COVID-19 Update from Pastor Don
June 26, 2020
Dear Church Family,
As FUMC Denton continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, our staff and lay leaders are in continued conversation about what next steps may be. The last time we communicated with you, we promised to reevaluate at the end of June. Now, the end of June is upon us and unfortunately, we have seen an increase in coronavirus cases instead of the drop we were hoping for. While we are so looking forward to gathering with you all again, we believe it is our responsibility to answer the calls of our Wesleyan faith to do no harm, to do good, and to stay in love with God. Reopening the church right now has the potential to cause much harm, and while we know we can never fully control the spread of sickness in our church, we can listen faithfully to the guidance of experts and act in a way that brings the most good to our community. With our great love for you, our congregation, and the greater Denton community in mind, we have decided to remain closed until we have seen a significant and consistent drop in cases.
When we sent out the survey last month, we heard the 70% of you who said you would not be ready to return to in-person worship when we reopen. We also heard the other 30% of you who said you trusted our church leadership to make the right call and that you would we back with us as soon as possible. We want you to know that we are continuing discussions on how to create more opportunities for fellowship and connection in the coming months. Please stay tuned.
If you haven’t worshipped with us in a few weeks, I invite you to give us a try again online. Our staff and volunteers continue to work hard to reimagine online worship and the improvements have been simply amazing. Each week has improved upon the last week and we’ve all been stretched and learned new skills we would have never thought we’d need. And we promise the best is yet to come. You can always watch live and past services at fumcdenton.com/live or on our Facebook page.
Our church has always responded faithfully in times of crises, and we want to celebrate and share the special ways we’ve seen this during our time apart:
On our first online-only Easter service, you still came together to raise $11,060 for ODIM Guatemala & the Denton Community Food Center.
Our choirs have mustered up the courage to submit solo videos to create greater, collective virtual anthems.
Our pastors have adapted to preaching to empty rooms.
Our United Methodist Women worked together to send cards of encouragement to the boys at the Gainesville State School.
Our Youth Ministry has found ways to still learn and play together.
Our Children’s Ministry has come up with a creative summer series complete with missions and crafts for families to participate in from the safety of their homes.
We’ve seen creative art and music, Sunday School classes grow in numbers, and groups still finding ways to be in friendship and fellowship together. And you have shown up week after week remind us that the church isn’t the building—it’s all of you. We are forever grateful for this reminder. You give us great hope.
As always, it is a joy to be your pastor and to witness the life of this incredible congregation. Thank you for all of the ways you shine God’s love into every life and for your continued support and prayers for our beloved faith family.
Peace & Thanks,
Don