Pastor’s Perspective 12-15-2020

Celebrate may not be the first word that comes to mind for most of us as 2020 comes to a close. It’s been a long year. I realize there is a glimmer of hope as the long-awaited vaccine hits the streets this week with an initial focus on frontline healthcare workers. Still, I don’t think any of us are deluded that we are out of the woods yet or will be anytime soon. Even so, I find an attitude of celebration in my heart as I look back on this year and reflect on God’s faithfulness through it all and your faithfulness as a congregation. We have not been able to gather in large numbers since March, but we have pulled together as a church family and moved forward nonetheless.

A prime example is the 2020 edition of the Singing Christmas Tree – a celebrated tradition since 1979. The tradition continues in spite of COVID. One of the greatest joys I experience every year as the pastor of this church is witnessing how the entire church body pulls together to project the gospel through the SCT. The traditional way we presented the Tree this year was radically different from previous years. But everyone came together – albeit socially distanced – to pull it off. As of Monday morning, there have been over 7000 views of this year’s SCT. Thousands more than we can seat in-house in a normal year.

Our ability to move forward during COVID has depended very heavily on our technological capabilities and confirms our current 2020 Vision focus on expanding these capabilities. This year’s Tree would have been impossible without them. The majority of our church family continues to worship with us online. Many have expressed their appreciation for the ability to do so. Every week, we are reaching more people online – from all over – than we ever reached in person before COVID. Please take note in this week’s BELL of the progress we are making toward expanding our technological capabilities to continue to project our worship services. We now need less than $470K to reach our goal. Your giving to the 2020 Vision as well as to our 2020 Ministry Resource Plan has been exceptional this year. Yet another reason I am celebrating this season. The bottom line is that we have many reasons to celebrate beyond the obvious that we have a God who loves us and sent His Son to this world to tell us.

See you Sunday! ~ John