Hello, I’m Dave Barton and I serve on the Board of Church Governance at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church.
The Board, and the Staff, have been having some deep discussions on how best to proceed with our Sunday morning services in light of the most recent changes to Public Health Orders in Manitoba. Many of you have shared your thoughts and concerns, which we greatly appreciate. Even more, we appreciate your prayers as we seek God’s guidance in discerning the best way forward.
Up front, I would like to remind you that we are the church and we are not defined by the building we meet in nor the type of service we have on a Sunday morning. Whether meeting in a building or online, we are still the body of Christ called to love one another and to be salt and light in this world. At Whyte Ridge Baptist we’ve defined our mission as “making and nurturing followers of Jesus through healthy relationships”. I encourage us to maintain this mission focus as we persevere through the challenging, and ever-changing Public Health Orders.
At a special Board meeting on December 21, we determined that our way forward needed to answer four primary questions:
- What is the right thing to do? Guided by Scripture, what decision would best honour God?
- What is the loving thing to do? Guided by Jesus’ example, how would our decision demonstrate our love for one another?
- What is the best way to “include” everyone with our decision? We don’t want anyone feeling left behind or left out.
- What is the best means to unite (rather than further divide) our congregation? We are already sensing divisions within our congregation – how can we best draw people together?
We don’t believe there is an easy answer to any of these questions, but in sharing the different perspectives of board members, which actually reflect the diversity of opinion within our congregation, we prayed that God would guide us to a solution that best answers these four questions, and which all Board members could support.
We encouraged one another to be creative in suggesting possible solutions and after much discussion we decided to set up a rotating schedule of checking vaccines on one Sunday and not checking vaccines the following Sunday. On the Sundays where we check vaccine status we can have 50% capacity. On the Sundays we don’t check (which we refer to as Open services), we can have multiple cohorts of 25 people, up to a maximum of 25% capacity. Staff and volunteers will be tasked with sorting out the logistical challenges of the Open service (how many cohorts can we safely accommodate, how do we keep them separated as they enter/leave the building, how do we stream the service to different groups in different rooms, etc.). We realize that this plan is less than ideal, but in reality there is no ideal plan that perfectly answers our four questions. We pray that the love and unity we’ve experienced as the Board would spread throughout the congregation as we each lovingly sacrifice our own desires to better include everyone and truly consider the needs of others.
In the midst of the Christmas holiday season, we believe it is unreasonable to expect these logistical details to be sorted out immediately and have therefore determined that for the first three Sundays of January our services will be livestreamed only, with no in-person attendance. This will give us time to plan and prepare for the first in-person service on January 23, where we will be checking vaccine status. When the call comes for more volunteers to execute this short-term plan, please consider how you could contribute.
More details will be shared in the coming weeks as plans are refined and finalized. We would also encourage you to maximize other opportunities to meet and worship together. Even during the coming weeks when church is online, you could join together with friends or neighbours for a Sunday morning watch party to worship in smaller groups. We encourage you to stay connected throughout the week, with your LifeGroup, your Neighbourhood Group, Ministry Teams or informal gatherings. If you don’t have a group, please consider joining a Discipleship Group as they are established in January.
In closing I want to encourage all of us to remember that we are in a spiritual battle, against Satan and the forces of darkness. We are called to pray for our government, our society and for one another. In our spiritual battle, Scripture is a weapon (the Sword of the Spirit) but it is a weapon against Satan, not against other human beings. I pray that in humility, we will rally together in this time of testing, with our focus on Christ and how we can serve Him together. The world will know we are His disciples by our love for one another.
I thank you all for your words of encouragement and especially for your prayers. I can assure you that our collective prayers were a difference maker for our Board meeting and I believe they are the key to seeing us through the coming weeks.
Just a reminder that we have two services on Christmas Eve, one at 4 PM where we will be checking vaccine status and one at 6 PM where we will not be checking vaccine status. There are a few seats still available for each service and you can go to our church website to register. The 4 PM service will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, then made available on our website for later viewing.
On behalf of the Board and Staff, I wish you all a blessed Christmas, full of His peace and joy.
Dave Barton
Moderator – Board of Church Governance, Whyte Ridge Baptist Church
