Sunday, April 18, 2021

On Sunday, April 18th we will livestream our service 10:00 a.m. service through our YouTube channel: youtu.be/B49Q-I_OVZo  The link will be active on Sunday at 9:55 a.m. or as a recorded option after that.

From Pastor Debi

                                                              Community Through Uncertainty
 
I want to talk with you about how we are doing as a church community during these uncertain times. 
 
The COVID-19 crisis, the divided political climate, the conflicts about racism and police violence, the fights about masks – I don’t know about you, but I am becoming exhausted by my lack of control and my inability to see when or how this will resolve itself.  It’s just overload.  And it is all the more difficult because the way I usually cope with challenge in life is to turn to my faith and my church community.  I want to sing to release my frustration, feel my pain, and find comfort and hope in the words and the tunes of familiar hymns.  I miss hearing our voices together saying the Lord’s Prayer.  I want a hug.
 
So those of us in leadership at Parkview are doing our best to find ways to bring us together as a church family.  Small group gatherings, weekly recorded worship, monthly outdoor services, e-blasts, and “grape vine” contacts.  A grapevine is a good thing when in person conversation is limited!  Church work is quietly going on behind the scenes – bills getting paid, books sent to our children, mission priorities reconsidered, choir Zoom gathering,      capital campaign projects being accomplished, homebound church members contacted.  I see my work changing again, with a funeral and a baptism, a visit with someone new considering becoming involved at Parkview, and online worship planning extending.
 
I want to let you know how we are making decisions going forward about our shared life in uncertain times. 
 
We have a COVID-19 Task Force that meets regularly to monitor our safety practices, consider the evolving science, and solicit and integrate feedback about the current functioning of church life.  They are the group making the decisions about when it will be safe to gather in the church building again, what precautions need to be taken and what equipment will be needed to make our church gatherings safe.  They are looking at the recommendations of many different experts – the Governor, the Center for Disease Control, the national group for Choral Directors, the Minnesota Conference UCC – there are many sources of information, and the Task Force is the group that is considering all the factors involved in creating church gatherings. 

We have discovered a previously unseen need for online worship, separate from the COVID-19 crisis – people who are unable to be with us in person for worship, and appreciate the opportunity to connect with Parkview even when they cannot be physically present.  So, we have come to see that we will probably be creating online worship permanently, and we are working on the equipment and the expertise and the volunteer labor we will need to weekly record a live service with a gathered congregation present.

So there is a lot going on that you probably can’t see.  A lot of people are putting considerable effort into finding the best way that we can be the church together in uncertain times.
We need your support.  Please hold the people making these decisions, and doing this important work, in your prayers.  Not only those creating worship, or on the COVID-19 Task Force, but all those who are continuing the work of the church to be agents of peace and love and compassion and justice.  People who are stepping up to serve Jesus in ways we have never been asked to serve before.  We all need prayer – for ourselves, our church, our neighbors, and for all the people affected by the brokenness of our world in this time.  Please hold each other in prayer.

We thank you for your continued financial support.  Parkview has been blessed with people with generous hearts.  Our giving during this crisis is strong, and we are working together to meet new challenges faithfully using our resources. 

And we need you to look to see how you can be the face of Parkview, the face of Jesus – to the people you encounter every day, for the seen and unseen needs of others as they come before you. 

I am the church.
You are the church.
We are the church together.
All who follow Jesus, all around the world.
Yes, we’re the church together.
 
The church is not a building.
The church is not a steeple.
The church is not a resting place.
The church is a people.
 
I am the church.
You are the church.
We are the church together.
All who follow Jesus, all around the world.
Yes, we’re the church together.  
​
Pastor Debi