Greetings GracePoint family,<\/p>\n
The question that remains before us is \u201cwhen will we resume in-person services?\u201d Your elders have exhausted themselves trying to answer this question. The pandemic places us in a very complex situation and there are no simple answers. The following points are those we continue to come back to:<\/p>\n
\u201cLet every person be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.\u201d Rom 13:1-2 ESV<\/em><\/p>\n Christians do not have the luxury of selecting the laws and guidelines to obey. When one starts to pick and choose which laws or guidelines to submit to, it becomes a slippery slope. Notice, there are no exceptions or conditions given in this passage. \u00a0Remember, when Romans 13 was written, Caesar (Nero) and the authorities in Rome were persecutors of the church. We can be certain that some of the laws were used for selfish (political) ambition and the level of corruption was high.<\/p>\n Regarding the question of why we are not regathering in person, some people ask us, \u201cWhat are you afraid of, the virus? \u00a0Of dying?\u00a0 Of what other people think?\u201d Our answer: No<\/strong>, but<\/strong> we do fear<\/strong> God<\/strong>. It is a matter of faith to submit to God and His Word. We believe that through this submission, He will both protect and strengthen GracePoint.\u00a0 Again, we acknowledge that there are times when we \u201cmust obey God rather than men\u201d per Acts 5:29.\u00a0 But in our present situation, the authorities are not preventing the proclamation of the gospel or public assembly and therefore we do not have Scriptural mandate for civil disobedience.<\/p>\n Under Phase 2, which Grant County is currently in, the maximum number of attendees we can have in one room is 58, and, of course, they must be distanced and masked. Overflow of the 58 would be seated in another room, which would be set up and technologically equipped. Or we can have a second service which would require vinyl chairs that could be sanitized. The manpower required to set up, sanitize, and monitor is extensive for the benefit of being in one room for one hour per week. \u00a0Therefore, to be practical, the cost to benefit ratio is quite high. \u00a0But being practical does not mean we are not spiritual. \u00a0Rather, we only have so much human and financial capital.<\/p>\n Auxano, a consulting firm that serves churches throughout the country, recently asked in a webinar; \u201cwhat if regathering everyone onsite for worship shouldn\u2019t be the highest priority of your leadership right now? What then might happen if we shifted the focus from getting everyone in one room, to getting everyone in one heart and mind about mission?\u201d These questions capture the essence of your elders thinking. \u00a0Resuming in-person meetings will not \u201cfix\u201d the deficiencies in the church. Throughout the pandemic, we have been asking ourselves, \u201cwhat is God is trying to teach GracePoint?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRemind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work<\/strong>, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and show perfect courtesy toward all people\u2026\u2026And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works<\/strong>, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.\u201d\u00a0 Titus 3:1-2,14 ESV<\/em><\/p>\n We, as leaders, think GracePoint can be better and we are discussing how to encourage and facilitate the execution of our mission and we will be in communication about this soon.<\/p>\n Our resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n Given these considerations, the GracePoint elders are resolved to not resume in-person<\/strong> meetings<\/strong> until the pandemic has been sufficiently mitigated.<\/p>\n What you can do now<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is crucial, now more than ever, that each of us find ways to connect with one another.<\/p>\n In Christ\u2019s love,<\/p>\n The Elders of GracePoint Church<\/p>\n Bill Correll\u00a0\u00a0 \u2219 \u00a0\u00a0Wes Crago\u00a0\u00a0 \u2219\u00a0\u00a0 Dave Gossett\u00a0\u00a0 \u2219\u00a0\u00a0 Kevin Guinn\u00a0\u00a0 \u2219\u00a0\u00a0 Dave Johnson\u00a0\u00a0 \u2219\u00a0\u00a0 Gary Nock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greetings GracePoint family, The question that remains before us is \u201cwhen will we resume in-person services?\u201d Your elders have exhausted themselves trying to answer this question. The pandemic places us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,104,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coronavirus","category-fellowship","category-gracepoint"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/autumn-83761_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9J9R0-1Yi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7586,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions\/7586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gracepointephrata.org\/fbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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