April is highlighted by Easter at Shades and Global Impact Celebration, but there are more exciting things happening here! In his weekly update, Pastor Danny looks down the road with us. Take a look!
Hello Church!
Spring is officially here—it says so on the calendar and the pollen proves it! In just a couple of weeks, we will be celebrating Easter together--the defining holiday on the calendar of Christians, when we celebrate the empty tomb and our risen Savior. Easter Sunday, we will have three services—8:00, 9:30, and 11:00. All will be in-person and available on livestream. We will not have Sunday School that morning, but there will be worship care and children’s worship at 9:30 and 11:00.
As a bonus our discipleship team has put together all kinds of resources for families to use throughout these next few weeks—for students, there are special Easter-related devotions available in print and online; for preschoolers and children, there is a packet of holy week activities explaining Christ’s journey to the cross; and for everyone, there is a series of podcast interviews with our ministers of preschool, children, special needs, students, and equipping. You can find links to all these resources at shades.org/easter.
Easter is all about the transformative hope we have in Jesus, and we want EVERYone to hear about it! So look around you. Find that person who needs to hear about Jesus. Invite them to join us for Easter here at Shades. The worship will be special and the message life-changing!
That next week, on Sunday April 11th, we will begin to implement a few adjustments to our COVID safety protocols. As you know, over this last year, we have monitored things closely, listened to state and local leaders, and consulted experts from our own church family as we have strived to find ways to worship and do ministry safely. And it has worked! You all have been cooperative and flexible and have really cared for one another. And now that the governor has relaxed restrictions and given the growing number of people getting vaccinated and the significant decline in COVID cases in our area, we will move forward with two changes:
We are grateful we’ve been able to find a way to keep people safe while continuing to connect with each other and with our community. We are still going to keep a close watch on things and will let you know of other changes as they are confirmed.
Last thing. GIC – Our 20th Global Impact Celebration is just 3 weeks away! And we are so excited to REFOCUS—to put our eyes on God and the people he wants to reach here and around the world. During GIC we will celebrate 37 missionary units and church planters. I hope you’ve got your GIC Prayer Guide somewhere handy and are already praying for each of these folks by name! They have let us know specific ways we can pray for them and they have also let us know of specific needs they have for their ministries. Those ministry needs are on displays in the Worship Center lobby on the main level and on the balcony level. Be sure to pick one up before or after church on Sunday and return it before GIC.
This Sunday will be another great day of worship at Shades as we continue our Refocus sermon series. As far as I know Big Daddy Weave will not be here, but I will be, and I look forward to seeing you—either in person or online!