{"id":455,"date":"2020-03-19T14:08:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T20:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/?p=455"},"modified":"2021-02-10T08:16:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:16:08","slug":"a-message-for-the-friends-and-church-family-of-gethsemane-baptist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"A Message for the Friends and Church Family of Gethsemane Baptist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am thankful to be able to announce that we will resume our\nin-person services on May the 10<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;\n2020 unless there are unforeseen developments that change the current 4\nphase plan outlined by Governor Little.&nbsp; I\nknow many of you are wondering why we are not starting on Sunday the 3<sup>rd<\/sup>\nof May.&nbsp; The simple answer is we are not\nready yet.&nbsp; I decided to capitalize on\nthe downtime and catch up on cleaning and repair work that has needed to be\ndone for a long time around the church.&nbsp;\nIt has also been an opportunity to upgrade our ability to livestream our\nregular services in a more professional way.&nbsp;\nWhile we will resume services on the 10<sup>th<\/sup> it is not yet\nbusiness as usual at Gethsemane or in our community.&nbsp; My plan for the remainder of May will look\nlike this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For the month of May there will be no Sunday\nSchool, midweek or Sunday evening services.&nbsp;\n<\/li><li>I will continue with the daily devotions on\nFacebook through the end of May at least.<\/li><li>There will be no nursery or children specific\nclasses provided in May. There is just no way to staff them right now since\nmany of our workers are in high risk categories and little kids do not\nunderstand or follow social distancing guidelines.&nbsp; <\/li><li>A livestream will be provided on the big screen\nin the fellowship hall for families with small children that cannot sit for an\nhour in our regular service.&nbsp; If you want\nto take advantage of this, please let us know in advance so we can arrange\nseating for your family. <\/li><li>Our services will continue to be livestreamed if\nyou are not comfortable being in the building yet and we encourage you to take\nthat option if you are in an at-risk population.<\/li><li>There will be no coffee and donuts provided.<\/li><li>Every other pew will be roped off so as to keep\nsocial distance.&nbsp; Families are welcome to\nsit close by each other, but please respect others by not encroaching in their\npersonal space.&nbsp; <\/li><li>It should go without saying, but if someone is\nwearing a mask, be extra careful to respect their decision to be cautious.<\/li><li>We will not collect the offering as we always\nhave, A offering box is in place in the back or the auditorium for you to use\nat any time during your visit. <\/li><li>Even after we return to our normal schedule, I\nencourage you to use Tithe.ly for making your offering as this limits the\npossibility of spreading the virus to our church staff that has to physically\nhandle the checks and envelopes.&nbsp; <\/li><li>You can access Tithe.ly from the church website\nat <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gbcidaho.org\">www.gbcidaho.org<\/a> it is easy, fast and\nsecure.<\/li><li>If you are sick or if you have a child who is\nsick, please stay home and enjoy our services on livestream.<\/li><li>Hand sanitizing stations will be located in the\nentrance and throughout the church building.<\/li><li>The church is disinfected weekly between\nservices with sanitizing wipes and an ozone sanitizer.&nbsp; <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We will add ministries back as we\ncan staff them and stay in compliance with the states requirements.&nbsp; My hope is that by the first of July, we will\nbe back to our normal schedule with all of our regular ministries back in place\nand functioning.&nbsp; I realize many of you\nare not concerned about catching the virus.&nbsp;\nI respect that position but remind you that many others are\nconcerned.&nbsp; The only way to make everyone\nfeel safe is to maintain the social distancing rules even if you are not\npersonally concerned about catching the virus.&nbsp;\nLet\u2019s do our best to look on the needs of others and not make anyone feel\nunsafe in their church by not respecting their choices concerning personal\ncontact.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One last thing, I know this has\nbeen a trying time for all of us, and I realize there have been inconsistencies\nand controversies every step of the way as our nation has responded to this\nvirus.&nbsp; There is much to talk about as a\nnation and as a state concerning all that has happened in the last month or so\nconcerning the handling of the stay at home order.&nbsp; But\u2026.when we meet together, let\u2019s put all that\ncontroversy aside for a moment and worship God together and praise His name for\nHis faithfulness instead of rehashing the politics of the day.&nbsp; Looking forward to seeing you soon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Christ\u2019s Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We desire to protect our loved ones and honor our commitment as citizens of this great country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbcidaho.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}