July Outside

For the month of July, our 10:00 am service will be held entirely outside, rain or shine, in a tent behind the church. July 3 will be our traditional ecumenical service, where four churches gather together for worship in a larger tent behind the parsonage yard. The remaining four Sundays will be held in the tent immediately behind the fellowship room. We hope the outdoor option will foster in-person attendance for those who are local and able. 

For the sake of technical simplicity, the outdoor services will not be live streamed. However, we will also offer a 30-minute Zoom chapel service Sundays at 8:30 am during those same weeks. That offers us the next-best thing to in-person gathering: the ability to be seen and heard as we worship. View Zoom connections.

Outside worship features (10:00 am):

Choose-your-own hymns. Each week, we’ll bring a different hymnal outside. Opening and closing songs will be chosen by the congregation and sung a cappella. 

BYO Bible. Without slides or pew bibles on hand, we’ll take some time to look things up the old-fashioned way—in our very own bibles! Worship assistants will not be assigned ahead of time. Consider volunteering to come to the mic.

Lessons with the prophets. We will spend June, July and August reading through texts from the Hebrew Scriptures, reacquainting ourselves with Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. For our July services, Pastor Jen will provide some background on the prophet and the text, and we’ll share with our near neighbors how these voices resonate (or not!) in our own times.

Online worship features (8:30 am):

BYO Bible. Bring your preferred translation (or open a second web browser!) to read along with the text. As time allows, we may share from more than one translation.

A time to share questions. Have a question or comment on the scripture? Now is your chance to share with the group, or challenge Pastor Jen to do some extra research!

Focus on prayer. We’ll share our own joys and concerns as well as intercessions recommended by various churches for the appointed Sunday, keeping us ever mindful of the needs and callings beyond our own remembering.