An on-line worship experience

If you did not receive word in time to join the live stream of worship from First United Methodist Church, Bolivar Sunday morning at 9:30, the service is archived on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/bfumc and on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/70921359026/  .  We will continue to live stream our worship services while corporate worship is suspended -- and perhaps beyond.

I plan (fingers crosseed) to be live streaming from Whiteville UMC next week at 11 a.m. as well.

I hope you will join in this on-line worship experience while we are dispersed.

We are still the church.

We Gather Together...

Sometimes the best-laid plans don’t work out.  Or are at least slow in being realized.  We had hoped to get the worship services at Bolivar and Whiteville live-streaming this Sunday – May 22.  But that will not be the case.  I am still in hopes that we can have everything de-bugged soon.  We are still working diligently. 

Meanwhile there will be a new service of worship recorded that day at Bolivar church, and it will be online at https://vimeo.com/bfumc by mid-day Sunday.  I encourage you to look in, and to treat the experience as if you were actually in the sanctuary.

The piano player, the video technician and I will be the only people physically in the sanctuary.  But I will experience the entirety of our church family/families in spirit.  Please join us.  Pray for those involved in the service and who will be participating from afar.

We are still the church.

Rick

Working to adapt to our new reality

The tragic statistics increase daily.  The far-reaching effects of the coronavirus pandemic can only be speculatively anticipated.  And, how long will this plague be among us?  Travel is limited, and international travel is virtually shut down.  The hospitality and cruise industries are crippled.  Restaurants, taverns and even fast-food outlets have had to find a way to function on take-out traffic.  Major sporting events – really all sporting events – are being cancelled or postponed.  This doesn’t only touch rich owners and highly paid athletes.  Nor does it merely inconvenience high-profile amateur athletes playing for elite universities.  There are concession workers, ticket sellers, custodial staff, grounds crews, parking attendants, program vendors and facility ushers who are all without a paycheck right now.  Try to buy a can of disinfectant spray right now.  And don’t get me started on toilet paper.  School systems and universities are closing, some planning dependence upon on-line classes for the remainder of the current term.

None of these things are insignificant.  Deprivation is striking at every corner of our lives.

In the midst of this, we have also had to close our churches. 

Until at least April 5 – and at this point that date seems wildly optimistic – Bolivar and Whiteville United Methodist churches are in total shutdown.  There will be no services of worship during this time.  Nor will we hold mid-week activities, choir rehearsals or administrative meetings. 

It is painful.  It is uncomfortable.  And the situation is frustrating because it is out of our control.  But it is our only responsible option.  Any one of us might risk our own health in order to be in church.  But to gather right now is to risk the well-being of everyone with whom we come in contact over the next three days.  The Center for Disease Control is issuing warnings for any gathering of over ten people.  For a local church to fly in the face of these cautions is at this point unthinkable.

So, we have to find other ways to be a community of faith.  I hope that we are telephoning one another, checking on those who may be at risk.  We can encourage one another even as we share in these awkward moments.  Read your Bible.  Pray for one another.  Do not forget others of the household of faith.

The church office at Bolivar continues to function.  Please contact us if you have concerns.  And, if you have a pastoral care issue, please call and if I am not there – I intend to be around – leave a voicemail and I will attend to it promptly.

I will be using this blog as a forum to stay in touch and to keep you up to speed on what’s going on.

We will get through this.

But it will take a little time.