On Sunday 22nd March, and every Sunday for the time being, we’ll meet together as The Bridge Church with one big difference.  

Due to the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 we won’t be meeting at Pontprennau Primary School, instead we’ll be meeting online using an application called ZOOM. Lots of what we do this week will be the same as we often do... We will be reading the bible, praying and singing together as church family.  Matt will share a talk from the bible and we’ll have the chance to catch up with, encourage and share life with one another.

In these challenging times we want to work hard to ensure that we continue to meet together. Hebrews 10 says…

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

As the format of our meeting over the coming weeks will be quite different we thought it would be helpful to some share ways that you might prepare yourself and/or your families in advance!
 

Let’s Spend Time Together

We’ll be using ‘breakout rooms’ at the start and end of our times together to give people the opportunity to chat and catch up with one another. As you join the meeting you’ll be welcomed by a host and put into a small group meeting space with others. We’ll all come back together after a little while. You’ll also have the opportunity to stay around after for coffee and church family time in break out rooms as the youth meet together.
 

Let’s be Family Together

Don’t think that you need to have a wonderfully clean living room and perfectly behaved children. Don’t worry if the lighting is all wrong or you haven’t done your hair… the important thing is that we meet together! Meeting in this way will not be always be easy - at times it may be frustrating, at times hilarious, at times you will love it and I have no doubt that it will feed a longing for ‘normal’ church which in turn feeds our longing to be together in worship with Jesus in heaven one day. Let’s remember that we are church family together now the same as always… “living stones being built together into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2)

We will be building time into our meeting for the children and providing resources for parents to print in advance that the kids can work through. The youth will continue to meet after the service in their own ZOOM meeting space.
 

Let’s Sing Together

Lines will be muted throughout the meeting including during the singing because the natural telecoms delay will make it very hard for us all to hear each other when we sing together. Colossians 3 vs 16  teaches us the value of corporate worship as “...the message of Christ dwell(s) among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

So week by week we’ll be asking members of the church family to lead us in singing.  We will all hear them so that we can join with them, singing the words that are on the screen. We won’t all hear each other but we can be encouraged in seeing each other as we worship together in our homes. I would encourage you to do the following:

Embrace the weird! Weird very quickly becomes wonderful! If you’re a musician you can play along in your own home too… no one else will hear you except those in your home with you but it will add to our corporate worship! Involve your family if you have one - find some shakers or tambourines for your kids… lay out some saucepans with a wooden spoon as a drum kit or maybe...dance! Let’s make a joyful noise together!

I’m sure there are other things that we’ll learn as we meet together in this way but let’s get started and see how God will bless us and help us to continue to belong, serve and grow together through this challenging time.

Steve Smith