GATEWAY CHURCH RE-OPENING PLAN - MAY 9, 2020
Over the past six weeks, as we have made our way through the Covid-19/Coronavirus situation I have had the opportunity to spend some time thinking and praying about Gateway Church, our ministry to our community and what things may look like moving forward.
As I have had time to reflect, three significant thoughts have surfaced over and over again. These thoughts have led to some shifts in my leadership and our focus as we move forward. I’d like to take just a few minutes and share those thoughts/shifts with you.
1. PASTORAL CARE: I need to apologize for failing in the area of pastoral care. It is very easy to get so busy doing the work of the church that you forget to do the work of ministry. For several years now I have been very busy doing the work of the church but have often neglected the work of ministry – specifically in the area of caring for our congregation. The past several weeks have helped me to re-discover the value and the joy of pastoral care. Phone calls, notes, emails and other correspondence, along with the opportunity to share with you and pray with many of you have brought back to light that ministry is about people more than it is about budgets, calendars, events and “management.â€
Going forward I am going to be more pro-active in pastoral care and I am going to challenge – and expect – our staff to do the same. Additionally, we are going to work to train our small group leaders to provide pastoral care to their groups and help them teach their groups how to provide pastoral care to one another. We cannot allow caring for people to take second place to management.
2. DISCIPLESHIP: When we were forced to go online for all of our ministry, it made the weakness in our discipleship process quite visible. Often, we think of discipleship as going to Sunday School, or completing a class, such as SHAPE. But there is so much more to it. We need to become a church of disciple making disciples. This is something we were beginning to focus on as the New Year began and it is going to become a key priority moving forward.
Discipleship must not just be something we do, but it must become a part of who we are. It must become so engrained that, if there are other times in the future that we cannot meet, we will still be connected enough that we can continue to challenge one another to grow.
3. ONLINE PRESENCE: For the past couple of years, we have streamed our worship services to Facebook, YouTube and our mobile app. But in my mind, our online presence was simply a “backup plan.†It was available for those who couldn’t make it on Sunday. Obviously, the past several weeks have changed all of that. Now, our online presence must be viewed as equal in importance to our “in house†worship.
With that in mind, we are making some changes that will enable us to minister online as well as we minister “in house.†Some of those changes will be behind the scenes others, like the changes being made to our worship space, will be quite noticeable. But all are being done in an effort to help us reach as many people as possible and become more effective at creating communities of transformed lives.
Please be praying for me and for our leadership as we seek to become the best version of Gateway Church we can be and , more than that, become the church Christ has called us to be.
RE-OPENING: Now, let’s take just a minute and talk about “Re-opening†Gateway Church as our state and community begins to re-open. While Governor Parsons has re-opened the state and has even stated that churches can once again gather to worship, his order has included a requirement for social distancing. Our facility does not allow for us to gather everyone together and still maintain recommended social distancing expectations. Thus, we are going to continue meeting online only for the next several weeks. Our current plan is to gather on Sunday, May 31st – right here, in house – for a celebration where we will welcome everyone back and enjoy being together. Then, on Sunday June 6, we will return to having our worship services in house on a weekly basis.
In the meantime, we have staff and volunteers who are working to get our facilities ready. We are sprucing the place up and will be disinfecting our entire facility in time for our May 31st Celebration Sunday.
Thank you for your patience through all of this. You are a wonderful congregation and it is an honor to serve as your pastor. I can’t wait to see you all soon.
Serving Him,
Pastor Steve
As I have had time to reflect, three significant thoughts have surfaced over and over again. These thoughts have led to some shifts in my leadership and our focus as we move forward. I’d like to take just a few minutes and share those thoughts/shifts with you.
1. PASTORAL CARE: I need to apologize for failing in the area of pastoral care. It is very easy to get so busy doing the work of the church that you forget to do the work of ministry. For several years now I have been very busy doing the work of the church but have often neglected the work of ministry – specifically in the area of caring for our congregation. The past several weeks have helped me to re-discover the value and the joy of pastoral care. Phone calls, notes, emails and other correspondence, along with the opportunity to share with you and pray with many of you have brought back to light that ministry is about people more than it is about budgets, calendars, events and “management.â€
Going forward I am going to be more pro-active in pastoral care and I am going to challenge – and expect – our staff to do the same. Additionally, we are going to work to train our small group leaders to provide pastoral care to their groups and help them teach their groups how to provide pastoral care to one another. We cannot allow caring for people to take second place to management.
2. DISCIPLESHIP: When we were forced to go online for all of our ministry, it made the weakness in our discipleship process quite visible. Often, we think of discipleship as going to Sunday School, or completing a class, such as SHAPE. But there is so much more to it. We need to become a church of disciple making disciples. This is something we were beginning to focus on as the New Year began and it is going to become a key priority moving forward.
Discipleship must not just be something we do, but it must become a part of who we are. It must become so engrained that, if there are other times in the future that we cannot meet, we will still be connected enough that we can continue to challenge one another to grow.
3. ONLINE PRESENCE: For the past couple of years, we have streamed our worship services to Facebook, YouTube and our mobile app. But in my mind, our online presence was simply a “backup plan.†It was available for those who couldn’t make it on Sunday. Obviously, the past several weeks have changed all of that. Now, our online presence must be viewed as equal in importance to our “in house†worship.
With that in mind, we are making some changes that will enable us to minister online as well as we minister “in house.†Some of those changes will be behind the scenes others, like the changes being made to our worship space, will be quite noticeable. But all are being done in an effort to help us reach as many people as possible and become more effective at creating communities of transformed lives.
Please be praying for me and for our leadership as we seek to become the best version of Gateway Church we can be and , more than that, become the church Christ has called us to be.
RE-OPENING: Now, let’s take just a minute and talk about “Re-opening†Gateway Church as our state and community begins to re-open. While Governor Parsons has re-opened the state and has even stated that churches can once again gather to worship, his order has included a requirement for social distancing. Our facility does not allow for us to gather everyone together and still maintain recommended social distancing expectations. Thus, we are going to continue meeting online only for the next several weeks. Our current plan is to gather on Sunday, May 31st – right here, in house – for a celebration where we will welcome everyone back and enjoy being together. Then, on Sunday June 6, we will return to having our worship services in house on a weekly basis.
In the meantime, we have staff and volunteers who are working to get our facilities ready. We are sprucing the place up and will be disinfecting our entire facility in time for our May 31st Celebration Sunday.
Thank you for your patience through all of this. You are a wonderful congregation and it is an honor to serve as your pastor. I can’t wait to see you all soon.
Serving Him,
Pastor Steve