Re-Entry to In-Sanctuary Worship

Happy Easter Monday!! We are thankful for a wonderful Holy Week and Easter Sunday this past week. It was so good to see many of you in-person and have many of you join us online! It truly feels like a celebration as we excited to announce that we will be returning to in-person worship in our sanctuary!!  None of us would’ve predicted that we would worship online, outdoors, and remotely for over a year! It has been challenging to say the least, although we can’t help but notice the many positive things that have RISEN from these challenges. I am proud to say that WestWind has remained FAITHFUL to its mission of serving, giving, worshipping, connecting, and growing and I”m confident that God has amazing plans for our church. While we would love to jump right back into our “normal” lives as a faith community, we still need to be cautious until ALL have had an opportunity to get vaccinated and virus rates decline further; therefore, some accomodations will be made temoporarily. Our Health & Safety Covenant Team and our Leadership Team have diligently been working to make decisions and plans for us to begin gathering safely. Please continue to be patient with us as we continue to make adjustments, learning together as we go. Our first Sunday to gather in the sanctuary is April 18th (Rev. Casey is on vacation this week). However, for the first few weeks we will be limiting the number of attendees to 20 (not counting our worship team). This will enable us to ensure appropriate physical distancing and give us a chance to work through some of our safety processes more fully. However, we dearly hope that these limits will only be needed for a few weeks before we can truly say, “ALL are welcome!” Current church members will be notified which upcoming Sunday is their designated worship to attend in person. We request RSVP’s so that we can ensure the maximum number of people are able to attend. If open spots remain after scheduled individuals have responded then those reservations will be open to anyone to fill by signing up on a first-come basis. All RSVP’s and sign-ups can be done with Rev. Casey via phone (817-879-6564) or email ([email protected]). Your assigned Elders can also help you!  Please note, we will not turn away visitors or guests during this time because we want to ensure they are given a chance to meet us and connect. So if you are not an offical member, feel free to join us any Sunday morning at 10:30am!  This may mean that the number of attendees may not be exact from week to week. It would be helpful if you let Rev. Casey know you plan on coming. Here is our member schedule: April 18th   Flock #1, Elder- Chuck Allbright April 25th   Flocks#2 & #4, Elders- Dawn Needles, Annette Peterson-Bush May 2nd     Flocks #3 & #5, Elders- Sherry Uribe, Paula Rudy-Brown If you are unsure of which flock you are in don’t worry! We will send you an invite the weeks you are assigned and you are also welcome to reach out and ask. We are asking all attendees (both guests and members) to abide by our Covenant. Upon welcoming you to worship you will be asked to sign a Covenant (if you haven’t already). Here is a copy of the Covenant: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16cPi3G2y9T8_jNrdGeSOUh7k76EdQYVu/view?usp=sharing We know this is not ideal but we are thankful that we have a congregation that prioritizes one another’s health and safety and recognizes these inconveniences as a way that we can show love to one another. Our hopes are that after May 2nd we will not have to continue to with a reservation-type process. Looking forward to brighter days TOGETHER! Grace, Rev. Casey