Welcome to West Albemarle

Dear Church Family,

First of all, I hope this email finds you well.  I want you to know that our staff are praying daily for you and we would ask that you pray daily for us.   As you do, know that we are seeking the Lord in every decision and asking for His wisdom and discernment, as we navigate what is unknown to us, but perfectly known by Him.

A few updates to keep you informed:

• Brent and I met with our deacons Sunday afternoon and together we decided that in the best interest of our church family and community, and based on the current requirements by our state leaders, that we will NOT be meeting for the next two Sundays. This also includes all activities through the week.  While this is not a time to be afraid, it is a time to be cautious and enact our absolute faith in God to carry us through.

Let me say, that while no one wants us to gather more than I do, I also want to keep both our church family and community safe.  If we were to gather as we typically do on Sunday morning with over three hundred people, and if someone from our gathering were to test positive for the virus later in the week we would have potentially exposed many people to the virus, who then would have taken it into the community and exposed others.  This could not only be harmful to them, but it would put a tremendous burden on our local healthcare system and those who serve us in our community to keep us well.  In light of that, and in obedience to Christ's command for us to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are choosing to limit potential exposure by canceling our services  at the church building.

This, however, does not mean that the church is closed, just the building.  As we often say, the church is not our building, but our people.  And as God's people this is our opportunity to shine the light of Christ brightly by ministering to our neighbors and community.  As events unfold in the coming days, God will unfold His plan for how we can be His hands and feet in our community.

• During this time while we cannot meet physically, it does not keep us from being able to worship God and stay connected.  We will continue our God Series be providing weekly messages on our website and facebook page.   This will include music, a message as well as key announcements.

•  For those of you with children, you should receive their Lifegroup lessons by tomorrow and we are encouraging family worship times.  To try and keep things as normal as possible, choosing to do the lesson on Sunday's would be a great option.   There is an attachment at the bottom of this email on how to have a family worship time. 

• In the coming days I will be working with Lifegroup leaders to provide ongoing care for all of our members, as well as ways for our groups to be able to meet online either on their computer or ipad or smartphone to go through the lesson. We know this may not work for everyone, so we will be working on an alternative in such cases.  Thank you for being patient with us as we work out the details.

• I also want to encourage you to take advantage of Rightnow Media.  If you are unfamiliar with this resource, it is a subscription video service we pay for that is available to all of our members.  There are hundreds if not thousands of bible studies and even some movies and documentaries that you can watch.  It is easy to navigate and a great resource to have.  If you would like to be able to take advantage of this resource reply to Teresa at teresapope@westalbemarle.com and we will send you an invite to sign up.

• Lastly, I want to mention giving. One of our members asked me yesterday what they needed to do about giving during this time away.  My recommendation was to either mail it in or use online giving at our website at westalbemarle.com or by using online banking.  If you have any questions regarding this we will be happy to help.  Friends, the work and ministry of the church will continue and be even more pressing in the days to come, and faithfulness in this area ensures not only the continuation of our ministry locally, but also our support to missionaries and other ministries in our area.

Family, I will continue to send out emails with updates as information becomes available (I promise they will not be this long!)  In the meantime, let us not grow weary of doing good and let us not lose sight of the One who has called us to Himself who is both our Savior and protector.  Our great God is working and He will bring about good.  He saw this coming and He sees the end of it, and He will surely carry us through.  Let the church glorify Him!!!

God Bless You!

Pastor Adam