Letter and Survey from Pastor Chris - August 13, 2020
The following letter was mailed to the Trinity family on August 13, 2020. To take the survey mentioned in the letter, tap this link.
Dear Trinity Family,
In the early days of the pandemic, when we made the heartbreaking decision to extend our suspension of in-person activities through Easter, I had every hope that we would be able to celebrate together again as a whole Trinity family sometime over the summer. Surely, I thought, we would be back by July. As we now know, that hope was misplaced. We are now entering our sixth month of pandemic response here in the Ozarks.
Today I want to share with you a bit of information about Trinity’s response to the pandemic and ask for your help as we look to the coming months.
Since the early days of the pandemic we have striven to base our decisions on the best guidance and information available. Each week I take part in the Springfield-wide Have Faith Initiative call, where leaders in our local faith community hear the latest updates from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and other civic leaders. Our Health Advisory Team regularly reviews the latest guidance from the CDC and other public health agencies. As new information becomes available we review our plans and procedures. Our goal is to remain an active and vibrant community of faith while also taking seriously the need to keep our congregation and broader community safe. Part of that goal is clear communication, and so today I want to share some news that might be hard to hear.
It is very possible that we will not resume large-group, Sunday morning worship until sometime near Easter of 2021. Our Trinity leadership has decided that we will not return to in-person, large-group, indoor worship until there is a widely-available vaccine or some other development that significantly reduces the risk to our congregation. Over the past month the information we have received from both the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and the Infectious Diseases Departments at both Mercy and Cox hospitals has been consistent: the best case scenario for a widely-available vaccine is sometime in the Spring of 2021.
As Clay Goddard, our local health director, has said many times: without a vaccine the only preventative measure we have against this pandemic is human behavior: wearing a mask, maintaining physical distance, and avoiding high risk activities. Unfortunately, as case studies across the nation continue to demonstrate, indoor, in-person, public worship is a high-risk activity.
I have shared before that I want few things more than a return to Sunday morning worship in the sanctuary; I miss you all dearly and I know you miss one another. However, one thing I want even more than a return to in-person worship is to know we are taking the necessary steps to keep our congregation and wider community safe.
Since the reality before us is one where our “normal” way of doing life and ministry together may not return for a long time, I have been working with our staff and leadership to consider how we can keep being an active and vibrant community of faith amid the pandemic. While we may not be able to return to large-group worship for some time, we are exploring what it might look like to hold other in-person activities in ways that are safe. This is where you come in!
Over the past five months your staff and leadership have been engaged in a great work of improvisation. We have sought to develop new ways of worshiping, studying, and serving together. We have made it our goal to experiment, learn, and adapt. This has meant developing new skills, learning new technology, and making some mistakes. I am proud of the work we have done, but I know we can do and be better. To do that, however, we need your help. There are two things I would ask of you today:
Pray. Scripture teaches us to be bold in lifting up our needs before God. In this time of turmoil in our common life we need to lift up one another, our community, our nation, and our world in prayer. Pray for wisdom, discernment, and endurance as we seek to be people of the Kingdom.
Share Your Feedback. I want to know how you have experienced the life and ministry of Trinity over the past five months, and I want to hear your thoughts on how we can be even better in the months to come. I have put together a survey to help evaluate our response to the pandemic and the work we are doing. I would ask every member of your household, including children and youth, to complete the survey. Your responses will be tremendously helpful in our planning for the months to come. I anticipate the survey will take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete on average. Please submit your survey responses no later than Monday, August 31, 2020.
The best way for you to take the survey is online. Tap this link to take the survey.
If you don’t want to take the survey online, please contact the office. We will gladly mail you a physical copy of the survey for you to fill out and return. To save resources we are only mailing a paper copy of the survey to those who request one.
Friends, I am deeply grateful to be your pastor in these hard days. I am grateful for the work we are doing together. I am grateful for the community we continue to build over Zoom gatherings and in parking lot concerts and through notes of support and love. I am grateful for the worship that connects us in the holiness of our living rooms and kitchens and back gardens. I am grateful for the ways we continue to love and serve the least of these in our midst. Most of all, I am grateful for you.
When Lewis and Clark set out to explore the Louisiana Purchase everyone knew you could canoe to the Pacific Ocean; it was an accepted scientific fact. As the Corps of Discovery reached the headwaters of the Missouri River, they saw a ridge ahead of them and they knew when they reached the top they would look down on the ocean. However, as they crested the ridge, ahead of them was no ocean, but rather the Rocky Mountains. Everything they had prepared for, the journey they thought they were on, changed in an instant. After all, you cannot canoe the mountains. We, too, are on a changed journey. The maps that have guided us will no longer show the way. Importantly, however, we are not alone on this journey. We have amazing traveling companions, and the leader of our expedition, Jesus Christ, is the creator of the mountains we are crossing. We need not fear.
Wishing you Grace and Peace,
Rev. Christopher Miller
Pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church
Springfield, MO
PS - The story found in the last paragraph is based on Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory (Expanded Edition) by Todd Bolsinger, ©2018 InterVarsity Press. Rev. Bolsinger is a Presbyterian pastor and seminary vice-president in California.
