Arrangements for Sundays and the immediate Future
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Something precious is carried in a good container. Such a container protects the content and ensures its longevity so that ever more people can enjoy and benefit from it. If you are a follower of Jesus, I am pretty sure that there are three things that have become precious content to you. They are: Worship, fellowship and teaching. What would we be without it? How have these three things made you into a more mature, caring and better person?!
One important container for this precious content has always been the Sunday morning worship service. Here we gather incarnationally (in the flesh) like Jesus. We share fellowship, we sing God’s praises and we hear the instructions, exhortations and encouragement from the Word. We do this habitually on a Sunday even though we are not supposed to do it only on a Sunday. It makes us better people to do this and to do it passionately and repeatedly.
But form, as important as it is, is less important than the content inside. When form becomes more important than content is usually when harm is done in the name of religion. And we have come into a situation where we need to sacrifice a beloved form temporarily and put our fellowship, worship and teaching into a slightly different and online form. Because we feel called to serve the best interest of our community – especially the vulnerable – during the Corona pandemic; because we feel the need to support the governmental authority God has put over us and their life saving measures; because we believe that Jesus saves us through faith rather than our physical attendance; because of all these things our session has decided to suspend our public worship services temporarily and do online services instead.
We have opted for a live zoom worship service. There are three easy steps for you to participate in this:
• Firstly, you need to download the zoom app if you do not already have it on your phone, tablet, computer or Smart TV. You download this app by clicking here: https://zoom.us/client/latest/Zoom.pkg
• Secondly, you join the meeting itself which will commence on Sunday March 22nd at 10 am just as normal services does by clicking on this link: https://sap-se.zoom.com/j/8350408110
• Thirdly, should you have any problems or technical queries you can email John Santic at john.santic@sap.com or phone him at 1(604)-365-4429 in advance to help you set up.
• In subsequent weeks, we will update this link as necessary, otherwise the link should work each Sunday at 10 am.
Also take note that we are increasing our internet presence. Daily updates and blogposts will be posted on both our City Centre Church website (http://www.citycentrechurch.org/home/), our blog page (http://www.citycentrechurch.org/home/blog/)and our City Centre Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/citycentrechurchsurrey).
Modern day Churches are not made or broken by the performance of sermons and written pieces (however important they may still be) but by participation; so I want to encourage you to not only read these posts but comment on them, share then and discuss them with others. You may even disagree with them and constructively criticize them as that will help us to improve on this new ministry venture. Our church is not our building, it is all of us together in community, sharing and participating, living life together.
Information on how to give your offering online is also to be found on our website where our banking details are listed. We have previously discussed the use of pre-authorized debits to make your regular offering. Please consider if this is something you could do to support the church at this time. Prayer request and pastoral needs could also be easily communicated to me (gawiesnyman7@gmail.com) or to any elders or even through Facebook messenger or our website.
On behalf of session I wish for you, in the midst of all the uncertainty that a pandemic like this brings, that you will experience God and you can place your faith in Him as a Refuge and a Comfort in a time of need. Let us all do our part to preserve and deepen our fellowship, worship and teachability even amid such a challenging time.
Yours Eucharistically
In Christ
Gabriel J Snyman VDM
City Centre Church
March 18, 2020