As we head into a period of even greater uncertainty in our country and world, some things haven't changed. Humans desperately need connection with God and each other. Of course, "social distancing" makes connecting with others particularly difficult.
To help us maintain "face-to-face" community in a time of social distance, we're going to try out a virtual church building for our Bible studies and Sunday worship, until we're able to return to actually gathering face to face.
What is a virtual church building? It’s a Zoom videoconferencing room that allows us all to see one another and see and be seen and talk to one another. You can connect to it from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. All you have to do is click the link: Resurrection Virtual Building and go from there (more technical details at the bottom).
While it’s not really the same as actually being face to face, my hope is that this will help carry us through as we seek to love our neighbors well (by keeping distance) and obey our civil authorities. All VB rec centers have closed for the next two weeks and state and local officials are strongly discouraging any type of gatherings.
We’ll have three “open” meetings in the virtual building:
Monday night Bible study at 7 PM – studying Joshua
Thursday night Bible study at 7 PM – studying Mark
Sunday worship at 11:15 AM
It may be that for some of you, this is the chance to try out Bible study or Sunday worship when you haven’t been able to make it in person before. Anybody is welcome at any of these times, and even if you can’t make it right on time, feel free to join in late.
In addition, I *think* that you should be able to click the link and get into the building at any time, so if you want to use it to “meet up” with others at other times during the week, feel free! Just call or text a friend or two to suggest a coffee date at the church, make your own coffee, and click the link.
The strength of our church community is really not in the quality of our “programming.” Rather it’s in the reality of our care for and connection with one another. That’s why I’ve chosen a virtual platform that emphasizes us connecting with one another rather than focusing on one or two people “up front”.
I hope you’re able to join together as much as possible and even invite others in to experience this taste of our community while we look forward to gathering truly face to face again as soon as we are able.
Blessings,
Pastor Jimmy
Technical Details
Click the same link for all meetings: Resurrection Virtual Building
This may seem new and strange for some, but I actually use Zoom frequently to teach test prep classes online and it really works quite well
If you’ve never used Zoom, it will ask you to download a launcher. However, you do not have to download. If you can’t or don’t want to download anything, you can join directly in the browser
That said, it works better and you have more options if you do download the launcher
When you enter the room, your microphone will be on but video will be off by default. Look for the button to turn on your video; also make sure your own volume is up so you can hear others.
The best Zoom experience is on a decent-size screen in a quiet room so you can easily hear and be heard. However, I encourage you to join in whatever way you can.