A MESSAGE FROM PASTOR TREY ABOUT PROGRAMMING DURING QUARANTINE
Dear Families and Friends of First Presbyterian Church,
We are exploring new ways to be the Church together. God created us to be resilient and adaptive people. We will work together to create good things out of a worrisome time. That’s what the church has always done. Here are few things that we want you to know:
In Person Worship and Activities: All in person worship and activities are postponed until further notice. However, we can worship God anytime and anywhere. We have plans for online worship and you can always visit our worship archives from our website http://www.firstpresbyonline.org.
Children and Youth: As of today, all children, youth, and confirmation activities are on hold. We have already established an online community with Revolution families and we are keeping that alive during this time.
Church Outreach: Our Elders and Deacons have each been assigned a group of church friends. They are the representatives of our church. They will reach out to you several times over the coming weeks just to check in. It may seem like a short phone call to ask how you are feeling about things that week. However, its our way of saying we care about you, because God cares about you. It’s an important way we will stay connected as the church.
Tech Deacons: We have some volunteers who are willing to serve as tech Deacons to help people get online and connected. We will have Bible studies and worship services available, as well as some community chats. I know some of our members say don’t feel comfortable with those things. We are happy to help so we can include you. It is one of the only options we have for socializing face to face right now. It is a joy to help others so now is great time to say yes to learning something new.
Online Programming: I am offering online community gatherings for two Bible studies on Wednesday at 10 AM and 6 PM. We will also have our Wilderness Study: From Pain to Possibility on Sunday’s at 6 PM. You can join any of those using my zoom link https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2372664501. I will also try doing Facebook live simultaneously. Again, one of our tech Deacons will be happy to get you set up and comfortable using these platforms.
Office Closing: We want to discourage people from just dropping by at this time. I don’t like it one bit. Drop-in visitors are the favorite part of my day. However, we want to do our part to keep the community safe. We are glad to schedule appointments, talk on the phone, FaceTime, Skype, zoom, text message, email, and we will keep all lines of communication open.
Helping Neighbors: Our IowaWINs Food Pantry will be giving out Grocery Cards for this month instead of having a food distribution. We are also worried about people coming in off of the street asking for help. We expect this will increase toward the end of the month. We have a sign on the church doors directing those in need to the Fellowship Cup. We donate generously every year to the Fellowship Cup as part of our community tithe and offerings as a church. In fact, we donate well over 10% of our operational budget to benevolent giving. We will continue to do so. We will support our community helping agencies.
Tithes and Offerings: We would ask that you continue to give to the church during this time so we can continue to help and support our community programs and offer programs and support to you. You may mail your checks to 902 S. Walnut St. or give online by clicking this link https://bit.ly/2x46F6I. Again, we want to discourage people from dropping their checks off in person.
Family and Friends: Please keep us informed if you and your family leave town so that we know just in case of worst case scenarios. We especially want to make sure that any people who live alone are being checked on frequently. Please let us know if we can help your family or any of your friends stay connected or if you think of someone who needs us. Also, please invite anyone to join our online events and worship.
We want to stay in touch as best we can. We have some more creative ideas to keep you in touch with each other. We will get to those as time goes by. In the meantime, we will keep praying for this to end with as few lives negatively impacted as possible.
God’s peace and well-being for all,
Rev. Trey Hegar
We are exploring new ways to be the Church together. God created us to be resilient and adaptive people. We will work together to create good things out of a worrisome time. That’s what the church has always done. Here are few things that we want you to know:
In Person Worship and Activities: All in person worship and activities are postponed until further notice. However, we can worship God anytime and anywhere. We have plans for online worship and you can always visit our worship archives from our website http://www.firstpresbyonline.org.
Children and Youth: As of today, all children, youth, and confirmation activities are on hold. We have already established an online community with Revolution families and we are keeping that alive during this time.
Church Outreach: Our Elders and Deacons have each been assigned a group of church friends. They are the representatives of our church. They will reach out to you several times over the coming weeks just to check in. It may seem like a short phone call to ask how you are feeling about things that week. However, its our way of saying we care about you, because God cares about you. It’s an important way we will stay connected as the church.
Tech Deacons: We have some volunteers who are willing to serve as tech Deacons to help people get online and connected. We will have Bible studies and worship services available, as well as some community chats. I know some of our members say don’t feel comfortable with those things. We are happy to help so we can include you. It is one of the only options we have for socializing face to face right now. It is a joy to help others so now is great time to say yes to learning something new.
Online Programming: I am offering online community gatherings for two Bible studies on Wednesday at 10 AM and 6 PM. We will also have our Wilderness Study: From Pain to Possibility on Sunday’s at 6 PM. You can join any of those using my zoom link https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2372664501. I will also try doing Facebook live simultaneously. Again, one of our tech Deacons will be happy to get you set up and comfortable using these platforms.
Office Closing: We want to discourage people from just dropping by at this time. I don’t like it one bit. Drop-in visitors are the favorite part of my day. However, we want to do our part to keep the community safe. We are glad to schedule appointments, talk on the phone, FaceTime, Skype, zoom, text message, email, and we will keep all lines of communication open.
Helping Neighbors: Our IowaWINs Food Pantry will be giving out Grocery Cards for this month instead of having a food distribution. We are also worried about people coming in off of the street asking for help. We expect this will increase toward the end of the month. We have a sign on the church doors directing those in need to the Fellowship Cup. We donate generously every year to the Fellowship Cup as part of our community tithe and offerings as a church. In fact, we donate well over 10% of our operational budget to benevolent giving. We will continue to do so. We will support our community helping agencies.
Tithes and Offerings: We would ask that you continue to give to the church during this time so we can continue to help and support our community programs and offer programs and support to you. You may mail your checks to 902 S. Walnut St. or give online by clicking this link https://bit.ly/2x46F6I. Again, we want to discourage people from dropping their checks off in person.
Family and Friends: Please keep us informed if you and your family leave town so that we know just in case of worst case scenarios. We especially want to make sure that any people who live alone are being checked on frequently. Please let us know if we can help your family or any of your friends stay connected or if you think of someone who needs us. Also, please invite anyone to join our online events and worship.
We want to stay in touch as best we can. We have some more creative ideas to keep you in touch with each other. We will get to those as time goes by. In the meantime, we will keep praying for this to end with as few lives negatively impacted as possible.
God’s peace and well-being for all,
Rev. Trey Hegar