Dear Beloved Community,
Last night in our Quarterly Church Conference, I shared about our church leaders’ work this year on safety and security. Inasmuch as it can be a joy to talk about safety, I have had that experience over these past months with the Leadership Council and all the professionals among our membership that we’ve pulled in for wisdom and advice. And best of all? We have a wonderful new Safety Team that has been formed along the way, filled with folks of all kinds each Sunday, and led superbly by Karen Brown. We’ve all learned much, and I can say with confidence that all of us feel more empowered by the proactive work we’ve done together.
One output of our work is the creation of an Emergency Preparedness and Action Plan, or EAP for short. This document can be found here, and if you haven’t already, I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with this document. Though it can’t address every possible emergency, the EAP details the ways in which our church is prepared and resourced for emergencies, how we expect to respond in the event of one, and what we’ll do together after the fact. We walked through this document together in the QCC last night, and are already employing it for regular use. Should you have any questions about the EAP or our church’s ministries of safety and security, don’t hesitate to ask! The Leadership Council will be offering further opportunities for training and education along the way, so stay tuned for more.
This is just the right time to invite any of you who might be interested and willing to join our Safety Team! The Safety Team is full of Safety Hosts, who can be identified on Sundays or times when the congregation gathers by the blue vests, walkie-talkies, and nametags that they wear. On Sundays before, during, and after our gathering, Safety Hosts are positioned outside the building to welcome members and friends to the building and assist in their safe arrival, and inside, walking the building to keep a watchful eye out for anything that seems out of the ordinary and assist if needs arise. And, of course, they have a good time doing so! You can contact Karen Brown or me with questions.
In our growing congregation who represent the wide, colorful reach of God’s imagination, it is a gift to be able to serve each other with tools, resources, and plans that make our time together in beloved community possible!
Together in God’s work of Love,
Pastor Emily
PS – If you have any interest in joining a meaningful conversation next weekend, I’ll be speaking as part of a panel discussion in the inaugural Bill Leonard Summer Institute on August 7-8 at Wake Forest. The topic for this gathering is “A Legacy of Dissent,” centering this historic Baptist practice of faith. The speakers will be fantastic and it promises to be a wonderful gathering. Learn more and register at the link here!