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Q: Why on earth would you interview yourself?
A: I do a lot of thinking, reflecting, and praying where my conversation is with myself and God, so I thought I would offer a window into what that conversation sounds like.
Q: How was your vacation?
A: Thanks for asking. Our time away was filled with family time, and as much as I love time with my many friends, there is no one I would rather spend hours with than my wife, my three children, their spouses, and my six grandchildren. I am grateful that one of my sons shares ownership with us of another home in a resort area on the Iowa/Minnesota border called Okoboji, and we love going there. The whole family meets up each year at the end of July.
Q: Now that vacation is over, what are you giving attention to at church?
A: Guiding our church through these unusual times has been, and continues to be, a big challenge.
Q: In what way?
A: We are trying to find a balance between providing much needed spiritual input and caregiving for each of our congregants, and at the same time offer protection from a virus that specifically targets people over 65 – which is basically our church!
Q: The safest way to provide safe spiritual care and encouragement is to offer online services. Why not just do that?
A: I believe we are created to be social people. We all need interaction with others, and as Christians we are instructed to assemble together, to build one another up, pray for and care for one another. That doesn’t happen when we isolate in our homes.
Q: Are you saying that everyone should come to the church building?
A: No, clearly some are at greater risk and must take extra precautions, and of course sick people should stay home until they are well, just like always. But I believe that even if we are sitting in our cars or golf carts six feet away from each other, or 10 feet away inside a worship center, there is a necessary interaction that stirs our hearts and is good for our spiritual and mental health. Outdoor services at The Grove have created an amazing alternative for our church, but summer heat makes them more uncomfortable. Renting Grace Tabernacle on Saturday evenings provides a large space where those attending can have as much social distance as they want. We have been seeing attendance of between 100-150 in a space that holds 600.
Q: So why not move inside at the Woodridge Campus? Back inside that is. With our starting and suspending, do we appear indecisive?
A: I would rather say "nimble." We have taken our cues from what is going on in our nation, state, and specifically, our three-county area. As numbers of COVID-19 cases rose significantly, we decided to do our part to slow the spread. But now that new cases are diminishing, we want to open back up.
Q: What are the details?
A: Our first service at Woodridge will be live outdoors this Sunday at 8:30, but anyone can come inside the Worship Center to participate. Our second service will be live inside at 10:30 (not 10:15), but anyone who wants can participate at The Grove, where the service going on inside will be projected on the Jumbotron.
Q: Why change the service time? It becomes more confusing!
A: We need to push back the service time from 10:15 to 10:30 for two reasons. We will move into the Worship Center and do proper sanitizing with our safe, non-chemical, saline solution between services, and we need to allow enough time so we can fully sanitize before the next group of people enter the room. We also need time to move musical equipment from outside to inside and reset for our worship team.
Q: Should we require face masks at our inside services?
A: Wow – like I said, it is hard to navigate this unusual time we are in. So many opinions exist within our church family. Some say absolutely we should require face masks. Others say absolutely not, we should not require face masks! I don’t want our ushers and greeters to become mask police. What should they do if someone refuses to wear a mask? Or they have a mask but it is not the “proper” mask? Or they wear their mask into the Worship Center but then take it off when they sit down? Or they pull their mask down under their nose or under their chin? It’s complicated! So, we ask people to wear a mask. Masks are encouraged. But masks are not required. We have seen almost everyone wearing masks into the Southern Oaks services and keeping them on in the foyer – but most take them off inside the Worship Center. As I said, there is room to spread out, more room than at Woodridge, so we believe that everyone can find their comfort level.
At our church you can worship online at home. You can worship outdoors at The Grove, either in your vehicle or sitting in a chair at a safe distance. And you can worship indoors either at the spacious Southern Oaks Campus or the very sanitized Woodridge Campus. You can enjoy a live worship service on Saturday evenings at our Southern Oaks Campus, or worship during two different time slots on Sunday mornings at our Woodridge Campus.
Q: What about restarting the Saturday service at the Woodridge Campus?
A: You’re wearing me out, Chris! I have always been more driven by adding services out of necessity (we’re out of room) rather than simply to provide more convenience. Adding one more service for all of our volunteer groups as well as our musicians and tech people creates extra demands. We have to be careful not to wear out the great volunteers we have – and summertime leaves us a bit thin with regard to the number of volunteers available to us. So I think "not" on restarting the Saturday afternoon service at the Woodridge Campus. Not yet. I know that the “northerners” in our congregation would prefer a closer Saturday option, but we have plenty of room at our Southern Oaks location at 5:30, and I would suggest that they take a Saturday drive. It is the same preaching and the same music that we offer at the Woodridge Campus.
Q: Will people think I made all of these decisions?
A: I hope they know that I rely on the council of many. All of these decisions have been discussed and prayed over with the staff and the Elders. We met in a joint session on Monday and a vote to move forward with our new plan was taken. We are moving forward together and praying for continued unity in our fellowship.
Q: That’s a lot of serious thinking. What brightens your day?
A: No new COVID-19 cases reported in The Villages today! I pray that the trend continues. I am also thankful that as far as we know, we have had only five people in our congregation who have tested positive – and we praise God that they have all recovered. I pray that the people of Live Oaks Community Church will be physically safe and healthy, and spiritually alive and well.
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