A few people have said that they haven't been receiving my emails. Below is a copy of the email that was sent on Monday 16th March 2020...
Dear All,
If you weren't with us for the service yesterday morning, or if you were out with Babes, Tots or Kids for the sermon, the sermon is now available to listen to on the website or the SoundCloud app. Steve Wilmshurst preached a powerful message from Mark 13 and it would be well, well worth 30 minutes of your time to listen to it...
The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has already had an impact on the people of the Village Church, and it's very likely that it will continue to do so in the coming weeks and (possibly) months. John, Mark and I are talking through a number of ways that we might need to practically respond. This includes the way we communicate. Email is effective but we're also interested in two other channels of communication:
Firstly, we're interested in setting up a WhatsApp broadcast. A WhatsApp broadcast is different to a WhatsApp chat. A WhatsApp broadcast is a way for me to communicate with you, but if you reply to my message it will only be sent to me and not to all the other people on the broadcast list (in other words you won't be bombarded with hundreds of WhatsApp messages!) If you'd like to be added to the Village Church WhatsApp broadcast you need to do two things: (1) You need to reply to this email with your mobile number and (2) you need to add my mobile number to your contacts. If there's enough interest in this idea I'll set up a WhatsApp broadcast at some point in the coming days.
Secondly, we're interested in setting up a live steam. We're aware of a few people who weren't with us for the service yesterday morning because of concerns about the coronavirus, and that number is likely to increase. We would therefore like to make it possible for these people, for as long as we're able to meet at Mangotsfield Primary School, to live stream the service. It's fairly straightforward to live stream but the challenge we face is that don't have access to the WiFi at Mangotsfield Primary School. Therefore, if you have a large mobile data allowance that you'd be willing to use for this purpose I'd love you to reply to this email and let me know. We can then set up a Facebook live stream for the service this coming Sunday.
In the coming days, John, Mark and I will also be talking about how we can effectively care for each other at the Village Church, especially for those who are sick or self-isolating. If you have any ideas about this then please do let us know - we'd really value your contribution.
Finally, here's a helpful article on The Gospel Coalition website: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/things-coronavirus-teach-us/
Warmly in Christ
Jonny
Comments