Slideshow image

As we approach the second anniversary of our move to online services prompted by the pandemic, the church leadership and staff remain committed to the important work of gathering folks in Jesus' name both in person, and online.  We believe this model is one that will likely remain with us moving forward.  Online paired with in person gatherings are not just a pandemic solution, rather they are ultimately an effective way of providing more inclusive worship gatherings.  

However our return to in person services in the summer of 2021 alerted us very quickly to the reality that running these two kinds of services was not a sustainable approach in its current format.  Our volunteers that had worked so hard to keep us going and growing online, were also the first to jump back into serving our in person services.  We could see that the risk of volunteer and staff burnout would be high without a better solution.

Our Volunteer Worship Director, Marcello Sequeira, presented us with a solution that, with the support of our Church Leadership Team, we are excited to step into this coming Spring.  It is a remotely operated camera system that will help us support a simultaneous and high quality online broadcast of our in person service.  It will still allow our online community the options for chat and prayer requests and engagement, while freeing up the significant time commitment our production requires in its current format.  We believe the end result will be a more satisfying worship and fellowship experience both online and in person.

A first step in moving to this sustainable online/in person gathering model is to move our worship times to coordinate both groups.  So please note that as of February 20th, both our online and in person worship times will be shifting to begin at 10:30am (live chat will open at 10:15am).  We understand this will cause some disruption to our previous patterns, but we hope you will support the move to better ensure the longevity of these gatherings.  We will send out some reminders, or course, but it would be great to mark your calendars now so you don't miss out: New worship time effective February 20th, 10:30am.  We hope you might make sure all your friends and faith community contacts are aware too.

It is our hope that by end of February or early in March we will be able to take the next step of alligning our in person service and online broadcast. We look forward to seeing more closely aligned worship experiences for both gatherings, while ensuring no one is missing out. 

Please be praying for our whole team as we transition through this setup, and let us know how things are going for you as we make this move.  Any questions or comments can be directed to Pastor Kyla or Pastor Rob.