Church Family Update - May 14, 2020

First, some good news:

Our wonderful youth team has planned the service for this Sunday. They have selected all of the songs and most of them you will know but some of them might be new to some of you. I am attaching links to the ones that might be unfamiliar for those of you who would like to listen to them ahead of time. 

It Is Well (new version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqo4Un2uZI

Is He Worthy?

watch

Still, My Soul Be Still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9t5_ZNmaw

Celebrating Our Grads:

Yesterday an email went out to all parents who have children who are graduating in 2020. If you have a child who’s graduating this year and you did not receive that email then please contact the office and let us know and we’ll send it to you. 

Council Meeting Highlights:

We normally post these in the bulletin but most of you probably don’t get to see the bulletin (although Wendy still faithfully prints it for the worship teams every week). So I thought I’d post the council highlights here. These highlights were written by Christina Vaandrager and this is probably a good opportunity for me to say that she does an absolutely wonderful job as our council clerk and her efforts are greatly appreciated.

Council Highlights from May Meeting:

The council meeting was done via Google Meets, the first ever virtual council meeting.  This meant that the prayer bowl was deferred after Pastor Jason opened with devotions.

Bill Nieuwenhuis had come to the March council meeting, and this was the first time council was able to discuss his presentation.  Council agreed to form a committee that would come up with actions, ideas and leadership to help come alongside the next generation in their faith walk. This idea will need church support in both walking alongside our youth and volunteering with the committee.  We feel strongly that the whole church benefits from being involved with mentoring youth. 

During our meeting, Gord presented the safe church refresher seminar for all council members. 

Due to Covid-19 and public health restrictions, some of the ongoing activities in council have been deferred or canceled including a tri-council meeting with Rimbey and Ponoka in April. On this note, Covid-19 has changed the rhythm of everyone’s lives.  We would like the congregation to know that we will uphold the AHS public health guidelines to the highest standards. To achieve this, there may be more protocols put into place with how we use the building, such as pre-booking the facility to minimize the number of people.  

We recognize that many people in our congregation have been impacted financially by the current situation. Gord presented the first quarter finances at our meeting and we were very encouraged by the ongoing faithful giving of our congregation. Numbers are somewhat down, as is to be expected, but expenses are also down and we are overall in good financial health. However, the numbers on our second collection are down more substantially from last year. Jen has many options on how to give donations when we are not able to meet in church.  

Council is very aware of the impact of this time and is doing its best to contact everyone in the congregation.  Please let your elder or deacon know if you need help in any way and please take care of your mental health.

Council has also deferred the nomination and replacement process for outgoing council members.  Everyone whose term is about to end has agreed to extend it in some capacity. We are hopeful that we can re-start this process in the fall/winter but know that everything can change daily right now.

Finally, council is thankful for Pastor Jason, his family and all his work.  He has managed to help us through this difficult time with his devotions, words of inspiration and email updates during the week.  Thank You!

Some Thoughts on the Sacraments and Social Distancing

As part of our council meeting we also discussed the topic of whether or not we will celebrate the sacraments during our live-streamed services. I was asked to prepare a paper explaining my own position and sent it out to our council members in order to facilitate our conversation. I thought some of you might also like to read this document so I am posting it here for anyone who is interested. 

At this time our council has decided that we will wait to celebrate the sacraments until we are able to be back together again in person. You will see the reasons for this position in the document below. This is a provisional decision and we are happy to revisit this topic. Your feedback is always welcome. 

The Lord’s Supper

Primary Consideration: The Lord’s Supper is a consummation of our unity in Christ and according to the Scriptures must be done in the context of the gathered church body.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34 “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.”

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 contains the longest discussion about the Lord’s Supper in the entire Bible. In that passage, Paul explicitly uses the phrase “when you come together” five times to refer to the context in which the Lord’s Supper is to take place. It seems to me that Paul is making the point that the physical gathering of the local church is an essential component for the proper administration of the Lord’s Supper. Why might that be the case? 

I think we find our answer in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

The Lord’s Supper is both a vertical affirmation of our participation in Christ’s death and resurrection and it is also a horizontal affirmation of our unity as one body through Christ’s sacrifice. The Lord’s Supper gathers up the many who are in the same place at the same time, sharing the same faith and taking the same bread and cup and it proclaims and celebrates our unity. The Lord’s Supper consummates and consecrates our oneness in Christ. I believe that we strip the Supper of this powerful meaning if we partake individually in our own homes. Were we to celebrate separately, we would be celebrating something other than the Lord’s Supper.  

Secondary Consideration: Rather than engaging in an alternative expression of the Lord’s Supper (one which has never been done in the history of the church until now), we ought to use this time of forced separation to kindle and fan into flame our desire to be together again.

I have tried my best to keep our Sunday morning live-streamed services as “normal” as possible. But the reality is, these are not normal times and live-streamed services are not normal services. Right now we are all suffering to various degrees and in various ways. One of the ways that we’re all suffering right now is by the loss of face-to-face fellowship. And while we are all making efforts to mitigate that loss, we also need to be willing to allow God to use this time to shape and fashion us as He sees fit.

Right now, during this time of social distancing and separation, the table of feasting at the Lord’s Supper is not open. Instead, we find ourselves making a visit to the house of mourning (see Ecclesiastes 7:2,4). Rather than attempting to feast during this season, perhaps we should be still and see what the Lord has to teach us in the house of mourning.

Baptism

I am inclined to wait until we can gather again before we engage in baptisms but I feel less strongly about this. My reasons are twofold. First, we do not believe in baptismal regeneration and therefore there is nothing at stake in the faith or wellbeing of our children if we defer their baptisms for a while. 

Second, when a child is baptized the congregation is making a public commitment to God, to the parents and to the child who is being baptized. While it is theoretically possible for us to make that commitment from our individual homes, the commitment loses much of its force if we don’t stand together as one church body to welcome that child into the family.    

Summary

It seems to me that the sacraments are communal by definition and they can therefore only be practiced rightly when the church is physically gathered together. These are my initial thoughts but I’m willing to think further and be convinced otherwise. 

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jason