Dear Church Family,

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God is not only God of our destination, He is also the God of our journey! It’s pretty obvious that He has been consistently caring for our church family through this unique time and has radically met our needs way beyond our expectations. We have every reason to thank God for His goodness through uncertain days.

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Your Pastors and Leaders have been carefully monitoring the physical, governmental and legal realities of Covid-19 to come up with a regathering strategy. Our prayer is to provide an environment of personal safety and sincere worship when we get back together. This past week we finalized a phase-in approach to our re-gatherings with two of the phases targeting specific dates for reuniting

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May 31st – Small groups to begin meeting in homes. Guidance will be given to make these safe and encouraging environments. If you aren’t in a group … now is the time!

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June 14th – Two Identical Sunday Morning services at the church facility (Tentatively 9AM and 10:30AM). We have a safety and service team developing reasonable protocols for our services to help care for the health of our church family. This will be for Sunday worship services in the auditorium only. No Sunday school or children’s ministry will be provided at this time.

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Having now shared these target dates, please read all of these important thoughts:

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If you are or care for others that are at higher risk to be gravely impacted by the virus, please stay at home. Our initial priority is for the safety and care of our church family. There is no guilt or judgment for those that feel they need to stay home from small groups or our church services at this time. We love you and know that you would make the best decisions for your health.

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Our “Church at Home” online Sunday ministry will continue. We are making technological purchases and adjustments to bring our Sunday services to your home through live streaming. We want to keep our church family together, especially those who can’t make the services in the facility at this time.

Although there is a current allowance by our government to assemble, we are waiting until June 14th so that we can have all appropriate protocols, supplies and teams fully engaged. We take seriously the need to shepherd both physical and spiritual needs.

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Our June 14th date gives us nearly a month to monitor any impact from our regional partial reopening initiated by Governor Whitmer. This date can be adjusted if there is a significant surge of virus confirmations in our area.

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Our re-gathering is not a political statement. Prayer, discussion and research have driven our decisions – not politics. Our hope is to remain respectful of our elected leaders, both State and Federal, and advance in a way we believe God is leading us.

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We have heard and read nearly every thought and suggestion about Covid-19 and re-gathering strategies and know it will be impossible to make everyone happy on every decision and protocol we establish. As a church, we will need to work toward unity and love for each other through this process. “By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - Jesus

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In all this, please know that love for God and love for you is behind every decision we make. Also, realizing that God, not our plans, is the one in whom we trust, please continue to pray with us for God’s direction as we prepare to reconnect.

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With love, on behalf of our leaders,

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Brian K. Conover

Lead Pastor, East Bay Calvary Church