Here’s the letter that I just published on the church website:
Tapestry & COVID-19 – Update 3/18/2020
You may have heard the old joke about how to make God laugh. You tell Him your plans. I don’t think God is actually laughing about any of this, the God of scripture cries over the pain of His people, but the last few days have been a reminder of how quickly plans can change.
First, the Leadership Team has been working out how Tapestry will gather to worship over the next few weeks. The CDC’s guidelines for gatherings keep changing. It has gone from less than 50 people, when we made out least plans, to less than 10. Therefore, as a church, we will no longer work toward meeting in smaller groups in houses and instead do video gatherings, similar to this past week’s, for at least the next three weeks. These video gatherings will be done via Facebook Live (which you can access without having a Facebook account) and Youtube. We hope and pray that by Resurrection Sunday (Easter) there will be some way for us to have some type of in-person meeting. We will broach that subject in the next few weeks. Thee will continue to be lots of changes. We will respond to those changes together.
On these videos, we will once again try to involve as many people as possible in each week’s video. We are going to focus on a theme that came out of last week’s video – Ebenezer. “Thus far has God helped us” and therefore we can trust that He will continue to help us. If you would be interested helps my making a video with your phone of
- You praying,
- You reading a Psalm,
- You sharing a story of when God has helped you during a rough time.
PLEASE NOTE – we are not looking for you to be smooth and polished in these videos. We are looking for you to be you. We are going to lean into who we are and we are gritty. So let your grittiness shine through and don’t worry about it being professional.
If you would like to do any of these, or something else, please contact Robert (robert.terrell@gmail.com). Share your Ebenezer and let’s together remind each other that God is trustworthy.
Secondly, we are recommending that our small groups find alternate methods of staying connected over the next few weeks. Google Hangouts, Skype, or Facebook Video Chat are some available technologies for doing this. We are all self-isolating to protect each other but we also need to fight against the emotional and spiritual isolation that can come with this self-isolation. Please reach out to the people around you. Please reach out to people inside and outside of the church. We have wonderful technology that is so often used to separate and divide people. We can use it so that others do not feel alone.
Thirdly, if you become sick or need to be quarantined we want to be there for you. Specifically, if you become sick and need someone to get supplies for you or pick up groceries please call someone on the Leadership Team and we will arrange to bring them to you. Cory (920-585-2630), Ellyn (715- 851-6504), or Robert (715-572-2198).
If you develop symptoms or are sick HERE are the CDC’s recommendations.