Six days ago, March 17th, the staff made a decision to cancel the next day’s Lenten midweek service and later that evening the Church Council decided to cancel all worship and activities at Our Savior’s through April 8th. These six days have been overwhelming as we’ve been changing how we do things at Our Savior’s.

Pastor Matheny had posted hours on Thursday through Saturday when people were invited to come for prayer, meditation, confession and absolution. Some did come. On Sunday, Pastor Matheny was available from 8-10 a.m. for small group worship. About 30 people attended in two groups to have a brief worship service and receive Holy Communion. We expect to be posting more hours for this present week.

Meanwhile, our Deaconess, Lisa Brand, has been calling dozens of our members – particularly shut-ins and those at higher risk who are staying at home to see how they’re doing and what help they may need. So far, all is well but people are saying that they miss “church” meaning worship and being together.

I’ve been working from home, focusing on the website content and planning. Working from home I have faster internet service and the technical assistance of my boys. By separating our pastors, we reduce the likelihood that they could both be sick at the same time. I’ve had dozens of emails and phone contacts with members, trying to stay in touch with our leaders, and planning for what may be ahead. To contact me, simply call me as you would call my church office 385-2184 and your call will be automatically routed to my cell phone.

Most of what we’ve posted to our website thus far has been under “Sermons and Devotions” or “Emergency Updates and Information.” My “daily chats” haven’t actually become daily yet, but I hope this week they will. We posted a Sunday Service from last year after a little editing, but learned that we need to do this sooner in order to have it available to be viewed by Sunday morning. (I think it was there just before noon this week). Lesson learned. That’s also what will play on local public access TV during our usual times. This week I would like to add the capability for you to sign up to receive notifications when something new is posted to our website. I also hope to expand the places where you can post comments. Those who have signed up will have comments posted immediately and those who are not signed up would have to wait until their comments are approved before they show on the website. But this might be a way to get discussion going among our members. Watch for announcement of this in the coming days.

Three new pages coming to our website will provide links for parents and families, resources for adults, and resources for youth. There are many people creating online devotions and materials and this will be a way to share some of the great stuff we’ve found. Have you run across something helpful that would be appropriate for our church website? Please forward it to me: lauer@oslcmankato.org.

So what about Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday? States and the Federal Government are taking more and more restrictive measures. At this time, seven states have issued “Stay at Home” orders for everyone except those who cannot work from home or those in critical positions. It seems unlikely that we’ll be back to our “normal” worship schedule in time for Easter. Therefore, I’ve been looking into various options which I’ve presented to the Board of Elders for their recommendation to the Church Council when they meet March 31st to review our closure.

One idea I really like is to simply “delay” Holy Week and Easter until we’re back to a normal worship schedule. We would treat the first full week back at public worship as Holy Week and Easter. This would make for a grand celebration of being gathered again around the Word and Gifts of our Lord Jesus to celebrate His salvation! Imagine: Easter in June!

Another possible answer would be to hold a “drive-in” service on Easter Sunday where people would pull into the parking lot at Franklin Elementary to view a worship service on a platform and listen to it through the FM radio in their car. I’ve gotten permission for this from the principal at Franklin and we’ve ordered the transmission equipment for a low-power FM broadcast. So this is a viable option.

A third option is to put our video recording of last year’s Easter Sunday service on our website. This would feel the most “normal” because we’d have pipe organ, choirs, brass, flowers, and lots of people to hear singing on the video. We simply wouldn’t be together.

Finally, it’s possible that we could do all three of these things on Easter Sunday and let people take their pick: (1) drive in service, (2) the recording of last year’s Easter on our website, and (3) celebrating Holy Week when we are finally all back together. I think we could pull off doing all three of these.

What about “Live Streaming” our worship service? Well, it sounds good at first, but making it work and doing it well are another thing. Many places tried it this week with mixed results. Congregations that already have the technology and experience did best – like Hosanna, our sister congregation in Mankato. Others found it more difficult than they had thought, especially in an empty sanctuary with no congregation to participate in liturgy and hymns. I am perfectly fine with providing links to other LCMS congregations that are doing it well so that those who want to worship that way can do so, saving us the need to do so. You could see how they worship in Phoenix or San Antonio!

Over all, I’m concerned that we keep our focus on our own family-of-faith, doing what we can to stay connected to, to love, and to serve the souls that the Lord has entrusted to us rather than spending time and effort to do the latest and coolest things to compete with other congregations. To do that, we need all of us to connect with each other as brothers and sisters at Our Savior’s — not just the staff — putting our Christian love into action.