Pastor's Blog: Phase Three
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This Sunday, July 12, marks the third phase of our four-phased plan for resuming in-person gatherings at MBBC, one in which we will add Sunday Morning Bible Study (SMBS) opportunities. Again, as we move into this phase, we do so responsibly, gradually, and with an openness to adjusting our plans as necessary. Fortunately, we have not had any hiccups to this point in the process of implementing our plan, in large measure because of how our attendees have followed the guidelines we put in place to safeguard everyone. We will continue to follow those guidelines, even more strictly now that our gatherings will involve spaces that put us a bit closer to one another, though not to a level that we violate the need to keep practicing physical distancing.
Here are our plans for this third phase. We will offer two combined classes at 10 a.m., one in Heritage Hall for those classes that are a part of the Adult One department and another in Hudson Hall for those classes that make up Adult Two and Three. Furthermore, our students will meet in the gym and our children and preschoolers will be in one of three classrooms on the second floor. All of these spaces will accommodate the most number of attendees, while providing a Bible Study experience that will be as meaningful as we can make it.
If you wish to attend any of these options, we will need you to register at www.mbbc.org/summersmbs. If you plan to attend both a SMBS option and one of our two worship options, we need you to register separately for each of them. As you can understand, we must make sure we are prepared for all attendees. While you may not think our number of attendees are at a point where we really need to be going to all of this trouble, you may be correct for now. But we anticipate our numbers growing as we move into the fall and as more people feel comfortable coming back to church. Therefore, it’s better for us to continue something that we can sustain as our levels of participation grow.
As with our gathered worship, if you are not yet comfortable returning to SMBS, there’s no need for you to feel any pressure to do so. In fact, we’ll continue to stream a Bible Study class for you at 10 a.m. on our Home Church page on our church website, just as we’ve been doing over these last several months. So, you’ll still be able to participate in both Bible Study and worship each Sunday.
Thanks for all of your support in the midst of these most hectic times. Pray for us as we work to get our congregation back to some sense of normalcy. Know that we’re doing all that we can to meet spiritual needs in our church, both in-person and online.
I’m so proud of our church for how well we have held together during this season. I’m confident that we’ll be an even stronger church for it, one that is even more capable and committed to loving God and living with grace and generosity.
“Do not let this Book…depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (Joshua 1:8).