It has been six weeks already since we have resorted to YouTube livestream for our Sunday worship service. This has been a new experience for all of us especially for me who is not technologically inclined at all. However, we have managed to worship God virtually together as one body of Christ.
At first, it was awkward for me to be in the sanctuary with a small group of Magnification Team members praising God and preaching to them. I felt like I was in a recording studio. But as weeks went on, all of us who came out to church to provide worship service for New Life family got used to this new way of doing things. Several members commented how the livestream worship has been very encouraging and how much they appreciated the church leadership. I would like to acknowledge that it was Chan Do and his Magnification Team who truly went above and beyond to provide such quality virtual worship experiences for all of us who were at home. Please make sure to express your gratitude to them either in writing or verbally.
As you are all aware, Governor Abbot announced on Monday his Texas reopening plan. Churches and places of worship are allowed to reopen abiding by the minimum standard health protocols. Therefore, New Life will gradually reopen in-person worship service as well beginning this Sunday. Based on the current seating arrangement in the sanctuary, we can safely accommodate 80 people even though we have greater capacity if we set up more chairs on both sides of the room where there are lots of space.
New Life will start the following modified worship:
May 3 – Families of staff, village leaders and team leaders will be encouraged to attend in-person service following our guidelines.
May 10 – A few villages will be grouped together and will be asked to join in-person service following our guidelines.
By having the leaders come out first to worship, we can have them set an example for us to follow. Also, we can help them become more familiar with this modified worship so that when it is their village’s turn to come out to worship, they can guide their village members well.
Until the lockdown is lifted, we will most likely continue to worship just once at 10AM and provide livestream worship via YouTube. Assuming that our children will have difficulty in maintaining 6 feet social distancing, we will not be able to provide NLK ministry during this time. However, if your children are old or mature enough to sit still next to you during our worship, they are welcome to come and worship with us.
Many of you have downloaded our Church Center app and have been giving your tithes and offerings online especially during the lockdown. For this to be made available for us, our Maturity Team led by Bao Nguyen and Administration Team led by Eric Huang worked hard by pouring in many hours behind the scene. I for one still prefer writing checks for my tithes and offerings for symbolic reasons. However, I have truly appreciated this online giving feature which has allowed me to give weekly without having to skip any Sunday. Our Administration Team would appreciate very much if you continue to give online during this lockdown so that they do not need to have anyone manually count and record the offerings. Again, let’s remember to thank these members for serving us so faithfully.
When it is your turn to come out to church to worship on Sunday, please follow these guidelines:
- Be courteous to others and wear your mask.
- Do not physically greet each other with handshakes or hugs.
- Use hand sanitizer placed near the entrance area to clean your hands. Do your best not to touch areas you do not need to touch.
- Inside the sanctuary, leave three seats between you and the person next to you unless he/she/they are your family members.
- If you are at-risk or in constant contact with at-risk people, you are encouraged to stay home and worship virtually.
- COVID-19 can spread to others via those who have few or no symptoms. Let’s use our best judgment before attending.
We will do our best to follow the guidelines set by the government for they are trying to protect the community as best as they know how.
Please pray much for me to be filled with God’s wisdom at this time.
Your pastor,
Eric
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