Dear Brothers and Sisters of Gympie Baptist Church,
A lot has happened around our world and in our own nation since meeting with you all last Sunday. As a result of this, the Elders and Deacons met last night to discuss some of the measures we should be prepared to make for the safety and care of you, His people. As a consequence of that meeting, and upon hearing the announcement today by the Government that bans are now in place of more than 100 people, we have decided that we will not meet for worship from this coming Sunday onwards, until further notice.
It saddens us all to have had to make this decision as much as it saddens you to hear it. However, we believe this is not only the right measure to take, but it’s also the most loving action to take given the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Along with this decision, all other meetings will cease for now. This includes Youth Group; all small group bible studies; midweek men’s groups and woman’s groups; and the young adults group.
This also means that the planned Family Service and Easter Services and so on are also now not going ahead, as well as the men’s breakfast. Again let me reiterate how much we will miss these times that we had planned to be together to worship our God.
So now let me bring some good news around what we will be doing and would love you to take up in this different, but unique situation.
Firstly, if you have been a part of any midweek group that has been cancelled please feel free to make contact with the leader of that group to discuss any way in which you may continue to have fellowship or continue with the material in a non-face to face situation.
Furthermore, Pastor Ben and I will continue to prepare and preach messages that will be prepared with your spiritual growth and encouragement in mind. These will be recorded and posted on our website as we have been doing to date. We are also looking at video recording these and posting them online as well.
We are also inviting you to keep in contact with us as regularly as possible via any social media or phone device app that you are most comfortable with. Be that via texting or messenger or simply through the old way of making a phone call. We will be aiming to keep in touch with you all so that we can provide support where needed as well as to pray and listen to what God is doing in your life.
All the leadership team are more than willing to be contacted for this purpose and so I have included names and contacts at the bottom of this email for you to use.
I’m sure some of you will have other questions that come to mind either now or in the coming days. It is our intention to communicate with you all via group email, our website, phone and on our church Facebook. However, the quickest way to get in contact is to directly contact one of the leadership team.
As many of you will know, I had planned to speak on the Coronavirus issue this Sunday, and how this affects us as God’s people here. I still plan to do that and would encourage you to listen to that message which will be posted on our website, as it will contain what I hope to be helpful information on a whole range or areas.
Before I close, could I please ask you to do a few things for us to help care for each other. If you have read this email, could you please think of others who may not have email or who may have email but who may just appreciate a little bit of assurance at this time due to this announcement. That would be great if we could think about sharing and processing what’s been said here, so that we can all care and support each other as we enter into some new ways of fellowshipping.
The second thing I would like to leave you with is the thought that as His people we are just too privileged to panic. God has given us so much in Jesus Christ our Lord that at times like these when people are looking for answers and are prone to fears and doubts, we as his people have the sure promises of his Word.
Words like: 10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10-13).
Or words like: 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” g
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39).
Dear brothers and sisters, God is doing something in our day which will ultimately bring Him glory (Ephesians 1:11-12) and result in us becoming more trusting and more longing for His will and His reign.
This can only be a good thing.
Grace and Peace to you all.
Tony
A contact list of Elders and Deacons who are willing and keen to hear from you is available for our church family upon request.
(A Message from the Church Treasurer)
Dear Church,
Thankyou for you faithful giving to the work of the church. As we not meeting as church for the foreseeable future we still need to be conscious of our giving to support the work of the church and our Pastors. As a general rule approximately 33% of our giving is via the happy buckets on a Sunday morning. Therefore, to ensure we can continue to give there is alternate options for people that usually use the buckets.
- Give electronically. This can be done just for short time until we start meeting again. Bank details are available upon request.
- Give Through Our Giving App
Link to our church website to be able to do this is https://gympiebaptist.org/giving/ - Give directly to the church office.
Someone will be in the office between 9am and midday, Wednesday’s, Fridays and Saturdays.
Again, thank you for you faithful support of Gympie Baptist Church.
Todd
GBC Treasurer