Update for this Coming Sunday (March 22nd, 2020)

Dear Church Family,

We as a board have been in discussion and prayer with regards to whether or not we should all resume meeting this coming Sunday in light of the current COVID-19 situation.  Our considerations in making this decision include God’s call for us to meet together and proclaim Christ, to be in submission to our society’s governing authorities, and to protect both the spiritual and physical well-being of the church (among others).  For this coming Sunday, we have chosen to cancel regular services at our normal campus. 

As of 7:03pm Thursday Evening, Gov. Newsom has also mandated that everyone stay at home, so we will not be meeting in small groups either.

We are encouraging a kind of “guided at-home service” on Sunday at 10:00am. There will be three parts to the service: first, there will be study questions to lead you in study, prepared by our weekly speaker (Derrick this week); second, there will be suggested songs with lyrics that complement the study; third, we will be providing some specifics to focus on in prayer.  All of this is now available on our website and can be accessed here. (NOTE: to access content for March 22, 2020, click the link in the right hand column from the Home Church Guides page).

While it pains us to see our church family apart from each other, we believe this format to be best until we have a little more clarity on the possible future spread of the virus in our community.  We do not want to be negligent with respect to the danger this virus poses.  Thanks be to God, our region has thus far been spared with just one positive test which occurred awhile ago and has since cleared.  If our community continues to avoid infection and the governor lifts the mandated order to stay home, it is our hope that we will be able to resume meeting all together within the next 2-3 weeks.  We may transition our services at that time to outdoors in order to provide people room for greater spacing. We are continuing to monitor the situation and reassess week by week and will keep you apprised.

If you are under the weather in any way, or you feel your health may be vulnerable, please reach out! We have a team standing by ready to help with grocery shopping and basic home needs, should you need assistance, and we all want to be praying for you!

Lord bless you.
OGBF Elder Board