Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Dear Cornerstone-

Our goal is to care for our people well.   In the classroom that the elders typically meet (we met online last night), we have I Peter 5:2-3 on the bulletin board.  Those verses say, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”  A couple phrases stick out to me in light of our current situation. First, exercising oversight.  The elders are to look out over the flock and keep watch.  Second, but being examples to the flock.  As we see it, stopping the virus means getting in line with guidelines and rules set forth by state, country, and disease control leaders.  We are trusting in God, but we also want to do our part to care for you and for our community. 

With that said, our staff members spent time brainstorming and then our elder board met and finalized things.  The biggest way we can accomplish our goal is to stop being together as much as possible.  Here is the summary:

1. In general, groups of any kind should not meet in the building through at least April 5 (that’s the school date the governor set last week) and that date may be extended.  
2. We plan to shut down the back half of the building.  Please stay out of the building on the North side of the double doors (the old part of the building).  The South end (the new end) will continue to be open during business hours.
3. Staff members are being encouraged to work from home if possible, but the office will be open Monday – Thursday, 8:30-4:30.  I would suggest that you email staff members with questions instead of calling the office to leave messages, as they may not get them in a timely fashion. 
4. Our Sunday services will be similar to this past Sunday.  We will stream the service and send out music in advance.  We do not plan to have live music.  Only participants in the service and their families are invited to attend the service.  As much as we value seeing each other, please do not attend otherwise. We plan to publish an online bulletin by Thursday; you can find that on the website.
5. Other cancellations
   1. Moms Helping Moms, March 20
   2. Kid’s Ministry Training, March 28
   3. Missions Lunch on March 29
   4. Pre-diabetic Class
   5. Cooking Matters
   6. Basketball and Volleyball
   7. Thursday Transformation Groups
   8. Knit, Purl, and Pray
   9. Tuesday Bible Studies
   10. Wednesday Morning Adult Bible Study
   11. Wednesday night classes and programs
   12. ABFs – as in those meeting in the building. 
6. Speaking of ABFs, we are aware that at least two met on Sunday online.  We would encourage that going forward!  Check out Zoom.com (or FB live), as that is free and allows up to 100 members to interact for up to 40 minutes.  Leaders, this will be discussed during the virtual Teacher Training class tomorrow night.
7. Some of you have offered to help around the church.  Because the amount of foot traffic has been reduced, there is little to do outside of what our current custodial staff will be taking care of.  Thank you for offering!

Finally, we will be producing a simple, daily video devotional from the Psalms that will be made available to you.  We encourage you to view that video and to set your mind on things above (Colossians 3:2).  The first of those videos will be made available a little later today.

Pressing on!
Dave K