Dear Church Family,
Our first Fighter Verse of 2020 was:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding... (Daniel 2:20-21)
What an interesting time we are living in.
God changes times and seasons, and as of this week, we surely have entered a new one with the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Our government is working to curb the spread of this virus and the potential overloading of our hospitals and healthcare system by minimizing large gatherings for a period of time.
After much prayer and consideration, and out of love for our neighbors and in cooperation with our authorities, we have made several decisions that relate to our church body for the next four weeks:
1. Starting tomorrow, Sunday March 15, we will not be gathering together as a whole church on Sundays, Wednesdays, or in formal small groups until Palm Sunday. Lord willing, we will gather together to worship on Thursday, April 9th, Maundy Thursday.
2. We will provide regular messages (prerecorded or live) on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM. You will find message links at www.faithlinden.org/covidseason/. We will encourage you to gather together as family and friends (when possible) to watch, discuss, pray, and worship together. These videos will include 1) news and updates for the church, 2) pastoral prayers - with specific prayer requests from the congregation, and 3) a message from God’s word with Pastor Daniel or one of the other pastors.
3. Although we will not be gathering in person, the congregation has been portioned into 7 groups with leaders overseeing each group. These Overseers will work hard to help with physical and spiritual care. Between Pastor Daniel and the Overseers, we will be reaching out to you on a regular basis in order to care for you the best we can and to help mobilize you to serve others in the church. We hope you will have more frequent interaction with your fellow FAITH brothers and sisters during this time.
4. The Overseers of your group will seek to provide 1) regular contact, 2) opportunities to share prayer requests and needs, 3) updates or reminders from the church, 4) and ways to help and serve others in the body and your neighbors.
5. We need your engagement in this unique time in the life of our church and community. We need you to pray, respond to those reaching out to you, and we need your continued giving and serving. Together we need to look continually to our Savior Jesus Christ. We need His help to live Christianly in this Coronavirus Season.
6. Please join us tomorrow (Sunday, 3/15) at 11:00 AM as Pastor Daniel shares the Word from Philippians 4:4-9, leads us in prayer for our congregation and community, and shares more details about our plan for the following weeks.
7. For all messages and updates, including the videos, please visit faithlinden.org/covidseason.
We have been praying for revival. It would be just like God to use something like this to wake us from our comfortable lifestyles and cause our hearts to ponder eternal things. He gives wisdom to those who depend on Him. We need His help and wisdom to shine as lights in a world that is without the hope of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let us pray that the Gospel of Jesus would thrive in our hearts and be spread to our neighbors, community, and world.
Looking to our Helper and Keeper,
Pastor Daniel