What's the Plan?

Covid-19 Update — What’s the Plan?

The last few months have been a whirlwind. We launched our church’s Sunday gatherings in early March and then had to call it quits for the shelter in place order. Since then, we have been meeting Wednesday nights on zoom, and now we are gathering online Sunday mornings for a recorded church liturgy as well. These last ten and a half weeks have been hard. It's hard to not see each other in person. It's hard to not sing the praises of our king together. It's hard to not gather to study his word. Everything about this is hard.

As shelter in place orders are being loosed and the country is moving on a path to open many things back up, I'll bet many of you are wondering what the plan for the Porch is. That's what I'd like to address here.

I'd like to share a few ideas with you that have helped my thinking as I lead us into our next steps. Since we are a church plant, we still only have one elder: me. We haven’t installed a board of elders (that's still a little bit down the road), and I honestly can't wait to get to that point. I'll admit that I am not a perfect leader, and so I appreciate your prayers. There was no class in seminary about how to lead a church that can't meet in person. In my 16 years of pastoral ministry, I haven't had any situation come close to preparing me for this. So I have been processing a lot of this with other Godly pastors here in the city. I am thankful for support from you and them.

#1 Meeting online is not nearly as good as meeting in person, but it doesn't come anywhere close to stopping the Kingdom of God.

The church is God's chosen means to expand his kingdom here on earth. And if you remember from our sermon series What is the Church?, the church is about the people and not a building. It's not just about a group of Christians meeting on Sunday mornings—although we love our church gatherings. When we share our prayer requests on zoom, when we watch the Sunday gatherings online, we are being the church. But we are also being the church when we check in with one another. When we support each other. When we serve our neighbors and friends. All of that makes us the church. And as much as it stinks to miss out on our Sunday gatherings for a while, we are still the church of God and even the devil will not prevail against us.

#2 Our Civic leaders have been put into extremely difficult positions, and it's our duty to pray for and support them with respect.

We talked a lot about this in one of our zoom meetings. It's such a bummer that followers of Jesus these days are known for demanding that they get their way and protesting when they don’t. Like I said in that zoom call, unless the government is specifically telling us that only religious groups aren't allowed to meet, we will support them. We will pray for our leaders and ask God to give them wisdom as they make decisions that will impact millions of people’s health and our economy. It is a hard job and they need our support and love.

#3 Just because we can narrowly pass the guidelines to meet doesn't necessarily mean that we have to gather. Love is our guiding principle—not freedom.

The California state government just released guidelines for houses of worship to reopen starting in June. I'd encourage you to go read them if you have the time. 

First, I'm not sure that we do pass the state's guidelines for houses of worship. We could maybe scrape by, but we would have to change a lot of things about how we meet (ie. not singing or reciting together, not sharing coffee, etc.). 

Second, we don't want our focus as a community to be on our right to meet. We always want our focus in any situation to be love. We want to be known as a loving people. I think that the most loving thing we can do right now is continue to meet online. By meeting in person right now, we would be putting each other and our guests at risk. Until COVID-19 is wiped out, there will always be some level of risk, but I believe that right now the risk is still too high to justify starting our Sunday gatherings back up. So while it's a bummer to put off meeting for a little while longer, we are doing so because we love each other.

#4 We have a three step plan to move towards meeting on Sundays.

Step 1: Tiny Groups: Starting in June we want to organize into "Tiny Groups" of less than 6 people, preferably 3 or 4. These groups can meet together, mostly in public outdoor spaces with masks on to practice social distancing. It'll be a great way to build friendships, pray for one another, be in community, and still stay safe. And by keeping it to the same 3-6 people, we’ll be minimizing risk as best we can.

Step 2: Missional Families: We have one missional family already going, and we would like to launch a second one. When it's safe to do so with certain restrictions, we will get these groups back together to meet in person once a week while still practicing recommended safety measures.

Step 3: Sunday gatherings: After the missional families have been meeting, we will move towards starting our Sunday gatherings at the Powell location back up. When we do eventually start, things will be a lot different. There will be all kinds of safety protocols that we will have to abide by. The seating will be different. Communion will be different. Things won't just go back to "normal" right away.

Let me answer a few quick questions that you may have.

When will this happen? Truth is, I don't know. We are going to take each of these three steps one at a time. So I really don't want to put a date on it except to begin the next step, "Tiny Groups."

How can I get into a Tiny Group? Two ways. If a few of you chat and want to be a Tiny Group, just let us know, and we'll put it down. If you want to join a tiny group, we'll put you on a list, and we'll group people together (mostly based on where people live). Sign up by emailing admin@porchsf.com

Are we still doing Sundays online? Yup. Until the week before we meet back at the Powell location.

You really don't have any sense of a timeline? Honestly, I'm desperately hoping to get back to in person Sunday gatherings by the end of summer, beginning of fall. But I really don't want to say that's for sure when we are meeting. There is still a lot of unknown. A doctor friend of mine recently told me she thinks there will be a second wave and a second shelter in place. So really, who knows.

Final Thoughts

We serve a powerful and a sovereign God. None of this is outside of his control. We are still his people, and we still have hope as we look forward to his second coming. As a people, let us not put our hope in the success of our little church plant, but let us put our hope in our Lord and our King. So while we are bummed to not be meeting, let's take this opportunity to look for ways to love the people around us. Let's look for ways to reflect his glory. Let's look for ways to speak truth into the lives of the people around us who have been shaken up by all of this and are looking for meaning in life. Let's look to serve our king by loving other. 

I love you all and I thank you for your support as I try and lead us as a people. It's a joy to be your pastor.

-Jon 

Is Everything Sad Going to Come Untrue?

Is Everything Sad Going to Come Untrue?

Why We Need Eschatology Now More than Ever.

Here is a great article from Biblical scholar Michael Kruger. The end times stuff in scripture can be confusing and sometimes divisive, but Kruger explains why it’s so helpful in times like these. Take a few minutes and read through this. Hopefully it’ll encourage you.

Here is the article.

On Living in An Atomic Age - CS Lewis

On Living in An Atomic Age - C.S. Lewis

There's a band called "Better Oblivion Community Center" that's led by Connor Oberst from Bright Eyes and Phoebe Bridgers. This band has a song called "Didn't Know What I Was In For." The last verse is about the futility of life and the distractions to escape it. Honestly, it sounds a lot like Ecclesiastes. Here are the lyrics:

To fall asleep I need white noise to distract me
Otherwise I have to listen to me think
Otherwise I pace around, hold my breath, let it out
Sit on the couch and think about
How living's just a promise that I made

We Americans are very good at distracting ourselves to stay away from our thoughts. We are not generally a philosophical and introspective people (which is ironic because we are all obsessed with ourselves). But that's all changed recently. There are world changing moments that shake the comfortable out of their beds. WWI. The crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Peal Harbor, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. 9/11. And now, Corona. 

Our neighbors and friends who are not followers of Jesus are probably sitting at home right now, and for many of them, they are in a crisis moment. Death is real. The world is fleeting. Security is gone. Life is no longer easy. The bubble has been broken. 

In 1945 the Manhattan Project finished the atomic bomb. On August 6th, the Enola Gay, a B-29 Bomber, dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima and brought WWII to a close. On that day, the world changed forever. Most of us are probably too young to remember this, but the era that followed (the Cold War) was a time of real anxiety and fear. At any moment, it could all be over.

During the Cold War, with the threat of world annihilation on the minds of many, the great Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote a short piece called, "Living in an Atomic Age." That situation is not a 1 to 1 correlation with the Corona pandemic, so please don't see any of this as "Jon says not to worry about Corona." This article is less about what to do in times like these and more about how to think once you’ve been forced to really take a look at the broken world around you.

Here is a video from C.S. Lewis Doodles (a wonderful YouTube channel that just takes C.S. Lewis texts and draws over someone reading.) Take a few minutes, watch this, and then pray for you neighbor next door who may be taking stock of life and death, who is worried about their family, and who desperately needs to encounter the peace of our King Jesus. And then maybe take some time and think about your own life. How has this pandemic forced you to stop and think?

PSF Benevolence Fund

PSF Benevolence Fund

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” (Acts 4:32–37)

From the earliest days of the church, followers of King Jesus have taken care of those in need, especially among their own. When the church in Jerusalem grew rapidly, they literally sold property to take care of each other. When the widows had no food, they created a program to feed them. When there was a famine in Israel, churches all over the Roman world took a collection and sent Paul with the money to Jerusalem to give to the church there. Throughout history, followers of Jesus have started hospitals to take care of the sick, homes to take care of orphans, kitchens to feed the hungry, and schools to educate masses. At The Porch, we want to continue to be a part of this upside down kingdom of generosity. That’s why we are creating this benevolence fund. This money will be set aside to care of the needs of those around us. We are facing a moment with this Covid-19 pandemic where people are going to be out of work and needing help. People are going to need food, help with rent, and other various bills. This fund is here to help our church be like the good Samaritan who actually did something with the need in front of him and not like the religious snobs who stepped aside because they didn't really care and didn’t want to sacrifice.

You can give into the benevolence fund in one of two ways.

• The quickest way to donate is by using this PayPal link below. Make sure to select the dropdown menu that lets you set the money aside for the benevolence fund so it doesn't go into our general fund.

• The second way that you can donate is by making a check out to “The Porch” and putting “Benevolence Fund” in the memo line. You can mail the check to 1225 Clay #8 San Francisco, CA 94108 or put it in the offering box at church when we start meeting again.

Lastly, if you need help, please get in touch with jon@porchsf.com. We aren’t creating this fund so that the money will sit in the bank. We are creating this fund to help people. So if you have a real need, don’t sit on it. Let us know, and we’ll see what we can do to help.

---

Sunday Worship with Christ Church SF

For the next few weeks we are going to be joining Christ Church SF for Sunday morning gathering.

It’s all on Facebook live at 10:30am. This same link will work every Sunday. We hope to see you all there!

Beacon Coffee Staff Fundraiser

Beacon Coffee Staff Fundraiser

Disneyland claims to be the happiest place on earth. That’s a lie. The real happiest place on earth is Beacon Coffee and Pantry on Columbus. The staff is super friendly and welcoming. The coffee is amazing. This place has been Pastor Jon’s office for years now.

During this Covid-19 crisis, Beacon is shut down. They have organized a gofundme to help take care of their staff. This is great way that we can tangibly love our neighborhood. Here is the statement from their gofundme page.

Like so many small businesses and restaurants, we have been immediately and heavily impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. On March 16, 2020 we closed our doors, in order to help flatten the curve, and in the interest of our staff, customers, and public health. We are in the process of shifting gears so that we can resume serving our community soon in some capacity, in a manner that mitigates risk and exposure. 

Even with those temporary solutions, the impact on our business will undoubtedly be long term. It will be a long road to recovery, but we remain hopeful. In the mean time,  we have set up this campaign as a way to help support your Beacon baristas during this uncertain time. Contributions will directly fund the lost income of our baristas and their health coverage. Our baristas are the backbone of our independent, family owned and operated shop, and now more than ever, I cherish them, and want to make sure they have security and a place to return to.

We truly miss seeing all of our regulars and look forward to serving you and the North Beach community as soon as we can. We WILL overcome this difficult time and make it through this together. A big heartfelt thank you to all our supporters, past and present.

Warmly,
Alexis Liu

So please follow this link and donate. Let’s show these folks in our neighborhood that we love them and that we appreciate how their small business coffee shop is amazing and makes the world a better place.

Encouragement from Three Amazing Women

Encouragement from Three Amazing Women

Nancy Guthrie. Joni Eareckson Tada. Rosaria Butterfield. These are three of the most amazing women of faith in our day. There are two really helpful links here.

The first is a conversation about suffering and hope from Nancy Guthrie and Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni is a quadriplegic who was injured in a diving accident and knows more suffering and hope than most of us combined. Her love for Jesus is amazing and it really shows here.

The second is an article from Rosaria Butterfield on practicing hospitality during this pandemic. Remember that she’s not in city under a shelter-in-place directive, but there is still a lot of really great stuff in her article. Take some time to listen to the conversation and read this article.

---

Suffering, Healing, and the Hope of Eternity

---

Practice Hospitality. Especially During a Pandemic.

March 24, 2020. By Rosaria Butterfield

Link to the Original Article on the TGC Website

Recently, after COVID-19 was declared a rapidly spreading pandemic ravaging every nation on earth, the president declared the United States in a state of emergency, public schools shut down interminably, colleges abruptly released their students for home, and social distancing became the new norm.  

Although these were clearly extraordinary times—I twice disinfected doorknobs, bathrooms, light switches, and all surfaces that didn’t have a cat sleeping on them—my doorbell continued to ring. Homeless dogs, college students, and neighbors with pressing needs stood on the porch like it was any other Saturday. But the pandemic had displaced them (some physically, some emotionally), and a single question filled the six feet between us: “How does this change things? What does radical, Christian hospitality look like under COVID-19?”

My husband, Kent, came to the door with an answer: “We aren’t sure yet. Are you feeling healthy? Would you like to join us for lunch? Or would you like us to share what we have for you to take with you?”

Kent’s unrehearsed response helped answer the question for me and clarified four important truths. 

1. Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 demonstrates Christian brotherhood and good Samaritan care for those whose lives are upended and who need help.  

With schools closed, students often have nowhere to spend their days. Both college students and school kids need tangible help, and in a climate of social distancing, this may feel like risky business. We need to assess the situation carefully, but giving traveling students and displaced public-schooled children temporary shelter while they get home or while their parents make suitable arrangements during times of unprecedented crisis is not the same thing as “arranging play dates.”

Older and immunocompromised neighbors need help getting groceries and medication. The risk of infection is too high to send them out for basic needs. Yesterday morning, I went shopping to gather supplies for our house as well as the homes of two neighbors. Some of the rules about grocery shopping are new: at Costco yesterday, we had to obey the rules about rationing (only one gallon of milk and one rotisserie chicken per cart), accept the reality of empty shelves (no rice, no Clorox wipes, no baby wipes), and practice patience as the store limited the number of shoppers in the warehouse.  

Providing immediate, tangible care for our neighbors demonstrates our love for them and our desire to do good for their bodies and souls. Mark 12:30 reminds us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” God’s command on our life leaves no room for hoarding or panic. Text frequently and pray daily for people whose health or age makes them most vulnerable both to COVID-19 and to gripping fear. Learn their needs. Make their comfort your priority. 

2. Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 demonstrates our fear of God, not of men (and the virus they may carry). We are to live coram Deo—before the face of God.

Practicing hospitality when we could be killed by (or kill) a person standing a few feet away boggles the mind and wearies the soul. Psalm 150:6 declares, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” But we live in a world where the very act of breathing is dangerous.  

Christians must look to God—and his glory—more than we look to the physical danger around us. As John Calvin writes:

God expects a very different kind of practical wisdom from us [Christians], namely that we should meditate on his judgments in a time of adversity and on his goodness in delivering us from danger. For surely it is not by mere chance that a person falls into the hands of enemies or robbers; neither is it by chance that a person is rescued from them. But what we must constantly keep in mind is that all afflictions are God’s rod, and therefore there is no remedy for them other than God’s grace. 

Precautions, medical interventions, and vaccines have value, but our ultimate hope is not in any of them. God is sovereign over every breath we take, even the breath of someone who carries disease and enters our six-foot bubble. If “all afflictions are God’s rod,” our task is to fear God more than man and the virus he may carry.

Christian ethics during plague years requires Christian wisdom and much of it. And Christian wisdom often looks different from the world’s wisdom. While the world screams “run and hide,” the Lord often calls us to stay and help. In 1527, Martin Luther authored an essay titled “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.” Its practical wisdom is a balm for our day: 

Since it is generally true of Christians that few are strong and many are weak, one simply cannot place the same burden upon everyone. . . . It takes more than a milk faith to await a death before which most of the saints themselves have been and still are in dread. 

Pastors and other people in leadership, says Luther, must not flee the plague, but instead should remain in the community to help others until the dread has passed. Because we fear God and live before his face, we will often prioritize unseen and spiritual things—things our world knows nothing of. Christians know that the dread of death can only be met by the redemption in Jesus Christ, so we need to proclaim Christ to a COVID-19 world with urgency, fervency, and compassion. 

Luther understood that the physical and spiritual stakes are high—and we should too. Should we risk bringing people into our home who are stranded? Christians will arrive at different positions based on our circumstances. One family will make phone calls, another will deliver groceries, another will welcome the stranger to sleep on the couch. Each household may serve its neighbors in different ways, but each should intend serve. Faced with temptation to fear men, we seek to grow our “milk faith” into a “meat faith” that looks to God alone.

3. Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 means soaking yourselves in the means of grace; it means feasting on Scripture, not CNN.

The psalmist says that through the means of grace, we go “from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion” (Ps. 84:7). The Word, prayer, and sacraments give us the fortitude we need for today’s task. 

At the Butterfield house, we are fasting and praying in repentance for the private sins of selfishness and lacking true love of enemies (and a host of many others). And we are repenting of the public sins of abortion and sexual licentiousness and greed (and a host of many others). 

We are singing psalms from The Book of Psalms for Worship, notably Psalm 46(“God is our refuge and our strength / A present help in our distress”), Psalm 91(“who with God Most High finds shelter / In th’ Almighty shadow hides”), and Psalm 98 (“For he shall come, he surely comes / The judge of earth to be / He’ll judge the world with righteousness, and all with equity”).    

Singing psalms is powerful spiritual medicine; by using our mouths and lungs to proclaim the Word in the hearing of others, we embody the way that the Word of God acts in our lives and in the world. Psalm-singing is an aid to repentance and spiritual clarity, and it provides the Christian with a bounty of strength, fortitude, and courage in the face of danger. We pray as COVID-19 is rapidly spreading through every nation and tongue, that true and heartfelt repentance will usher in revival. We pray that Christian revival will spread faster than COVID-19.

Daniel Defoe, most famous for writing Robinson Crusoe, penned a small book years earlier titled A Journal of the Plague Year. This is Crusoe’s historical-fictional journal of life under the bubonic plague of 1665. Crusoe was 5 years old when the bubonic plague laid waste to his world. His insightful book begins with thanks to God for something that made me laugh out loud. Defoe expresses thanks that no newspaper—or other means of spreading “newsworthy information” about the bubonic plague—existed in 1665. Crusoe writes: “We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumors and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men.” 

Wisely, Crusoe understood that the plague is bad enough; we ought not add emotional manipulation to it. In 2020, we can scarcely escape media coverage of COVID-19—nor can we seem to distinguish information from the vile stream of gossip and slander that passes as “information” from pundits and crackpots. If we ourselves haven’t succumbed to obsessive checking of CNN or other newsfeeds, someone in our intimate circle has and is more than willing to share new (bad) news. We understandably desire to gain knowledge about this novel virus, but new viruses never come with user manuals. 

Some of us are old enough to remember what life was like when the Centers for Disease Control reported in 1981 the first five cases of Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) in young men who practiced homosexuality in Los Angeles, and how this seemingly isolated event became the global crisis known as the HIV pandemic. Then, as now, dire news reports become a ready excuse to distance ourselves from our neighbors out of fear.  

When we feast on CNN instead of Scripture to ease the existential dread that captures our souls, we become useless, unable to help ourselves or our neighbors. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are Christ’s workmanship, that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” No matter what you read or hear on the news, you are to take heart. Before COVID-19 became part of our vocabulary and nightmare, God prepared good works for the Christian to do. 

Jesus warns: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed” (Matt. 24:6). But how? How do we turn off this ever-raging panic alarm or the never-ending newsfeed? By feasting on the Word of God, by appealing to God in long seasons of prayer (the kind that pulls down the power of heaven to bear on the pain of today), and by loving your neighbors well enough to share the gospel and invite them to put their hope and trust in Christ alone for salvation. 

4. Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 means obeying the civil magistrate’s efforts to “flatten the curve” and honoring the sixth commandment.

The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” reminds Christians of both our positive and negative duties in times of plague. Faced with COVID-19, there are things we should do, and there are things we should not do. In all things, we seek the glory of God and the good of our neighbors.   

The Westminster Larger Catechism, one of the historic confessions of the Reformed church, helpfully illuminates this commandment. The sixth commandment, the catechism says, requires us to “to preserve the life of ourselves and others.” We do this in many ways: 

by . . . avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any, [by] patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, medicine, sleep, labor, and recreations, [and by] comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.

By generally avoiding gatherings and close contact, by taking care of our own bodies, and by giving help to others, we uphold the sixth commandment.

Thinking Christians do not want to unintentionally cause the death of others by spreading a virus that spares some and kills others. Obeying the civil magistrate’s order to distance, isolation, or quarantine is obedience to God’s law.  

In practical ways, in our neighborhood, this means that while our neighbors who are doctors and nurses are working long hours, we are serving them by walking their dogs and sharing our provisions with them. They have to go out (dogs and doctors); we don’t.  

In the weeks and months ahead, our lives may change in ways we cannot now imagine. And our faith may grow in ways we couldn’t have imagined without the testing of COVID-19. Christian hospitality shines brightest in days of persecution and plague. During hard times—dangerous times—when Christians demonstrate that real love takes courage, we model Christ to a watching world. 

COVID-19 is not going to overcome the world. Christ is. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Tim Keller Message

Here is a fantastic message from Tim Keller. It starts at 6:15 and he teaches until 40:30. The rest is some Q&A. This is totally worth a bit of your time.

Some Ways to Serve SF

Some Ways to Serve SF

Followers of King Jesus have always looked for ways to serve in times of crisis, for ways to love our neighbors. A few very practical ways that you can serve the city that we know of are listed below. If you know of any other needs, please email us.

• With the announcement of school closures through Spring Break UESF is seeking volunteers to help distribute food to food insecure students. If you would like to sign up, follow this link.

• SFUSD is also seeking additional funding to continue to provide three meals a day to students in need, remote learning resources, as well as other needs through their non-profit partner Spark*SF. You can donate on their website or by texting “4SFUSD” to 44321.

• Other ideas include donating or volunteering at the SF Marin Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, or other nonprofits serving vulnerable communities.

• Wellness checks—call or text friends and neighbors, especially the elderly or immunocompromised who may not be able to leave their homes for essential services.

Our Plan For the Near Future…

Our Plan For the Near Future…

Since the city has instituted a shelter in place policy until April 7th, we are canceling all gatherings and missional family meetings until at least Easter (April 12th) although there is still a good chance that we may end up extending this further. I know that it’s horrible timing for us to launch a church and then take a month—or maybe longer—off. But we serve a sovereign God who wasn’t caught off guard by any of this. And although we can’t meet in person, we are still his church. So we will gladly follow our city guidelines as a way to love the more vulnerable around us. We will pray for this virus to pass and for healing. Lastly, we will continue to trust and love our King Jesus who is always in control.

So what are we going to do for a month if we can’t meet? Well, three things:

First, on Sundays, we don’t really have the bandwidth to put together a live streaming service of our own (we’re still a pretty small church with two staff members). Christ Church SF (one of the churches that helped us launch) has invited us all to join them for Sunday morning services. They are broadcasting their services live on Facebook every Sunday at 10:30am. Note: you do not have to be logged in to or have a Facebook account to view this broadcast. Just click on the link and the live video will be down a little bit on the page.

Second, throughout this time apart, we are having Zoom prayer meetings on Wednesday nights at 7:30pm. The link to join will be sent via email; but for now, you should install Zoom on your computer, phone, or iPad. It’s pretty simple to use, and we’re all figuring it out together. If you’re not on our email list, let Kala know and she’ll add you.

Third, on Sunday we read the second part of Luke. Since we are going to be taking a few weeks off meeting in person, I thought that this would be a great time to give you some additional resources on the book of Luke: there are some videos to watch, articles to read, study guides, and devotional prayer guides to follow. Head over to this special devotionals page for all that info.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about literally anything. As a church, we want to make sure that everyone is loved and taken care of during this shelter in place.

-Pastor Jon