Dear Church family,
Psalm 56:3, O Most High, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. When you feel anxious, afraid, or find yourself struggling, recite the psalmist words until they rest within your soul.
I greet you from my home, where, like you, I have been spending all of my time. Our decisions to stay home are saving lives. I encourage all to continue to listen to the guidelines and recommendations of the doctors and team of experts that our Governor, Mike DeWine, is relying on as he makes decisions for our state. With each day come new reports and new decisions to be made. Pray for all of our leaders; local, state, and national, who are working for all of us. We thank them for making the tough decisions.
At Church of the Saviour, our worship will remain online through the end of April. The last report I read from the Governor asks us to prepare to remain home through April 30. This date could change and we will adjust accordingly, but for planning purposes we will prepare to gather as a body of believers online through the end of April.
Last weekend we had over 600 people join us for worship online. I’d encourage you to share our worship service with your family and friends by email and social media. The church building may be closed, but the church has been deployed out in the world. Our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the church, the community, and the world has not changed. We are in the middle of a great opportunity to share our faith with others. It is our trust and faith in God, knowing God is bigger than all of this, that we, as believers, can stand on the assurance God will carry us through this wilderness.
We have a new webpage to help you stay connected through this season of COVID-19. This page gives you links to all of our worship services, daily devotions, prayer requests, as well as ways to help you stay connected. We have links for our kids, teens, and adults. There are posts for you to stay active and healthy, even to care for your mental health. We also have a way for you to leave comments or request assistance. We have people ready to help if you need something. We have people willing to pick up items from the store, run basic errands, or whatever we can do to help.
Check out our Stay Connected page.
Holy Week is upon us. Join us on Sunday, April 5 for our Palm Sunday worship. Following the service, we are encouraging you to make a palm (you can download a palm from our worship page or find a ‘palm’ outside) and use the worship guide to walk your neighborhood in your own palm processional. Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week—a sacred time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made because of His love for us. We are encouraging you to use all the resources on our website to help you set aside time to be with Christ during this holiest of holy weeks.
On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we have two unique special services for you to do in your home. Each service will walk you through your own worship experience of Jesus’ last days. And then of course we invite you back online for our Easter Sunday celebration of Christ’s resurrection.
Visit for all the information you need to worship in your home.
Financial update. I’ve been asked about the church’s finances in the midst of this stay-at-home period. Thank you to all who continue to give faithfully. Though we’ve had large online attendance, our giving has not matched this number. We do know many who are tuning in online attend other churches, live in other states, or have found our church only through our online worship, which means there is not a financial commitment to Church of the Saviour.
In the past few weeks we have seen a significant decline in offerings. Because a large portion of our congregation regularly give by placing their contributions in the offering plate, our weekly offering has decreased by roughly 45%. We know many in our congregation have been furloughed or have lost their jobs. Those who are experiencing shifts in employment or loss of wages, we completely understand you not being able to give at this time, please take care of your family. For those who are still able to give, please know that your offerings really matter and are continuing to make possible the ministry of the church.
We recently shifted to online giving. If it would be helpful to give online, go to this link on our website: www.cos-umc.org/give. You can also download our church app, Realm Connect, which is another way you can automatically give. If texting is easier to you, you can now Text: 73256 with GIVECOS in the message box and it will prompt you to follow a link that takes you to our giving page.
You can also continue to mail your offerings to:
Church of the Saviour
ATTN: Financial Secretary.
8005 Pfeiffer Road
Montgomery OH 45242.
Again, thank you for your faithfulness! Looking forward to worshiping with you online this weekend.
In Christ,
Pastor Jenn Lucas, Senior Pastor