COVID-19 Update
Updated March 18, 2020
Dear Church Family,
The clergy and lay staff of First United Methodist Church of Denton are praying for you during this current crisis. Just like all of you, we are making day-to-day adjustments here with the new realities of social distancing, shutdowns, etc. As you know, church leadership decided to take worship online rather than risking possible exposure to our congregation. And our first foray into that new way of doing church went very well last Sunday. If you didn’t join us for worship, please consider doing so this Sunday. You can connect to any of the four services that are live streaming at fumcdenton.com/live.
Even though the activities here at church are taking new, digital forms, regular expenses still apply—including staff salaries, missions, apportionments, utilities, debt service, property and liability insurance, etc. Also, we have temporarily closed our CDO and FunStop programs but we have committed to pay our hourly workers so that they can continue to support themselves and so that we have a staff ready to work when we can re-open.
As you can imagine, when folks don’t have the opportunity to get together for worship, they are unable to give their offering as they usually do. While many of our congregation take advantage of recurring bank drafts and online giving, we still rely heavily on the generosity expressed through the weekly in-person offering. During this time apart, we are asking our generous members who normally bring their offering to church each week to consider other alternatives. You can mail your check to the Business Office here at the church. But you might also consider using our online giving platform. This tool is easy to use and very accessible—all you have to do is visit https://onrealm.org/fumcdenton/give/support-the-budget. You will see a simple form that allows you to choose Estimate of Giving or Contributions as the dropdown options—these are the two fund categories for our annual budget. You have the option of giving once or setting up a recurring contribution using your credit/debit card or electronic check. If you are already using this tool, thank you!
While we are asking for your help, we also want to know of any special needs you might have. Over the next few days, staff and volunteers will be reaching out to as many members as possible to see how you are doing and if there are needs that we are not currently aware of. You can also fill out our online COVID-19 help request form.
During this time of doing church differently, we call on all of our members to be in prayer for our church, our city, our state, our nation and the world as we all work together to overcome this disease. Stay safe and know that God’s love and grace is always with you.
Grace and Peace from the Clergy and Staff of FUMC Denton