Sunday Morning Worship: 

As I indicated earlier last week, we will reopen our public worship service starting this Sunday, May 31^st.  We realize not everyone will feel comfortable coming back to a public gathering, so we will continue to put together online worship services for the benefit of those staying at home.  For those who are willing to come and worship in public, we will resume our usual 9:30 A.M. worship service.  Because we only expect a limited number of people for some time, we will continue our practice of having one worship service a week, and for the summer months, we will not be having any Bible class or nursery activities on Sunday morning. 

When you come in on Sunday morning there will be several things you should expect.  First, prepackaged communion elements will be lined up on tables in the back of the auditorium.  As you come in, please take one with you so you will be prepared to participate in communion at the appropriate time in our service.  A basket will also be on those tables that you can leave your offering in, or if you would like to give online, that is certainly a good way to do that during this time. 

Also, you will notice that every other pew has been taped off.  This is to allow a six-foot distance between the people in front and behind you.  As you come in and find a place in the open pews, please be courteous to others and keep a distance of 6 feet.  If family units and other friends choose to sit together, that will certainly be fine, but just make sure you are respectful of people’s space.  

We strongly encourage everyone to wear a mask to services.  If you do not have one, we will have disposable masks available.  If you have a speaking part during the service, such as the prayer or the communion mediation, you are welcome to remove your mask so that your speech is not muffled.  But especially during times of singing, we encourage everyone to wear their mask to help protect the air quality for everyone in the room. 

There will be no coffee available for now, so if you like to drink coffee, you will need to bring your own.  We certainly encourage everyone to visit and catch up with one another, but please be aware of each other’s space and respect the wishes of those who may feel uncomfortable getting too close together.  

For these first few weeks while we still have lower numbers of attendees, we encourage everyone to park on the North or South sides of the building and come in those main doors on either side.  The doors in the back will remain locked for now.  

We will have three interns with us for the summer that we would like you to see and get to know on Sunday.  C. J. and Alaina Gilkey have returned from Sunset for the summer.  C. J. will be working with Jonathan and the youth, while Alaina will be working with Eric for the grade school-age children.  Also, Taner Hansen has returned for the summer from OCU, and he will be working as my intern. 

Wednesday Evening Classes

With those interns in mind, this leads me to one further announcement about our plans for Wednesday nights for this summer.   Starting on Wednesday night, June 10th, we will have classes available for June and July.  C. J. Gilkey will be teaching a class for the teens downstairs, while Eric will be available for activities for grade school-age children.  For the adults, Taner and I will be doing a study of C. S. Lewis’ allegorical story on heaven and hell called “The Great Divorce.”  This study will function like a book club, with assigned reading for each class. 

If you would like to attend the book club study with myself and Taner, we have 15 copies of the book available at the church.  You can purchase them for $9.00 and are welcome to stop by and get one anytime.  If you would like to order your own, Amazon has plenty available, and it is also available on Kindle.  This study will be a good follow-up for those who attended the class this past winter on the three different views on hell.  We will plan to meet in the fellowship hall where we can spread out in a social distanced way.  We would like to have an estimate of who might attend, so if you would like to, drop a note in the Facebook comments, or if you are reading this by email, simply respond to the email.  

With all that said, even though there are many challenges in front of us, and a lot that is unknown, this is our plan for this summer.  We hope that for those who feel comfortable doing so that you will join us, and for those who don’t, we still hope to serve you through our online offerings.  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call the office and let us know. 

Email us WELCOME@RiverWalkChurchofChrist.org