A Few Updates in April 2022
As we approach the beginning of Holy Week, I want to share a few details of things that are happening in the church. First, as Holy Week approaches, there are a few things you’ll want to know. We’ve posted our schedule of services and sent out an Easter letter. If you’d like to see all that we offer in this season go to www.gumc.org/easter. You can also find the Easter letter here.
Another item I don’t want you to miss is the combined service on April 24th at 10am. We have a special guest preacher, the Reverend David Wiley, and afterward, will have some discussion on the future of the church. We’ve taken a congregational survey, had some internal discussions about ministry and staffing; we’ve even looked at a covenant brought to us by the Gracious Reconcilers ministry in the church. It’s important for us to take some time, once or twice a year, to meet together after worship to look at some of these important issues and to hear back from you. I’ll be sharing in detail what we’ve seen and heard so you can share some of your thoughts and get a sense of where we hope to head for the future of the church. If you are in the area, I invite you to be present for this gathering on April 24th. Remember, there will only be one worship service at 10am on that day!
Finally, I’d like to share about an update on our online ministries. Since the Covid pandemic began, Grace UMC has worked at offering alternatives to in-person worship, small groups and missions. Some efforts have been more successful than others, but the church largely handled the changes with grace and poise. When I arrived in July of 2020, the church was about to resume in-person worship. We knew we had to make a change from pre-recorded services to “live” services. This involved a number of steps, including upgrading our system that had become unusable for broadcasting live worship. Much of our system was updated and we made the switch! It wasn’t always smooth, or perfect, but it largely worked, with two caveats. One, was that, when our system was upgraded, one key piece was on back order. Our system sometimes fails catastrophically when that part does not work. This has led to a number of services with a sub-optimal product. The tech team works behind the scenes trying to get things up and running again, but sometimes it doesn’t work. These are the services where almost no microphones work and the online broadcast is poor. Our latest updated is that the part is due to arrive sometime in April. We are very much looking forward to having it installed to bring these problems to an end!
A second caveat to smooth live services online has been a mysterious warning that has appeared in the streaming system for the last 6 weeks. This was the problem that led to several broadcasts of our worship services being cut short and last week no broadcast happening at all! Initially we thought another piece of equipment must have stopped working. Ian, our tech director, coordinated with those who provide streaming services and the folks who installed our broadcasting equipment. Neither group could identify the problem. Finally, the streaming services company told us there have been other churches in New Jersey with the same problem; we might want to check in with our internet provider. So Ian did, and he found that the problem was coming from them. Their equipment was not providing us adequate speeds and it was forcing our broadcasts to end. Ian was able to have them update our system, so we are now in very good shape for Easter! The only missing thing is that last item on back order because of the pandemic.
These last few years have not been easy on many of us. We suffer in large ways and in small ones because of the pandemic, but I want to offer a note of grace. Our church will carry on! We don’t need to force changes to the church in order to find success; the church has already changed because of the pandemic and cultural changes in the last two years. The question is how will we respond? What will we do because of the changes that have already happened around us? As for me, I choose to listen closely to the voice of the Lord. Some will want to do one thing, others another thing, but when we are listening together for the Lord, we will find ourselves united and working toward a common goal. I pray you will reflect on how you can be in tune with Jesus in this Lenten and Easter season, so that you, and Grace, and all of us, together, may grow and thrive as the Lord calls us to. God bless and happy Easter!
— Pastor Brian Neville