COVID-19 Updates

Update 4/2:

Holy Week, Easter, and Second Easter  - Upcoming worship services:

• Palm Sunday, April 5th at 10:30am on YouTube and Facebook.

• Maundy Thursday, April 9th at 6:00pm on YouTube and Facebook for a Maundy Thursday Service (streamed live from the Adams house), including the Lord’s Supper. You will need bread and grape juice to participate from home – all the Christians in your household can partake of the Supper with us. Maundy Thursday is when Christians remember Jesus’s Last Supper with His disciples and His prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:17-56 etc.).

• Easter Sunday, April 12th, services will be at 10:30am – more info will be coming next week. However, we want to make sure we celebrate the Christ & His resurrection with the joy & praise He deserves, so we are announcing a second celebration – Second Easter – which will take place later in the spring or early summer, once the Handbell choir and other groups can resume meeting to prepare. 

Sunday School opportunities - Two of our Sunday School classes are still meeting (remotely)! You don’t have to be tech savvy to participate, either:

• Koinonia Class (using Zoom) – you can participate by going to https://zoom.us.j/358606435 on Sunday at 9am from your computer or smart device, or by opening the Zoom app and joining meeting 358606435.

• Bereans Class (using MrConference) by calling into their conference call using any telephone – phone number 425-436-6342 and using access code 575456.

Online Prayer & Praise this Friday, April 3rd at 6pm

• Tomorrow, Pastor Aaron and Heather will be leading Prayer & Praise from their home, online at 6pm. Join us on YouTube and Facebook! Come with your prayer requests.

Midweek Prayer Meeting, every Wednesday at 7pm

• The Midweek Prayer Meeting is continuing to meet using Zoom every Wednesday at 7pm. Use Zoom meeting ID 3894805899. 

Bethel’s YouTube Channel – We are constantly looking for new ways to serve Christ & proclaim the Good News, so we’re posting content on YouTube on a regular basis. If you haven’t seen them yet, check out:

• The latest  Book Recommendation – I Am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainier 

• The latest Message from the Elders

We’ve even put together some playlists of other content you might like. Subscribe to the YouTube Channel, ring the bell to receive notifications, and check back often!

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Update 3/27: Click here for this Sunday's bulletin, and click here for a video update from the Elders

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Update 3/25: Direct Facebook and YouTube links have been added to make it easier to stream services on Sunday. If you have any trouble finding our content, search for "Bethel Greeley" or "Bethel Greeley Live" on Facebook, YouTube, or in your search engine. Thank you to everyone who participated last Sunday. Lord willing, we will follow the same format this Sunday, with a live-streamed worship service. Please join us from home with your family or group smaller than 10. Use the live chat & comment options to encourage one another and build each other up!

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The Church Office will be closed through April 11, with staff working primarily from home. Messages left at the church will be received only occasionally, so please contact staff via text, direct phone call, or email (office@bethelgreeley.com for general questions or aaron@bethelgreeley.com for pastoral concerns) if you need a quicker response. 

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Update 3/18:

Bethel is seeking to respond prayerfully and faithfully to the COVID-19 illness. Check here for church updates, as the situation is changing regularly. If you are not receiving the Bethel weekly newsletter, email office@bethelgreeley.com and let us know that you'd like to be on the list, where we'll have additional information as it becomes available.

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This Sunday, the Worship & Music Team (fewer than 10 people) will stream our worship service live over Facebook and YouTube for all to participate from home. The doors will not be open for in-person attendance. This is a temporary measure. We encourage all other meetings and ministries to meet via phone or internet for now. 

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The Elders will be reevaluating the situation on a week-by-week basis, so please look for weekly updates. 

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The framework within which we are working is, first of all, God’s Word as our foundation and final authority; the prayerful pursuit of Holy Spirit-driven wisdom to apply the Word; the best information we can gather from the medical, scientific, and governmental authorities; and a Christ-focused conscience to help us navigate complicated issues. I ask for your prayers for us and for church leaders throughout the world as we attempt to make Christ-honoring decisions in difficult circumstances.

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Here is our counsel:

• Please join me and the Elders in devoting ourselves to prayer and fasting as we entrust ourselves to the Lord, who is faithful and able to preserve us in time of trial. We are calling for a corporate fast this Saturday, March 21. If you are able to fast, please do so. If your health prevents you from fasting from food, please set aside some other good thing that you regularly partake in. You may remember from our message on Matthew 6:16-18, and from Matthew 9:14-17, that fasting is an act of self-humbling, intended to help give expression to our longing for Christ. On March 21, let’s lift our hearts to the LORD together, fasting as we are able, as we long for Christ to return & destroy death forever. You can listen to the sermon on fasting here, and access the fasting handout here.

• If you have extra time over the next couple of weeks, I encourage you to make a goal of reading through the Psalms, each day considering what your reading reminds you about God, His world, our place in it, and how we should respond today.

• We counsel everyone to abide by the instructions issued by health and government officials to the degree you are able. Those with preexisting health conditions and those above age 60 should avoid gatherings larger than 10 people and limit exposure to crowds or public spaces as much as possible.

• Please reach out to other members & attenders simply to see how they're doing. We may underestimate how many people are feeling alone during this time. Ministry leaders, please make an extra effort to be in touch with your volunteers and ministry participants. 

• If you are in need, please call the church office or the elders. We want to help and pray with you.

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Actions we are taking:

• If the Lord wills, we will broadcast our Sunday morning service live over Facebook at 10:30am this Sunday, and we encourage you to participate live at that time. The goal is to have music, prayer, and the preached Word live, rather than pre-recorded. We are accelerating some A/V upgrades that will make remote viewing easier.

• Everyone who has access to the internet should be able to participate by going to Facebook and searching for “Bethel Greeley”, the name of our new Bethel Facebook page, or by following this link. I encourage you to visit the link in advance and add “Bethel Greeley” to your friends list. If you do not have a Facebook account, we are also in the process of creating other ways for you to view the live stream.

• It is not optimal to meet in this way, because the regular gathering of the Body of Christ is a necessary part of our witness to one another and the world. It is critical to our growth in Christ, and to our encouragement of one another (see Heb 10:23-25). Therefore, we want to make clear that “remote meeting” is a provision for extraordinary circumstances such as illness, physical impediment, or (in this case) the temporary attempt to love our community through protection against serious illness. As one member of our Health Team said, “We should be encouraging all people who are at an increased risk to isolate themselves as much as possible. I think the body can show Christ love the best in times like this through our support of those who are most vulnerable.”

• We encourage small groups to consider whether they will meet to participate on Sunday together. Life Group Leaders should contact their groups and discuss whether or not they will meet for the present. I do not encourage small groups to meet if your members are above 60 years of age, if they are medical professionals, or if they have health issues or other factors that make meeting unwise. Please reach out if you have questions.

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"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
 

Hope in Christ,

Pastor Aaron