There is not a corner of our city left untouched by the past few months of pandemic.
Even if not directly infected by COVID-19, all of our rhythms of life have been upended. We feel these changes when we go to the grocery store, the café, the gym, the park, and in our church rhythms at Pulpit Rock.
Know that all of our pastors and staff understand how much this is affecting you, because it is affecting us as well.
We miss you! We miss gathering on Sundays with 400 voices singing strong. We miss passing you in the hallway and feeling your smile as we meet eyes. We miss waiting on the toaster at the coffee counter. We miss hanging out in the café and exchanging stories about our week…
But while we all wish for the days before COVID, we must realize that we are still the church; Jesus’ church.
His church is defined by people living on mission together, by maintaining Kingdom rhythms that display a church not only on Sundays, but every day of the week.
We were called “SENT” people by Jesus when He said, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you…” (John 20:21).
This means that our sent-ness doesn’t stop just because we can’t gather like we would prefer. What it really means is that the church is not at 301 Austin Bluffs Parkway. The church, our church, is all around the city… everywhere you look.
During this time of COVID, our community is still present outside the walls of this building.
Home groups are meeting, families are finding neighborhood rhythms and blessing their neighbors, and even we on staff are starting to think about new innovative ways of gathering, not just in one place, but as a dispersed church community.
The beauty of being dispersed is that when the church is all over the city, then the Kingdom is spreading out also.
In early June, we realized this need for smaller gatherings and began experimenting with “micro-gatherings.” These are simply smaller groups of our community coming together for intentional worship, prayer, livestream engagement, and fellowshipping together.
For the month of June, a varying 25-40 people gathered at Third Space Coffee. We experienced a great new rhythm as we did live acoustic worship and connected with our main campus via the live-streamed message each Sunday.
It allowed us to see each other, share common life, common struggles during this time, and also remind ourselves that we are still one church, one community.
We are now experiencing the same great community at FH Beerworks… but with the added benefit of having a great taco truck and brewery open right when our gathering is finishing! We get to eat together at a large community table in the beer garden and share a common meal and conversation.
We would love to help you find one of these small gatherings around our city. Or you may have an interest in hosting a gathering on Sundays or other days/nights during the week!
It doesn’t take any special gifting or training, just being a good host and opening your home. We would love to help equip you with everything you need to host some of our church community and launch a micro-gathering during this time!
Remember, just because we are innovating new ways of gathering, we are still the gathered church. We are simply gathering in locations all around the city.
Everywhere you look, Pulpit Rock is still the church and still present! The Message writes John 1:14 this way, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood…”
Perhaps God is using this time to remind us that we are Jesus to others now.
We are that flesh and blood in our neighborhoods, incarnating the best things of the Kingdom to other people.
Let us move forward in that calling, to be sent, to love our neighbors, to display God’s Kingdom in all the places with live, work, and play.
To be the church…everywhere we look.
