Church Newsletter

January Field Guide: Discipleship 101

It’s beginning to look a lot like Covid. With the virus surging in our area the church covid task force and the core leadership group have made some decisions about how we will do church for the foreseeable future. The good news is that this is less of a surprise and we’ve got the experience of this spring to help us stay connected with God and one another come what may.

Until further notice we will:

Have virtual meetings and worship services only. The building is closed.
Church will be live streamed on facebook at 10a on Sundays and we’ll work to make it great!
House Churches and ministries should only meet virtually.
In person meetings are limited to no more than two households.

So to safely stay connected we ask that:

House Church leaders should work with their groups to form discipleship partnerships if they haven’t already (get help from leadership if needed)
Discipleship parters should agree on safe Covid protocols so they can meet in person if possible or virtually on a regular basis (discipleship times, watching church together, etc…)
Discipleship Partners will be provided a Gather TWOgether curriculum from their house church leaders based on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) to work through over the coming weeks.
The lessons in the curriculum will be brief and discussion based so you can add them to whatever you may already be doing for discipleship.
Remember there is no restriction on calling, texting, etc! This doesn’t limit relationships, it only changes the way we interact and if anything causes us to need more interaction.
In addition to our 2020 Bible Vision readings (finish strong!), we will have 25 days of Advent devotionals and we’ll distribute personal prayer candles in place of our Candlelight Christmas Eve service. (Instructions for the prayer candle will be included in the Advent devotionals.)

I see this as a great opportunity to grow in our one on one discipling relationships. This is an area I’ve wanted to help the church grow in but haven’t been able to figure out how to teach and train these things with Covid. Now meeting one on one or as couples is all we can do! So let’s use this as a time to embrace discipleship as we Gather TWOgether.

Details:

House Church leaders will be able to pick up packets from the church building this Sunday from noon to 2pm that will have everything your group needs to thrive through the holidays: Advent devotionals, gifts for Cedars, prayer candles, and those communion cups with the wafer thing that everyone loves! The Gather TWOgether resource will come in a separate email.

This week’s Women’s Friday and Steve’s Stress Free Saturday workshop will be on Zoom – links coming soon.

I know this is not what anyone wanted but it’s for the safety of our family and friends over the holiday season. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel so let’s join in the great Christian tradition of waiting – afterall, that’s what Advent is all about!

Much Love,

Joel