Important Announcement Regarding the Next Phase of Sunday Gatherings
Dear Mission Cincinnati,
This week, I had an opportunity to read a short book by Thom Rainer called “The Post-Quarantine Church.” Among many helpful things shared in this little book, Thom did a great job of articulating the incredibly faced-paced and intense amount of change many of us in general and the church in specific have experience in these past months of COVID. “Where you are today in terms of rethinking and retooling your ministries,” Thom writes, “probably would have taken another five years without the coronavirus.” He goes on to say that because of this, “the concept of VISION is changing rapidly in churches, particularly in regard to time frame. Church leaders have been accustomed to communicating a vision that covers 3, 5, or even 10 years. No more. In the post-quarantine era, vision casting will be measured in months.”
I find the notion of measuring vision casting in months to be very true. When I think I back on our experience as a church since the first online Sunday on March 15th, it is clear to me that we have already lived through two distinct leadership seasons as a congregation.
The first season I call the “PIVOT” season. The Pivot season began in March and lasted through June. In these days we transitioned our worship services online, started new ministry teams like our street team, intercessory prayer ministry, and pastoral care team. We gave away thousands of dollars to emergent benevolence needs, and experimented with distributed communion and gathering in home sites.
The second season I call the “PARK” season. It began in July and has continued to the present moment. In these days we entered into an experiment of beginning to meet for in-person worship at the Spencer Overlook in Eden Park. Isn’t it wild to consider that we’ve been meeting here for 13 Sundays?! When we started this adventure, we had no idea what to expect. We didn’t know whether this gathering style would work and whether anyone would come. But church YOU GUYS were bold! You stepped up together, and to date the park space has allowed us to make room to gather more than 70 distinct souls. You’ve welcomed 20+ newcomers into the life of our congregation, you’ve dived into life-giving small-group conversation, and you’ve invested hours and hours in praying for our neighborhood, our city, our world, and each other. As a result, we’ve been able to go DEEPER in our relational life as a church. 10 New Mission Communities have been launched over the past few weeks, you’ve rallied to make meals for families with newborns and unexpected hospitalizations. You’ve prayed and journaled together and made space to seek each other out beyond church programming. We were able to have our first full weekend long men’s retreat as a congregation. You’ve shared the love of Jesus with our city through food pantries, and table fellowship. In short, you are BEING the church! Just like with the PIVOT season, there is SO MUCH to celebrate about the PARK season and I am SO PROUD OF YOU. What began as a faith-filled experiment blossomed into a stunning success that moved us forward as a church family. Well DONE Mission Cincinnati! Well done!
In addition to celebrating what God has done in our midst in these past two seasons, I am excited to share with you that we are standing right now on the brink of a third and NEW season today. We are about to step forward into another faith-filled experiment for how we will gather for worship as a congregation during the colder months of late Fall and winter. Starting Sunday October 25th, we will begin meeting for worship from 9:30 – 10:30 AM at House of Joy Christian Ministries 3220 Central Parkway at the foot of Clifton, just off of I-75. There are many details that will be released in the coming weeks about the practicalities of HOW we will gather, but for right now, let me share a bit about WHAT those gatherings will look like and WHY we have made this decision to transition.
So first, what will these gatherings look like?
In this next season at House of Joy, we will gather for a shortened and simplified liturgical worship service that will feature all of the in-person elements we experienced in our gathering pre-covid including live musical worship, live preaching, Scripture, communion, and prayer. There will of course be new safety and social distancing measures in place to protect our people as we gather, and we look forward to sharing more about what those measures will be soon. We believe we’ll be able to offer a joyful, hospitable, and sacred worship space that will also be safe and enjoyable. House of Joy also has a cry room for parents and babies as well as a beautiful and fully outfit nursery that we are hoping to figure out how to activate to offer a safe and fun nursery experience for our families with toddlers who wish to use it. Our plan is to livestream the in-person service so that our worship remains accessible to those who are not yet comfortable or able to join us in-person in a quality way. Again, more information on all of this will be shared soon.
Second, WHY House of Joy?
1) The weather is changing, and while we have LOVED our park gatherings they will not be practical many of the weeks of the colder months. WE need an indoor location for worship.
2) Many of our people are carrying new burdens personally in this season, and as such we wanted to meet in a space that would not require the same amount of setup and teardown that meeting in the Rec Center required. House of Joy is a church with a great sound system and a beautiful large sanctuary. There will be PLENTY of space for us to comfortably socially distance and minimal need for setup and teardown, while still allowing for a beautiful worship space that also allows us to maintain the deep people focus we enjoyed during the park season.
3) While in a different neighborhood than Evanston, House of Joy is still on the border of the area we have always felt God calling us to as a church, the swath of “Uptown Cincinnati” that runs from UC Clifton to Xavier Norwood. We will continue to care for our Evanston neighbors while also looking forward to new ways to partner in the work that our brothers and sisters at House of Joy are already invested in.
4) We are excited to build on the wonderful relationship we already have with Bishop Todd O’Neal and House of Joy. We have hosted Christmas Eve services together for the past 3 years but have not been able to do much more in partnership as congregations. In a year when many of us are yearning to heal the racial divides in our nation, how beautiful for us to be able to receive and accept the hospitality of a beloved African American congregation who already hosts another Latino congregation as well. The possibilities for Kingdom friendship and shared mission, united in Christ across racial difference that could come from this are many and profound!
5) The beautiful space of House of Joy will allow us to once again live more fully into our value of ancient/future worship in the Anglican Way. We will again be able to sing together. We will again be able to physically come to the Table together. And I can’t wait for that!
6) Finally, as with the Park Gatherings, we want to be clear that this is not the “final” solution when it comes to worship gatherings at The Mission. This is, however our gathering wineskin for the next season, the next best thing that we sense God leading us into. LIke the Park Gatherings it is a faith-filled experiment and we are not certain what joys and challenges it will hold for us. WE are excited that God promises to go before us and be present with us in the stepping out. WE can’t wait to see what He will do in this season and we invite you to step out with us!
Obviously there is much more to be said about this transition. Many of the details are still in the works and we look forward to sharing them with you. For now, here are three ways we need your help:
1) Mark your calendars for Sunday, October 25th from 9:30 – 10:30 AM as the first Sunday of a new season of worship as The Mission Cincinnati at House of Joy!
2) Shu-Li will be reaching out to all of our members and past service team members to see if you are able to serve as an occasional volunteer in worship at these services, and then to schedule our serving teams. Please respond to her as quickly as you can. We are going to do our best to limit the number of volunteers needed, as the work load of what will be involved to pull these services off will be much less than before. Your volunterism is SO appreciated and ABSOLUTELY needed to help us move forward in these days!
3) Parents of toddlers and small kids, Benjamin Thomas will be reaching out to you to learn whether you would like to use the nursery during Sunday services, and what level of safety measures you are comfortable with. Our goal is to serve our families and create a space that will be safe and life-giving for your children, that will also allow you space to worship.
I can’t wait for what God is going to do in our midst as we step into this new season together starting Sunday October 25th.
Grace, peace, and blessings in Christ!
Fr. William