During college, we referred to this time of year as The Dark Ages—that time between Christmas and Spring Break, when snow blanketed the ground, we marched to breakfast in the dark and finished intramurals in the dark, and it seemed like there was no end in sight. But every year there was an end to the cold and darkness—the days got longer and as they did the intense sun at 7000’ made us feel warm (even if the temps were still in the 40s).
It kind of feels like The Dark Ages now here in North Georgia with the cooler weather keeping us indoors more and there seeming to be no end in sight for our isolation and new, strange way of living. But as David said (much more eloquently) in Psalm 22, God listens and is there for us even in the midst of our suffering, and we will praise and worship him!
I don’t know about you, but I am ready to praise and worship God with my church family…together…in person! And we are going to be able to do just that beginning March 7 as we meet for worship at 11am on the Foundry Lawn, on the south side of the church (the time and location were picked to take advantage of that solar warming). We will alternate the style of service between traditional and contemporary. KidMin will be in full swing too. We will still be in masks and social distancing between families. Here’s how we got to this decision.
Through a lot of prayerful consideration and discussion while monitoring the local situation, your Leadership Board set policy that aims to keep us all healthy–physically, spiritually, and mentally. We get our information from a variety of places, but a primary source is Path to Zero Covid Risk Level Map, a collaborative product of Brown University School of Public Health and several entities at Harvard. If you haven’t had a chance yet, I recommend you check it out (https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/). What we have seen are the pandemic case numbers trending downward since mid-January. We are also heartened to know that quite a few members of our congregation have gotten the vaccine—that number will continue to grow. Though the data doesn’t currently indicate it is prudent to return to indoor service, the staff is planning for that blessed point now.
The end is coming for The Dark Ages. Though none of us knows exactly when, we do know that God is with us through it all, and we will again praise and worship him together in the warmth and light!
(CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS ON OUTDOOR WORSHIP)
