Dear St. Paul's Family,
CHRIST IS SHAPING NEW WAYS, IN THE PANDEMIC, FOR THE COMING HARVEST
Leaders across the church, especially the ones pioneering the most effective ministries into the "next generations" are describing some of the new kinds of spiritual development that the pandemic is actually fueling into being even faster than without the pandemic. This is the strange surprise. The problem of the worst pandemic in a century is actually empowering America Christianity to discover and embrace new and more effective ministry! Foremost among these changes is the change of focus from large Sunday morning worship into the hunger for personal connection and conversation, community. How many persons have you not seen since March? Who usually greeted you at the door of St. Paul's? Who did you almost always notice in the Choir? How long has it been since you saw the persons who usually sat next to you in the pew on Sundays? How long since you actually talked to them?
"...with each passing day I see ways in which the Lord is ready to use this very frustrating season as the catalyst for much better ways and days ahead." - Pastor Doug
SOWING NEW WAYS AT ST. PAUL'S: CONNECTION AND CONVERSATION
At St. Paul's we are developing new "rooms" for us to connect and communicate. By late September we will be launching "Zoom Fellowships" across our congregation so that persons can see and converse with each other. In addition, we will also launch a network of tele-fellowship, hubs of phone connections that enhance our person-to-person contact and information, LESS IS MORE. At this time it is much more necessary for us to gather in clusters of 8-15 than how to "get everybody to church" on Sunday morning.. We value online worship, but we also need to sculpt these ways for persons to experience visual and audible connection.
PRAY FOR OUR SOWING SEASON
Please pray that in the next 2 months we will develop these new places and ways for to sow the seeds for the new frontiers of
St. Paul's. Please pray that we will find the right leaders/facilitators - and that we will be able to figure out the right technology!
HEAR MORE AT THE SPECIAL "PASTOR'S VISIT" IN EARLY SEPTEMBER
In early September I will be gathering our whole congregation online in order to share a special message more about our "sowing" in the days ahead. In some ways the pandemic has been frustrating and a discouragement. But, with each passing day I see ways in which the Lord is ready to use this very frustrating season as the catalyst for much better ways and days ahead.
"The problem of the worst pandemic in a century is actually empowering America Christianity to discover and embrace new and more effective ministry!" - Pastor Doug
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