August 3, 2020
Greetings dear sisters and brothers of Freshwaters!
I pray that this letter finds you and your family doing well! Thank you everyone who has been praying, worshipping, and giving of your time and talents to help Freshwaters flow through this difficult time. We are seeking to offer Christ’s life-giving fresh waters through real relationships and refreshment for life now more than ever before.
We resumed in-person worship this past month with our usual 8:30 AM/10:30 AM schedule. We are thankful for all who have come, and we totally understand those who have stayed home and watched online. Between the COVID situation and people’s summer schedules, our worship attendance has struggled with two worship services. The worship committee has prayerfully considered this situation and we are going to offer one “super” worship service starting August 16 at 10 AM for the foreseeable future. We are doing this for the sake of our amazing volunteers and worship team members. It will also allow to focus on one worship service in terms of worship preparation, sanitizing, online/tech support, and ushers. We will still observe social distancing and given our attendance as of late, we should not have any difficulties. We also feel that this will give us a chance to build a greater sense of oneness within our church and congregation. Our hope is that over time we will be able to expand back to two worship services. We will continue to monitor the COVID situation and make adjustments as necessary. We will continue to offer the great worship experience we have all come to expect and draw strength from! It is our desire to offer online and in person worship because we believe that – for the spiritual battles that we are facing – worship is one of the key elements to our spiritual well-being!
We thank you for your understanding and our worship team appreciates your support, prayers, and love! We, as a congregation, offer our thanks to those who have offered us the worship leadership we need to better experience God!
Yours in Christ Jesus!
Pastor Kevin
June 1, 2020
Planning for Reentry for Freshwaters
We are tentatively planning on June 28th or July 5th for in-person worship. We will keep everyone informed via our Facebook page, website, and email.
In the event that the Governor Tim Walz and Bishop Bruce Ough give their okay for us to resume in person worship – we at Freshwaters will take the following precautions.
· We will offer two worship services, 8:30 AM and 10:30 AM, in order to keep the numbers spread out between the worship services. Also, these being our typical worship times will give people a sense of continuity and routine pre-COVID.
· We will encourage physical distancing in worship with people sitting 6 feet apart; spouses/families of course will sit together. We imagine that worship attendance will be under 50 people per worship service.
· We will encourage people to wear masks during worship – we will have masks available for those who do not have them.
· The offering will be online. If people bring in their offering, we will have them place it into the plate rather than passing the plate.
· We will develop a manner of communion in order to reduce possibility of spread of germs.
· People will have access to hand wipes, hand sanitizer -- people will be encouraged to bring their own.
· There will be no coffee hour during the summer months.
· Between worship services there will be a team that will wipe down/sanitize high traffic areas.
· Online worship will be offered for both services for those who elect to remain at home.
· We might attempt to have an outdoor worship service in a park or “drive-in” in the parking lot at the city hall or between Freshwaters and First Congregational Church. To be prayerfully determined!!!
· People are encouraged to wash their hands before coming to worship and after attending worship.
· People need to exercise personal responsibility and if they are sick, they should stay home. If you are nervous about getting sick, please worship online with us from home.