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Communication With Leaders May 22, 2020

Greetings Christ the Servant Leaders,

I hope you are all doing well today and staying healthy and safe. I pray God's blessings for you and thank God for our shared ministry of spiritual leadership! I have some updates for you today.

First, I want to let you know that a few leaders attended a Zoom call for rostered leaders and council presidents with the St. Paul Area Synod bishop earlier this week regarding our synod's response and recommendations related to the phased reopening in MN. We learned a lot about what other congregations are doing within our synod. We were tasked with developing a smart team for responding to the crisis to help guide our decision making related to the health crisis. Our council officers will be working on setting up this team within the next week.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE REPLAY OF THE ZOOM CALL WITH SYNOD LEADERS.

Please note that the recent news articles about some Lutheran churches reopening next week is referring to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Our synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is recommending that we follow the "Stay Safe MN" phased approach as set by the Governor of MN which currently limits indoor and outdoor gatherings to 10 or less but does allow for drive-in gatherings. I do not anticipate that we will open our facility for indoor worship for the foreseeable future, but we will explore potential ways we may open the facility for limited use for groups under 10, gather outdoors in small groups and/or drive-in gatherings with essential precautions during the summer months.

CLICK HERE TO READ MDH GUIDELINES FOR DRIVE-IN GATHERINGS. 

Considering possibilities and developing a plan that considers the safety and well-being of our community will be a task for the response team and our council in the days and weeks ahead.

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR SYNOD'S RESOURCE PAGE WHICH INCLUDES EXAMPLES FROM OTHER CONGREGATIONS.

As we proceed, I have some other updates to share to keep you in the loop...

1) We've had a generous donation of $1,200 for the purpose of purchasing a new camera for upgrading our livestream quality. This will be a long-term investment for us to continue livestreaming as an element of our ministry into the future. Thanks be to God for extravagant generosity!

2) I've been able to negotiate with Comcast business to upgrade our internet service from 75/15 to 300/30 (download/upload) speeds. This may take a few days to become active so I will likely plan to broadcast from home again this Sunday, but we should be up and running soon to be able to broadcast livestream from the church building. 

3) Given that we have a few of our musicians out of town this weekend and we had issues with utilizing Zoom last Sunday, I gathered with a small group of musicians to pre-record music for this weekend's worship in the sanctuary. I asked them to wear masks when not recording and we limited our time in the space. I anticipate next Sunday, we could be able to livestream from the sanctuary with a small group of leaders taking essential precautions.

4) I have borrowed a used AM transmitter from someone who had one for real estate home sales. It is an FCC compliant device that sends a sound signal up to 200 yards or so. I have been setting up a cart with essential equipment so we could, at some point, consider an outdoor, drive-in worship service. It's an experiment at this point, but it seems to work when I tried it. I would like for us to be able to continue our livestream even if we do a drive-in service, so that will be a little tricky to figure out the technology. We need someone to create an extension for the antenna (which is an 8 foot long wire) to add to the cart, perhaps an 8 foot, PVC pipe which would help to broadcast the signal throughout the parking lot. If you could help with this, please let me know.

That's what I got for now. I know that you all are involved in responding to your own needs and your families'. You are in my thoughts and prayers as we navigate paths unknown. We trust in God to guide us as Paul wrote, "We walk by faith and not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Blessings and Peace,

Pastor Chris 

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