Changes to Sunday Gatherings - Effective Nov 22nd

Friends,

As I’m sure many of you know beginning on Monday (11/16) the Governor has updated the public health order in New Mexico to re-lock down the state in response to the current rise in COVID cases.

The public health order will impact “Houses of Worship,” which includes churches, to varying degrees depending on their size as gatherings over 75 people are in violation of the order. This does impact North Church slightly as our 9am gathering in the last few weeks has been over that number while our 11am gathering has been under that number.

I want you to know that we will continue to gather together for Sunday service as we have for the last six months. We have met safely up until now and will continue to meet under the guidelines that we have been safely following. We will continue to stream our services online for those who choose to stay home and/or need to stay home because they are at high risk.
In light of this updated order, the changes to our gatherings beginning on November 22nd will be threefold:

• To manage capacity, we will for the interim move to holding three services on Sunday morning. Services will be held at 8:30am, 10:00am, and 11:30am.
• We ask you all to RSVP for the service that you will be attending on our website so we can track capacity.
• Niños (our children’s ministry) will be offered at the 8:30am and 10:00am services, with 3rd-5th grades offered just at the 10:00am service. There will be one RSVP for the entire family, whether your kids are attending Niños or going into service with you.

Overall, we believe that reducing our gathering capacity is a reasonable request for us to comply with and that we will continue to gather safely as we have done for the last 6 months.
We believe that we can continue to meet together safely and wisely and that continuing to be able to meet together is deeply important for the spiritual, mental, and emotional health of those who are a part of our church.

I also want to reiterate that I know that some of you do not feel that we should comply with this order at all, while on the other hand some of you think we should shut down completely. We are seeking above all things to honor the Lord Jesus by submitting to scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. And then by doing our best to respect the ruling authorities except when their commands contradict scripture. In this understanding, we believe that our decisions are a reasonable and wise, God-honoring, path forward in this contentious time.

As your elders, we know that this time as COVID spikes might be bringing forth fear, anxiety, and other emotions. Please know that you are not alone and that the Lord Jesus knows what you are feeling and is near to you (Ps 34:18). If you’d like to talk with a pastor as you process, we would love to chat with you.

Let us continue to lift up our broken world to our loving Heavenly Father in prayer, asking him to hasten the day when all things will be made new and to sustain us in the work he has for us building his Kingdom with faith and love expressed in good works to our neighbors.

In Christ,
Pastor Ryan on behalf of the Elders