From Pastor Cliff
My Dear People,
I have talked to several pastor friends and we have shared how we are handling the reopening of the churches we serve. We heard Second Baptist Houston was fully open at all 6 of their campuses. Just to make sure I called the main campus at Woodway and Voss and they confirmed all of their campuses officially opened on Mother’s Day. In the discussions, I discovered we started back two weeks earlier than my friends, but when they reopened, no reservations were required and they did not specify any limits on the number of people coming. Their assumption was they could not get 50% of their congregation back anyway, so why make it an issue. Their assumption proved to be right. Two of these pastors told me they will resume their full Sunday morning schedules Father’s Day, June 21. One thing is obvious to us and that is our people are experiencing “COVID Fatigue.”
One other thing I want to point out to you. In our discussions, we agreed that the nationwide protests of literally millions of people will give us the unique ability to accurately test for COVID. You probably noticed, during last week’s protesting, there was no “social distancing” and the majority of the protestors wore no masks. It is reasonable to assume if we do not see a major outbreak of COVID in the next 14 days, we will get a pretty good idea of where we are in this crisis. My prayer is we will see these strange days become history so we can resume our Sunday morning schedule. I know, being out for 3 months, it will take more than a few weeks to see our attendance back to where it was, but this is the time for us to rally in prayer and start making plans to come back to church. Now, before I leave this subject, I must assure you that your health and safety is my number one concern. I realize we have a good number of people over 65 with underlying health conditions and I do not blame them for staying in until they feel confident the threat is over. But, at the same time I want to encourage those who are in good health to come this Sunday morning at 10:45.
We are still taking up food for Mission Greenspoint. So, if you come Sunday please bring your staple food products with you. A tub is in the foyer for all food donations. Thanks for your generosity and I look forward to a great day of worship this Lord’s Day.
I am always yours in His love,
Pastor Cliff