Over the weekend in our church we took steps to throttle back most of our small group activities. This involved a careful process of working with the leaders of each group or ministry. Here are the updates:

1. Sunday School, Children’s Choir, ZAMARingers, and youth group are suspended for as long as Kent schools are not in session.
2. The Wednesday Lenten program has been cancelled. Rev. Bob Machovec, who was to lead a three-week program called “Caring for the Caregiver” that was to start this week, has agreed to bring the program to us in Lent of 2021!
3. This means that the Wednesday potlucks are also cancelled for the remainder of Lent.
4. Disciple I and Disciple III Bible study classes are suspended until at least March 31
5. The University of Life class is suspended until further notice
6. Our AARP tax help, which was in full operation this past Friday and Saturday with people who had appointments, has suspended operations for at least the near future.
7. The yoga group has suspended its Wednesday sessions
8. Tuesday Night Basketball is suspended until April 14
9. The Scouts have suspended their regular meetings
10. The Farmer’s Market is suspended until further notice
11.  The campus ministry continues programming and student support via remote methods during KSU’s closure
12.  The Rotary and Lions luncheons are suspended
13.  Our Tree City Preschool is in recess for as long as Kent schools are closed
14.  The Kids Kare daycare is currently the largest entity still operating in our building. The governor has indicated that daycare centers across the state will be asked to close soon.
15.  There was no “fellowship time” on Sunday, and that is likewise suspended for the near future, in keeping with the worship changes outlined below.
16.  The previously scheduled dinner with Bishop Malone, scheduled for March 29, has been suspended. We are working on scheduling Bishop Malone for another date.

Yesterday our youth shared a very meaningful worship service, which can be viewed on our website. Kent students were to have one more day of school today (Monday); but that was cancelled at 6:20 p.m. yesterday – part of the ever-changing directives that keep adjusting by the hour! Public school students are presently scheduled to be off until at least April 5, but we anticipate that closures will likely be for much longer. We are gearing in the church for responses that we can sustain for a couple of months, or longer as needed.

Yesterday our largest worship attendance at any of the services was 97 at 10:30, and that was in the very large space of the sanctuary (with no handshaking!). The current Ohio limit is 100, and of course religious services are exempt. Today the news came from the CDC that there is a new nationwide recommendation to limit all gatherings for the next eight weeks to no more than 50. Our aim as a church at this time is to take those prudent measures that will contribute toward public health, and therefore as we move forward we are significantly changing our worship.

We have redesigned our worship with the intention that people will connect with worship digitally, for at least the next eight weeks. Here is the new format:

1. The 8:30 chapel service has been suspended until further notice. Although it often has a bit fewer than 50 in attendance, it is in a smaller space, and we are temporarily moving away from “in-person” worship.
2. A contemporary service will be livestreamed at 9:30 each Sunday. You can access this by going to our streaming site at live.kentmethodist.org. This will look very much like the regular contemporary service, with Scripture, prayers, a sermon, and the worship band sharing the songs.
3. A traditional service will be livestreamed 10:30 each Sunday. While we have posted sermon videos in the past, we have taken steps to be able to live-stream the entire worship experience. Again this can be accessed by going to our website. This will be an abbreviated version of our standard 10:30 service, including Scripture, prayers, and a sermon, with hymns and choir music shared by members of our musical ensembles. There will be no children’s sermon, and elements such as the offertory will be eliminated.

These two worship service tapings will require only a small group of worship leaders – the preacher, some musicians, and the technical people. The building will open on Sunday mornings when we are live-streaming and taping; so anyone who comes to the church will be able to attend either service in what we expect will be a mostly empty gym or sanctuary (plenty of social distance!); but the worship experience will be geared to online viewers.

People who cannot access the internet can get a worship DVD for home viewing. Please contact the church office if you would like to be on a list of people receiving the DVDs.

Please plan to share in worship in a new way! We can connect virtually with online worship, and be spiritually joined even as we are physically separated. As the hymn, “Blest Be the Tie that Binds” puts it, “When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain, but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.” Let us keep gathering in worship, even at a distance, trusting in God together!

Because of the changes in worship, greeters and regular ushers are not needed until further notice. We need only the 10:30 head usher each week, to provide management of the sanctuary as that service is recorded. Sunday School teachers, coffee hour volunteers, child care workers, the 10:30 liturgists and lay readers, and blood pressure volunteers are on break, until we return to normal operations. Our church bus also will not be running.

At the same time, we are in need of new forms of volunteers in these days. We need people who would be willing to deliver worship DVDs to the homes of people who request them. We also have a major new volunteer opportunity organized by Rev. Denton, as follows:

A Way to Serve During the Crisis – Several of our church members who are in health care facilities, or living at home but in compromised conditions, cannot (or should not) receive visitors. However, they need to know that we are praying and caring for them. We can help by agreeing to contact them at least twice a month by card and/or phone call. It can be a prayer; a friendly conversation; sharing a favorite scripture passage. Basically, let them know they are not alone and that we care about them. Sign up by sending an email to dougdenton@kentmethodist.org. Rev. Denton will then make an assignment.

We won’t be passing the plate in worship for the next two months, but your financial support of our church is as critical as ever. You can mail a check (to P.O. Box 646, Kent, OH 44240), or contribute online by going to the online giving page. You can text a gift to 330-277-4026. Or you can simply get the easyTithe app and give through that. Above all, keep the church in your prayers! These are challenging times, but we know that “the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” (Psalm 117:2)

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