As I post this blog, we are 10 ½ days from the restart of indoor, in-person worship at Rock Church. I am super excited and a little bit anxious. I’m excited because I have so missed being together will all of you in our worship spaces. But I’m also anxious because we are having to do this in new ways under conditions unlike anything we have known in the past.
As we prepare to re-engage in indoor worship, I would ask us to keep in mind two important words. The first is “experiment.” We are going to be trying different approaches in order to create a worship experience that is meaningful and safe. It is likely that some of the things we try will work out great. There may be other things that need to be modified as we go along. Since none of us knows the future, some of what we try may work now, but not work as well later.
This leads to our second word, “Patience.” With all of the Covid related provisions that must me be made, there may be things that you do not particularly like or agree with. All I can ask is that we be patient. Please be patient with me and our leadership team as we seek to navigate this challenging season. And please be patient with one another. As I mentioned last week, in a church family our size there will be diverse perspectives on how we should approach this pandemic.
Now I just want to remind us of how this is going to work. Beginning on October 4 we will offer two indoor services at each campus. The 9:00 am service will be a high precaution (HP) service. That means everyone will wear masks through the whole service. There will be no physical contact. There will be a deep cleaning prior to the service. Attendance will be limited to 30% capacity. At 10:30 am there will be a moderate precaution (MP) service. Masks will be required until you get to your seat and then are optional. Permission based contact will be acceptable. There will be a cleaning of high touch surfaces just prior to the service. Seating will be 50% capacity.
A few other important things to remember.
Volunteers are needed in tech, hospitality, cleaning and other important areas as we open indoor worship.
You must pre-register. There will be a registration page on our rock-church.org website with a sign-up link that goes live on Wednesday morning. The sooner you register, the better chance of getting into the service you prefer. If you know anyone without internet access, please contact Lynette so we can work out alternate registration arrangements for them.
Doors will open 15 minutes prior to the service. This allows us time for cleaning and last minute preparations.
We will still offer excellent online worship. If this is the better option for you, we encourage you to engage online at rockchurchnh.online.church at 9:00 or 10:30 am.
We need volunteers. We are expanding our number of services. This means we need more volunteers than ever. We are particularly in need of greeters, ushers, computer techs, camera operators (Plaistow only) and between service cleaners. If you can help in any of these ways, please let us know at this link.
Because of the increased number of services, the message will be a rotation of live preaching by myself, the campus pastors and video teaching (me). All other aspects of the services will be live.
On another note, I also want to let you know about a special prayer event coming up this weekend. ‘The Return’ event is being held in Washington D.C. this Saturday. ‘The Return’ is a solemn assembly whose mission is revival through individual, national, and global repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14). We are well aware that our nation, and indeed the entire world, is in turmoil. We need Jesus. This event is an invitation to ‘Return’ to the Lord. Various Rock Church ministries have partnered to host a simulcast at our Sandown campus. You are welcome to attend any time throughout the day (9:00-5:00).
This Sunday, Sept 27, we will have online worship in the morning and a live outdoor service at 5:00 pm at our new North Shore location. I look forward to us all being together online or in person.
God Bless,
Pastor Steve