SW Church Together Again
By Greg Lunsford--
This Sunday we are joining our brothers and sisters of Riversgate, Missio and Multnomah Presbyterian for SW Church Together. It will look different than it has in years past, but we still wanted to stay connected as faith communities.
During the COVID-19 season Pastors Andy, Dominic, Danny and myself have still been meeting regularly to hear about how our churches our doing and to pray for one another. It has truly been uplifting to have churches work together for the common goal of sharing Jesus with our neighborhood. It has reminded me of Paul’s words in Philippians 2:1-2:
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
It is great to be in partnership with such great brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage one another in Christ, to comfort and love, to lean on each other during struggles, and to celebrate with the full family of God.
However, as I mentioned, the SW Church Together service will look a bit different this year. All of our churches are meeting in different ways and at different times during this season. Missio and Multnomah Presbyterian are still meeting via Zoom on Sunday mornings, Riversgate is still prerecording their services, and we are having in-person gatherings along with streaming.
So how do we do SW Church together…but separate?
Well, that is the question the four of us pastors wrestled with. The desire is to keep it as a celebration service together but without causing too much disruption for all the churches.
As we bounced ideas off one another, here is what we have settled on. This week the SW Church Pastors will all gather and record us all discussing what have been the biggest struggles and biggest victories during this season. Each church will play the video in the unique ways that they are gathering as churches.
For GPBC, we will still gather and have live worship at church and live streaming for our 9:00 am service on Facebook and YouTube. We will play the video during the service and spend some time in prayer after the video is played, praying for all the churches and brothers and sisters in SW Church.
So, this Sunday, come expecting to celebrate all that God is doing in SW Portland! Come ready to pray! Come ready to worship!