Announcement Transcript
Jim Arthur:
This past Sunday, our leaders met to discuss how the current increase in coronavirus cases might affect our ministry. We noted that the number of cases in Ohio in general, and Medina County in particular have been increasing at an alarming rate. A graph of new cases in the last 12 days indicates that the number of new cases in Medina County has been increasing exponentially and is five times higher than when the State of Ohio was under lockdown in March and April. In addition, the area that comprises Chippewa Lake and Gloria Glens (the 44215 zip code area) has more cases per capita than any location in Medina County. For example, whereas the city of Medina has one case for every 293 persons, 44215 has one case for every 34 people. The coronavirus has also touched our church. Two persons who have attended worship in the last few weeks have been diagnosed and are in quarantine. Please pray for their quick recovery.
For these reasons our leaders have decided to cancel in-person worship for the time being. We did not make this decision lightly. But we did make it unanimously. I am grateful for the combined wisdom of our team. More than that, I am grateful for their concern and safety for all of us and their willingness to make this difficult decision to ensure that safety. Hopefully, this current outbreak will diminish quickly so that we can resume gathered worship as soon as practicable. Thank you for listening. Hope to see you again as soon as possible. And now I will turn this over to Annie Dean.
Annie Dean:
Good day CrossPointers. Thank you Jim for your leadership. I am here to let you know that at the same meeting Sunday our leaders voted to allow Randy to take three weeks off beginning immediately. He has only had one or two days off since this pandemic began last March. He and Gail haven’t had a week’s vacation since June of 2019. He has been working between 55 and 60 hours per week. He has reported that the added stress with no break has been adversely affecting his health and he needs some time to rest and recuperate. We fully support his taking this time off. Randy will be back to lead worship on Communion Sunday, December 6th.
While Randy is off, we hope and pray that you will avail yourselves of the opportunity to remain connected to God through worship by going to our website at www.crosspointe.cc, and either reading or listening to a sermon that was posted in November of 2018. I will miss seeing you, but together with God’s help we will get through this.
Randy:
Thank you Jim and Annie for taking the time to make these announcements. I thank you and the rest of the team and all CrossPointe people for your understanding and support.
I realize that these are extraordinary times for churches in general and our church in particular. Never in our lifetimes has anything ever impacted our ability to attend an in-person church worship service whenever we wanted to. But we are God’s people. And God’s people have always had a reputation for rising up to face any challenge ladi down before them. Let us therefore resolve not to allow these days to dampen our faith. On the contrary, let us invite God to assist us in strengthening our faith in these days. Our Lord siad, “Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit” (John 15:5). As God’s people, we can and we must remain in Christ by committing ourselves to daily scripture reading and prayer, and by weekly worship through the on-line resources available.
Speaking of the importance of scripture, here is one that will carry us through this time: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. … I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:6-7, 13).
With that scripture ever before us, it is my hope that all of us will pray for one another every day to remain spiritually strong and connected to Christ and His Church.
Our Heavenly Father, help us to learn with Paul to be content in any and every situation, including this one. We believe that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Even though we might be apoart from one another for a time, we can remain connected to You, and therefore, to one another in the power of the Holy Spirit who binds us all together in love.
We thank You for the opportunities given to remain connected with You and Your Church. We are so much more blessed than those who endured a pandemic 100 years ago with no outside communication. We pray for our sisters and brothers at CrossPointe. We pray that we will all remain faithful. We pray for those who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus; that You would quickly restore them to health and that they would not have any lingering side effects. And we pray that You would enable us to re-gather for corporate worship as soon as practicable as it concerns our well-being. We pray, as always, in Jesus’ name, amen.