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Dear Rush Creek Family,

Rescue. We named the sermon series “Rescue” well before “pandemic” was a household word throughout the world. The Biblical narrative is one that starts with order, devolves into chaos and is now on its way back to order because of the redemptive nature of our loving and gracious God who rescues.

Historically, it is not through times of ease and comfort that God’s people begin to thrive, but through times of oppression. The oppression we are experiencing right now may not be from politics, or war, or religious persecution, but still the COVID-19 pandemic has constrained our ability to worship together during this time. However, the Lord never wastes an opportunity to evidence His glory, and thus it is a great time to re-orient ourselves around the true intended nature of God’s design for his Church, and then prayerfully and intentionally reflect that design. Praise the Lord we are already seeing this incredible reality in and through our wonderful congregation!

Even still, in an effort to protect our people and our community, we have made the decision to close our church building in compliance with the requests of our governing authorities and with the wisdom and guidance of our Medical Response Team. If we were ever inclined to wonder if the church building was the church: Spoiler alert, it isn’t. Yes, the church has indeed left the building! And yet, as has been proven again and again all throughout history, the truth remains that the church, the Body of Christ, cannot be shut down, kicked out, or destroyed!

We trust that in the midst of acclimating to a new way of life for the next several weeks, that you are also being the Church by praying, worshiping, fostering family, and serving those who God has placed in your path. We see it happening, and are praying as a staff that we all grow closer to him during this time.

With all of this in mind we would like to share some important information about our church operations in the weeks to come:

 

The church building is closed. This means that until further notice there will be no entrance into the building and no office hours. In adherence to the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order for the state of Michigan we have asked all of our staff to work from home.

Our phones are open.  Our staff is calling everyone in our congregation for whom we have correct contact information. We are committed to discovering and understanding what our church family is facing during these times. We are equally committed to help our full church family understand those needs, whether by prayer, phone calls, texts, notes, or acts of service, so we can continue to push towards our mission of Authentic Relationships, Genuine Community, and Reflecting Christ.

Also, please know you can call the church anytime. Your message will be forwarded and responded to in short order.

Sunday Service is on. We will have Sunday morning service as we did last week. This time with a much smaller crew; and continuing to follow the social distancing guidelines in the process. Sunday morning worship is one of the most essential ministries of the local church, and we are committed to continuing this life-giving ministry to the best of our ability.

Ministry is happening. Life Groups and discipleship groups are beginning to meet online. Zoom and Google Meet are two of the more popular video conference tools. If you need help setting up a virtual small group, please don’t hesitate to ask us.

Easter will still be celebrated this year. Regardless of the conflicting news, make no mistake that Easter will happen this year and we will do whatever we can to celebrate that together, even if it’s online, and even if it’s Pastor Cam preaching from his living room. We are prepared for that scenario by the way, yet hopeful for even more.

The situation is fluid. Most importantly, as evidence by the last two weeks, this situation is incredibly fluid. It feels as if things change on a daily basis. Thus, we are committed to continue to keep you informed to the best of our ability. We cannot promise that things won’t change, and that on occasion something we tell you may be incorrect even an hour later, but we can promise to do all that we can to flex with the ever changing situations we are all dealing with and provide you with the newest information as soon as is possible and prudent.

Praise God, that He is bigger than our circumstances, and that he calls us to run to Him in times of oppression. We got this Rush Creek!

Stay Safe, Be Well, and God Bless!

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