Hello church! This is my second email this month about what is going on in our community of faith. There's a lot to share with you.

Simplicity.

I’ve found that one of the biggest obstacles in my spiritual life is my tendency to overcomplicate things. I tend to constantly look for the complex, hidden secret to the spiritual life instead of just embracing the simple, obvious answers God has already given.

This is where Scripture can be so helpful. There are a lot of things I still don’t understand about the Bible. But there is so much life in pursuing the simple truths that I know. 

Consider the simplicity of this text from 1 Peter:

⁸ Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. ⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3 – NIV)

These words are staggering in their simplicity.

But they are earth-shattering in their implications for daily life.

These are complicated times we are living through. Events that constantly invite us to try to figure them out. The distraction level in our world is at an all-time high.  

In the midst of that the Holy Spirit keeps drawing my eye to the simplest truths. And that is what I want to call all of us to in these moments. 

May we be known for things like our simple compassion and humility and our sympathetic love for others. 

May simplicity guide us.

I’ve tried to hold onto those simple truths as our leadership team has sought to discern what we should do about gathering during this time. We’ve heard a lot of opinions – from our Governor, from other pastors, from lawyers, from many of you – and in all of that, we’ve tried to simply discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

We’ve decided to resume some face to face gathering on June 7^th. The plan is to gather in a disbursed way in multiple locations so that we can worship in ways that are safe and respectful.

Here you’ll find a detailed version of how we are intending to do this. There are a few details we are still figuring out – the most notable of which is: how many people will be allowed in each location?

We will communicate as we know more but I wanted to include you all in our thinking as soon as possible.

We are a community and we are all in this thing together. So I’d like to ask 3 things from you.

1. Will you read the plan, so that you can know what to expect, and so that we can all do our best to abide by it?
2. Will you share feedback with us about this? We’ve set up a special feedback form (immediately following the plan) on our website for you to share thoughts or questions. We won’t respond to everything, but we will read everything and it will shape our course of action moving forward.
3. Will you tune into the service this Sunday? I want to share a little bit more from my heart about this. And I will do so at the end of the worship service during the live stream.

Peter wrote his letter to people who were experiencing confusing times full of persecution. He was reminding them (and us) that in times like these we need to stay focused on who we are and the simple things it means to be a Christ follower.

I’m praying for each of you. That you will find joy in simplicity. And that we will be like-minded, sympathetic, loving, compassionate and humble.

I love you people.

Jonathan Cleveland