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Welcome to Springfield
July 7, 2020
Greetings Springfield Family,
We have continued to navigate our way through these unchartered waters of Covid-19. None of us have been here before; this is all new to us. We are learning as we go. The blessing is that we do not go alone.
We have been blessed to have had the presence of God with us for the last four months since we were not able to be together in worship in the sanctuary. God has allowed us to maintain our contact during our time of physical separation. We have remained together in the spirit by way of our prayer time, which takes place each evening from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, as well as our Sunday church-wide prayer time from 12:16 pm to 1:16 pm. God has privileged us to use present-day technology to do ministry and to stay in touch. Isaiah 43:19 said that he would do a new thing. We are now in the midst of the "new thing" that God would do.
I am grateful that we can continue to make the necessary contributions to our community that we did last week during the Covid-19 testing. We look forward to continuing to make a difference in the lives of people in our community and our church. Thanks to those members who did come out to be tested. I trust that if you did not come the last time when the testing is done again on our campus that you will come. The worst thing is not knowing. The best thing is to know and do something about it. We don't know where this virus is or who may be a carrier, so for the good of our family and friends, testing is the best thing to do.
We are still making plans to reenter the sanctuary for worship. As I said before, things will be different; this is part of being transformed. We have to think differently, and we will be expected to respond, not as we did in the past. The Task Force has completed its work on the handbook. Our handbook will be coming out to you soon. The handbook will be available on our website for those who are computer savvy. The non-computer active members will receive their handbook by U.S. mail. My prayer is that we all would read and become familiar with the guidelines in the handbook.
You will notice when you come onto the campus that there are signs in the parking lot to indicate the lot you are parking in either the north or south. Your parking will correspond to your seating location in the sanctuary. This information is available in the handbook. There will be signage in the church as well, to help us move around the building safely.
Many of you want to know when we will be returning. I cannot give you a firm date in this letter. I can tell you that when we do return, you will have enough time to plan your return. I am aware that some may choose not to return even with that date announced, and I do understand that completely. My heart desires are to ensure that everyone has a level of comfort in their return. We will have a series of open-air or parking lot worship services in the meantime. Some logistics will have to be worked out before that takes place. You will receive a survey either in your inbox or in your mailbox. I pray that you will complete that as soon as you get it, this will assist us in our planning.
I want to thank you again for continuing to support the church financially. You have shown your commitment to God and your church. Your support of the ministry is heartwarming to me. It is good to know that you are standing with us even though we are not in the building. We have continued to keep the building clean and sanitized two to three days a week, even though not a lot of people have been in the building since March.
We continue to stream online each Sunday. I want to say thank you to some people who have, for the last four months help to make that possible. Thanks to Sister Elmira Gibson, who puts everything together for our Sunday Cyber Worship Service. Her gift has made possible our ability to remain out there where people can hear the word of God. Thanks to Deacon Copeland and the video team, which include Tiandra Mundy and Gary George. Sound has been the work of Benjamin Troutman, camera Anthony Nixon III, and Dwike Leonard, who also is the in house director. Because of their strong commitment to getting the gospel message out, these men and women have been a blessing to the ministry and the church,
I know my letter to you has been long, but I wanted to share as much information as I could with you. Let us continue to pray for each other.
Yours in Christ,
Arthur Carson, Jr., Pastor
May 24, 2020
Dear Springfield Family
I am writing my second letter to keep you informed. We are now twelve weeks since we last gathered in the building for cooperate worship at 1730 Hollywood Road. Many have expressed their desire to return to our place of worship. I am in continued prayer about this decision. I am listening to the voice of God. God spoke some weeks ago and said that we should return to worship at 1730 a week or two after other churches have returned. I say again we will return, but not before we are given the directions to return.
I want to thank you for your continued support while we have been away from our physical place of worship. We can admit that we have not been totally isolated from each other, because we have been able to join in with each other by streaming online, church-wide prayer on Sunday, evening prayer each night, bible study on Tuesday, Discovery hour at various times during the week. God has been good to us to position us to continue to have our time of fellowship. Your financial support has been greatly appreciated. You know, while the building may be closed, we still have our commitments to fulfill. You by your obedience, have made it possible to meet our monthly expenses.
Before returning physically to 1730 Hollywood Rd., we will need to outline some guidelines for our gathering. I must say that a lot has changed around us, and much of that change will affect us when we return to cooperate worship. We will be asked to maintain social distancing, which is at least six feet between ourselves and others around us. I know we have been accustomed to hugging, kissing, and shaking hands when we see each other. We will not be able to do that at this time. We are prayerful that day will return, but in the meantime, I am asking that we hold our hugs, kisses and handshakes.
The other important part of our return will be wearing facial coverings. We have been told that the virus can be transmitted through the air. Since the virus is invisible, we want to protect our seniors and ourselves from spreading the virus without our knowledge when we return to the building. A task force has been formed to examine these and other guidelines that will be in place. I ask now for your cooperation to make our return secure and safe. Because we love each other, we are willing to make these sacrifices until such time as we won't have to. Paul writes in Galatians 6:9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Springfield, let us not faint. God Bless You and Stay Prayed up.
Yours in Christ,
Arthur Carson, Jr., Pastor
May 19, 2020
Dear Springfield Family
I am writing my second letter to keep you informed. We are now twelve weeks since we last gathered in the building for cooperate worship at 1730 Hollywood Road. Many have expressed their desire to return to our place of worship. I am in continued prayer about this decision. I am listening to the voice of God. God spoke some weeks ago and said that we should return to worship at 1730 a week or two after other churches have returned. I say again we will return, but not before we are given the directions to return.
I want to thank you for your continued support while we have been away from our physical place of worship. We can admit that we have not been totally isolated from each other, because we have been able to join in with each other by streaming online, church-wide prayer on Sunday, evening prayer each night, bible study on Tuesday, Discovery hour at various times during the week. God has been good to us to position us to continue to have our time of fellowship. Your financial support has been greatly appreciated. You know, while the building may be closed, we still have our commitments to fulfill. You by your obedience, have made it possible to meet our monthly expenses.
Before returning physically to 1730 Hollywood Rd., we will need to outline some guidelines for our gathering. I must say that a lot has changed around us, and much of that change will affect us when we return to cooperate worship. We will be asked to maintain social distancing, which is at least six feet between ourselves and others around us. I know we have been accustomed to hugging, kissing, and shaking hands when we see each other. We will not be able to do that at this time. We are prayerful that day will return, but in the meantime, I am asking that we hold our hugs, kisses and handshakes.
The other important part of our return will be wearing facial coverings. We have been told that the virus can be transmitted through the air. Since the virus is invisible, we want to protect our seniors and ourselves from spreading the virus without our knowledge when we return to the building. A task force has been formed to examine these and other guidelines that will be in place. I ask now for your cooperation to make our return secure and safe. Because we love each other, we are willing to make these sacrifices until such time as we won't have to. Paul writes in Galatians 6:9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Springfield, let us not faint. God Bless You and Stay Prayed up.
Yours in Christ,
Arthur Carson, Jr., Pastor
April 10, 2020
Dear Member
I am writing to let you know that I am praying for you as we all live through this present environment. I know we are following the directions which have come to us from the CDC and other health organizations. We must continue to wash our hands, remembering our song Jesus Loves Me, so we can get our thirty seconds of hand-washing time in.
I want to share with you an update on our church activities. We know how the virus has restricted us from gathering in worship as we are accustomed. This does not mean that we are completely out of touch with each other but it does mean that we are not able to touch like we like to. We must practice social distancing to protect others and ourselves. However, we are continuing to worship via the internet by live streaming each Sunday morning at 10:00 AM and through Facebook videos.
I know that there are some who are not able to navigate these forms of social media, so I wanted to touch base with you to let you know what we are doing. Each Sunday until we are no longer restricted we will have our church-wide prayer time from 12:16 PM until 1:16 PM. The call-in number is as follows (712) 770-3697 and the access code is 631058#. Please join us each Sunday.
I want to thank all of you for your continued support for our church even though we are not able to gather. Thanks for so many of you who have come by to bring you tithes and offerings. Then there are some who are giving online, via cash app and pay pal. Thank you for your support going forward. I don’t know how long we will be in this moment of life. But thanks to you all of our financial needs at the church will be met.
I will be sending out information through our robocalls. If you have not been receiving the calls please call Ava at 404 210-3905. This will be one of our main means of getting out information during our time of social distancing.
I will be doing some live morning meditation on Facebook for those who are Facebook savvy. I want to stay in touch with you as much as I can. I do miss our gathering in the church house. I have benefited greatly by our prayer time each evening during the season of Lent. Lent ends on April 9th. I will be exploring ways for us to continue our prayer time over the phone. We have been greatly encouraged by our time of prayer each evening and on Sunday afternoon.
God has called us back to the place where we first met our God and that is on our knees in prayer. My closing thoughts are around prayer. Lamentations 2:18-19 Jeremiah reminds us that we can cry out to God. God is the one who hears us and God will answer us. The depth of our cry to God is expressed in our tears, meaning we are serious about what we are talking with God about. We can get up through the night and let our voices be heard before the throne of God. This is sincere praying before God.
Let us continue to pray every day knowing that God is always listening and in due time God will provide the answer we need. Galatians 6:9 Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (KJV). Springfield let us not be weary. Let’s STAY PRAYED UP.
Love You and God Bless You
Your Pastor,
Rev. Dr. Arthur Carson, Jr.
March 19, 2020
Dear Springfield members, family and friends:
A lot has changed since last week when I sent you my first letter. The emphasis last week was on making sure that we washed our hands and did not touch our faces with unwashed hands. That was done to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, the new directive is for us to engage in social distancing.
We have never been faced with this kind of restriction before — at least not in my lifetime. With this new directive, we are still encouraged by the word of God. Psalms 37:3 tells us, “Trust in the Lord and do good….” In all things, we put our full and unyielding trust in God without reservation.
We still have a part to play to further minimize our risk to ourselves and others. We have been asked to limit the number of people meeting together at one time in one place to 10. Here at Springfield, we have taken this recommendation into full consideration. We are people of faith and believe God will take care of us, but we also must be proactive in our actions at this time and follow this guideline about gathering.
Therefore, we have decided after prayerful direction to suspend our in-person worship services beginning this Sunday, March 22, 2020, until further notice. In the interim, we encourage you to join us each Sunday at 10 a.m. for our worship service, which we will be streaming live online on our website. You can access the service by going to www.sprinfieldmissionary.org. Then click the tab that reads, “Watch Us Live.”
We encourage you to continue to give to financially support the work of the church. There are several ways to do that, including through PayPal, Cash App and giving online. You may also mail in your support or drive by the church between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturdays and drop it off.
We will get through this global health crisis together as a church family and a body of believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love you, and God Bless you for your continued prayers and support.
Yours in Christ,
Arthur Carson, Jr., Pastor
March 13, 2020
Dear Springfield Members, Visitors and Friends:
Much has been said about the present state in our country. Right now, there is a sense of great fear, anxiety and uncertainty all around us about the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. However, Psalms 56:3 speaks to us regarding whatever we may be afraid of. We are encouraged in and through the Word of God to remain calm and to trust God. That’s what we are putting our trust in — the power of God to take care of us — and we do trust God fully.
However, there are some things we must do. We have a part to play in minimizing our risk of exposure to the coronavirus. Health professionals have given us specific information and advice to follow. First and foremost, they tell us to make sure that we wash our hands often. They recommend that we wash our hands for at least 20 seconds. To help us with the 20 seconds, I have a suggestion: try singing the song “Jesus Love Me” three times. Additionally, if you feel flu-like symptoms, go to your health care provider. If you are sick, please stay home so as not to risk infecting someone else.
We are doing everything we can to insure that our church environment remains clean. Our environmental safety attendant is doing what is necessary so that we can worship and interact in a safe and healthy environment. Our attendant is making sure that all hard surfaces are washed down thoroughly and that our restrooms are given extra attention and care. We have included wipes for all of the restrooms. Soap dispensers will be placed around the building to remind us to wash our hands often. We are praying that, as we follow these simple but necessary guidelines and we all do our part, we will maintain a safe and healthy environment for all who enter our doors.
We thank God for the privilege to worship and work together for the good of The Kingdom.
Yours in Christ,
Arthur Carson, Jr., Pastor
Springfield Missionary Baptist Church
Rev. Dr. Arthur Carson, Jr. Pastor
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