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Good afternoon church family, Please read below for important announcements from Shady Grove- - Our first in-person worship services will be cautiously scheduled for this Sunday, July 5th. We are eager to reopen but recognize that cases of the virus continue to rise. We will be monitering the istuation throughout the week. If we see any more infections in our church body or a radical increase of cases in our area, we will adjust our worship plan to again be only online for this Sunday. As of today, we will begin accepting RSVP's for this Sunday's service with an important note for this Sunday only. If you had already RSVP'd for Sunday, June 21st, and plan on attending this Sunday, we already have you on our list and you do not have to call to RSVP. If you RSVP'd for the 21st and cannot make it this Sunday, then please call the church to take your name off the list. If you did not RSVP for the 21st but plan to attend church this Sunday, please call the church office and let us know you plan to attend. This method will only be used for this Sunday as we have already put together attendance lists and information, and it will be easier for us just to accept new RSVP's or take those who cannot be there this Sunday off of our attendee list. -The church office will be closed Monday and Tuesday as Ashley finishes out her quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus. The office will reopen on Wednesday. She has transfered the church phone to her cell phone, so you may still call the church if you have any questions or concerns or would like to RSVP for this Sunday. -On behalf of the Children's Ministry, Ashley will be giving out free water activity buckets this Thursday to families woud like to cool down on July 4th weekend! She plans for this to be an outreach opportunity both in the church and in the community and hopes the buckets will bring families together this weekend. The pick up date is July 2nd from 4:30-6:30. There are 30 buckets available and it will be first come, first served. She will be handing out one bucket per car. If you would like to learn more, you can call the church office or email her at assist@shadygrovedandridge.org. She hopes the families in the church and the community will take advantage of these free activities! *Water bucket- 2 water guns, 2 water blasters, 3 water splash balls, 2 bubble wands, 1 beach ball, sidewalk chalk, water balloons, and a family devotion. -Prayer Concerns- Let's remember the DeMaria family this week as Kyndall has major surgery on Wednesday. Let's also keep in our prayers Terry Witt, who is having surgery this week, and Al Cohan, who is still in the hospital with coronavirus. We love you, church family! Pastor Jason Ashley Eddie Linda Sarah
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Dear Shady Grove Family,
Read below for our weekly announcements: -Due to unforseen circumstances, Ashley and Eddie are canceling the first Outdoor Movie Night scheduled for tomorrow, June 26th. If you know anyone planning to attend, please help us to spread the word. They are still planning on hosting a movie night on July 24th. -We would like to thank everyone for their flexibility and understanding in the postponement of our in-person worship service. Our tentative reopening date is July 5th. - Please continue to pray for the following people- Gay Greene, Joyce Keisling, Frankie Simms, Tim Barker, Kyndall DeMaria, Linda Smith, the Coddington Family, the Mitchum Family, Sara Connin, Al and Dar Cohan, Linda and Howard Matthews, and Liz and Jim Comings. We love you, church family! Pastor Jason Ashley Eddie Linda Dear Shady Grove Family,
Read below for this week’s announcements: -The staff (minus Linda, who could not be there) has come together to record a video outlining the details about this Sunday’s first in-person service. You can find this video on our Shady Grove Facebook page as well as our website. -Ashley and Eddie are hosting an Outdoor Movie Night here at the church on June 26th (Zootopia) and July 24th (The Jungle Book, 2016) at 8:45pm. Due to our social distancing guidelines, we will be watching the movie in the lower parking lot with families 6 feet apart. The event is free and for the whole family! There is only room for 20 families, so if you plan on attending please call or email Ashley at the church office. We will accept June reservations immediately and July reservations beginning July 1st. -If you plan on attending church this Sunday, please let Ashley know by noon today so that she can make sure to have your spot saved as well as have time to arrange seating so that we can host as many people as possible. -Small groups are still meeting over Zoom. If you would like to learn more about attending or hosting a Zoom Small Group, please contact Tammy Knierim at education@shadygrovedandridge.org. -Here are our current prayer concerns: Larry Stover, The Coddington Family, Emily Fox, Kevin Fox, Gay Greene, Dot Hicks, Anna Bowles, Linda Smith, Joyce Keisling, John and Debbie Ramey, Gerald Suttles, Mike Mathis, Frankie Simms, Tim Barker, Sharon Cook, Malcolm Cotton, Liz Witt, Bob and Billie Lane, and Debbie Swisshelm. We love you, church family! Pastor Jason Ashley Eddie Linda Sarah Dear Shady Grove Family,
On June 1st Bishop Taylor and the Cabinet of the Holston Conference published a plan for reopening churches. Per their guidance, I submitted our plan to re-open and I’m excited to announce we received permission to begin in-person worship on June 21st, 2020!! Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment for all to worship and experience God while also loving and protecting our members, especially those among us who are vulnerable. I ask for your understanding as you read our guidelines below. I hope and pray we will be able to ease these protocols in the coming weeks/months. Below you’ll find an outline of what Sunday services will look like for a while. The Holston Conference plan for reopening churches outlined “4 non-negotiables:”
Based on these 4 non-negotiables and other Holston Conference guidelines, services will look different for a time. If you are in the vulnerable category, I encourage you to remain home and worship online with us. As we return to in-person worship, please note the following interim changes & protocols:
We ask everyone bring their own mask. Those who do not have a mask but want to attend service will be provided a mask at the door. If someone refuses to wear a mask, we will ask them to worship with us online. We know this will seem harsh to some, but as highlighted above, the wearing of masks is “non-negotiable” for now. RSVP To comply with the second non-negotiable (social distancing), we will implement an RSVP system to prevent us from turning anyone away at the door. Those who wish to attend services are asked to contact the church office and let us know which service you plan on attending (traditional at 9:00 am or modern at 11:15 am). You may call the church office or email Ashley. If emailing, please include the service you wish to attend, the number attending with you (in your family) and a phone number. If calling, please do not leave a message with your RSVP – please ensure you speak to Ashley personally. We will take RSVPs on Monday, June 15th, from 10-3, Tuesday 10-3, Wednesday 9-10 and 1-3, and Thursday 9-12:00. The cut off to RSVP for June 21st is Thursday, June 18th at noon. Ashley will provide you with positive confirmation of your request either over the phone or via email. If you do not RSVP but still come to service on June 21st, you will be asked to wait in King Street until everyone who has RSVP’d is seated. We will also be prepared to welcome guests who are unfamiliar with our RSVP requirement. I know it’s frustrating to reserve your spot at church, but this is the only way we will be able to keep from turning people away at the door. If after the first week we find we have plenty of room left over in each service, we will reevaluate our RSVP system. We will also look at implementing more services if the demand exceeds our capacity in two services. Social Distancing When you arrive at the service, you will enter through the King Street door. The King Street entrance will be the only entrance available; every other door will be locked. As you advance through King Street and into the narthex, we will confirm we have your contact information and ushers will take you to your seat(s). Please note, you probably will not sit where you always sat. I ask for your understanding as we are doing our best to fit as many people in the sanctuary as possible. Once an usher takes you to your seat, please remain there for the length of the service. I know you want to see and talk with your friends and church family, but we ask you do this outside. Exiting Plan Once our service concludes, ushers will dismiss congregants by row. We ask you to continue outside to the parking lot without stopping in the narthex. This may take additional time, but we will do our best to dismiss everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible. For now, I will not be standing at the door for handshakes and hugs. On that note… Physical Touch We have a wonderful, loving church body who enjoys hugging and shaking hands. While I love that about you, I ask for now you abstain from all physical touch, including hugs, handshakes, elbow bumps, and high-fives. I know this will be difficult, and we will miss the hugs as well, but in order to adhere to the second non-negotiable, we need to maintain social distancing. Offering We will not collect the offering during the service, but we placed boxes at the back of the sanctuary for tithes and gifts (to include change for children). As you enter or exit, you may place your offerings in the designated boxes. As a reminder, you may tithe online, as well as mail tithes to the church or drop them by the office. Children and Youth We will not be hosting children or youth activities inside the church, which includes nursery and children’s church as it is impossible to keep small children and nursery workers socially distanced. Children will remain with their parents during the worship service. Ashley will provide activity bags to keep them busy, and King Street will serve as a “Cry Room” if your children get restless. If you do have to take your children to King Street, we ask that you and your children remain socially distanced from others in the chair groupings provided. Eddie and Ashley will continue to host Zoom meetings for kids and youth through June. If Someone Develops Coronavirus If anyone who has attended our services contracts coronavirus, we will immediately contact our local health department, our district leadership, and all church members who were in the building on the same Sunday as the coronavirus patient. We will then thoroughly sanitize the church. If you find out you have coronavirus after you attended one of our church services, PLEASE let us know immediately so we can begin informing all those with whom you may have had contact. Weekly Small Groups At this time, we are not holding small groups on Sundays or Wednesdays at the church. I hope we will be able to lift this restriction very soon after starting services, in the meantime, we encourage you to connect with your small group over Zoom. I know all these protocols can be frustrating, but it’s our responsibility to care for the brothers and sisters among us who may be vulnerable. I take your health and wellbeing seriously as I love each and every one of you. Please be patient and give us grace as we begin this process of reopening Shady Grove. We are certainly not perfect, and this process will be full of trials and errors. Our goal is to be able to worship together, even if it will look different for a time. I hope to see you soon, church family! In Christ, Pastor Jason |
AuthorAshley Wren Archives
April 2021
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