A Pretty Good Friday

After being physically closed for over a year, it was a blessing to reopen church today, on Good Friday. With real live people. 

Sure we still televised the service and streamed it online as we do every week, but today we had about 50 people in the pews to lend their voices, their presence, their prayers to the service. So nice!

Obviously, there's a still a pandemic going on. So we decided to open in baby steps. For now, parishioners must sign up ahead of time to be included in the maximum crowd size of 50 per service. I got to serve as "greeter" today. It usually involves welcoming everyone at the door and exchanging hand shakes and hugs. But today I greeted them with digital thermometer and, if they were fine, I checked them in on the list. 

The ushers then sat them in a socially distanced pattern in the pews. Everyone I welcomed today was 100 percent willing to follow any protocol – just happy to be there and worship in person, even for the most solemn service of the church year. 

In the quote above, it talks about painful things. For a lot of people, the situation of not being able to attend church in person wasn't exactly painless. It's a challenge to not see your church family in person, really feel God's presence, or experience the same tangible spirit and joy while worshiping, too.

That's why it's so good to be back! 

Our reopening really is perfectly timed to take place on a holiday the both reminds us of pain and how love heals that pain. 

Not convinced? Wait 'til Sunday. You'll know what I mean.