of you watched the service online. I’m glad we could do something for everyone!
I met with the Ren Council Tuesday evening to discuss a plan for Sundays in April and May. The consensus was strong to continue both the outdoor gatherings and the livestream to serve those who are ready to gather in-person and those who are not. It seems clear that in our community there are varying viewpoints, and we want to respect that and shape ministry around that.
We will do the outdoor service at 10 am each week. The earlier time seems to work better for most families with small children. It will also be cooler once the weather starts getting hotter. We will keep services to about one hour.
From 9-9:30 each week we will have prayer outdoors in the corner of the parking lot.
The outdoor services will be a little different than our normal pre-pandemic indoor services. Usually we have babies in the nursery and toddlers in their class and the bigger kids in their separate service. But for the outdoor services we will be all together as a family. Especially since we have not gathered in a year, I am really excited about this. As I mentioned, services will be shorter. I’ll preach very short and loud, or some weeks not preach at all and just have music.
A note to parents—please don’t worry about the children distracting the service. I don’t want the environment to be such that the kids feel restricted. On Easter we had some sidewalk chalk for the kids. Some kids danced and ran around. With all the city sounds it wasn’t distracting at all. In fact, it was just the opposite. The kids made the atmosphere wonderful! Think of these gatherings as something in between a normal indoor service and a church picnic. Also, the second gate is closed so there’s only one single gate to go out and come in. The entire lot area is gated in securely. We also have staff at the gate.
Regarding Covid safety I think we all know that outdoors is much safer than indoors. We will still require masks and social distancing. The lot is quite large without cars in it; it’s easy to spread out. Bathrooms inside the building will be open. An usher will direct to limit one at a time in each of the bathrooms. We will provide wooden folding chairs but feel free to bring your own more comfortable chair. We did all this on Easter and it felt quite safe.
If I decide that it’s best not to preach one week, or most weeks, I’ll still provide a sermon in two formats: written and audio. These will be sent out on Sunday afternoon to all who are on the newsletter.
Registration will be required for the Sunday services.
If it rains we will not have the outdoor service because we don’t have an awning to protect the sound equipment and instruments. If there’s a small chance of rain we may still go forward with the service but with a very scaled down music set up. We can set up a few pop tents to cover musicians. Because the weather changes in Rhode Island from day to day, we will make the call on Saturday afternoon each week through email and also a post on the homepage of our website. This Sunday isn’t looking too good as there’s an 80% chance of rain.
If the service outdoors is cancelled then we will provide registration for a limited-seating indoor service (40 seats). For an indoor service we would encourage families with small children to watch online because of the sensitivity of livestream recording indoors.
Each Sunday we will continue to provide a livestream option whether we are indoors or outdoors for those who are not ready to gather in-person.
Okay, look out for my email and updates on the website Saturday to register for the service. Again, this is our April-May plan. With almost everyone being vaccinated by June or July it is hopeful that we can move toward resuming larger indoor gatherings with full kids ministries.
Pastor Scott