News and Announcements

 Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 NRSV

In-person worship begins Sunday, June 21

As we prepare to begin our in-person worship services Sunday, June 21, we want you to know the following information as you make your decision as to when you are comfortable returning to in-person worship. 

NOTE:  Please do not come to worship if you know you have been exposed to someone with Corona virus or if you are experiencing any symptoms including fever.

1. Everyone will be required to wear a mask while in the building.  Please bring your own mask if possible, but should you forget to bring one, we have disposable masks available.
2. Only the main entry doors will be used for entry and exit.
3. When you arrive, you will be asked to keep a 6-foot distance from others who may be entering ahead of you.
4. A greeter will hold the door open for you and give you an application of hand sanitizer.
5. A second greeter will mark your attendance.
6. Please enter into the open sanctuary doors and find a seat in one of the alternating pews marked available for sitting.  Each family should keep a 6-foot distance in each pew from others.
7. There will be no singing during the worship service, but we will have live music.
8. Bulletins and hymnals will not be available.  All announcements, liturgy, prayers, and readings will be projected on the wall.
9. Pastor Ted, assisting ministers and readers will be allowed to remove their masks for reading at the microphone in the chancel/altar area only.
10. Offering plates/baskets will not be passed.  They will be placed on stands in the sanctuary for offerings to be placed on the way in or out of worship.
11. Greetings and sharing of the peace will be done with no physical contact while maintaining social distancing.
12. Communion will take place at the end of the service.  Wafers will be used instead of bread and individual plastic cups will be used for wine.  A gluten free option will be available in individual plastic cups.  You will be released (beginning with the back row first) from the pew one person or family at a time to maintain social distancing.  An usher will provide hand sanitizer as you leave the pew. 
13. Following communion, please exit the main doors where you will find a trash container for disposal of plastic communion cups.
14. Please do not congregate in the entry or right outside the front doors. 
15. The nursery will not be staffed and is only available for necessary diaper changes or childcare needs.  Please do not allow children to play with toys or books.
16. The drinking fountain will not be available for use.  Please feel free to bring your own water bottle.
17. There will be no coffee cart or treats.

Please note:  To prepare for returning to worship in our building, a cleaning team will be cleaning and sanitizing the upstairs level.  Pew backs, microphone, door handles, light fixtures, bathroom fixtures and counters, office counters and sacristy counter will be sanitized. Our heating and air conditioning filters will be changed.

In between the 9:30 am and 11:00 am services, the microphone, pew backs, door handles, faucet handles, and other high touch areas will be wiped with sanitizer.

Hand sanitizer will be available outside the restrooms, in the office and in the entry.

These procedures will be in place for the foreseeable future and may be relaxed when the appropriate time is right.

We continue to work to provide online opportunities for worship.  You can find our Sunday online worship on YouTube

                           6-14-20  Worship Service on YouTube

 An Invitation from Your Stewardship Committee

You have heard our Stewardship team state many times that stewardship consists of how we use our gifts, our talents, our time and our money. It’s all stewardship. Most of us may have been performing many acts of stewardship during this pandemic crisis period, perhaps without even realizing it. The Stewardship Committee invites you to tell us about such times as they become apparent to you. Maybe we can learn from each other and grow more conscious of the breadth of stewardship by sharing these experiences found in actions of our own and/or actions observed in others.

Here are just a couple of examples from our Stewardship committee members to help get you thinking about this:

During these months of sheltering at home with the closing of schools, we’ve been called on to home school our kids. This new task adds a burden to the existing demands of our jobs, but it also has given us all a blessing of special family togetherness unlike what evenings after work and school had tended to be. 

A longtime friend and I both had been given subscriptions to the UnityVillage “Daily Word” but hers had been misplaced. She phoned one morning recently as I was reading my “Daily Word” reflexion and I offered to read it to her. That now has become phone time together nearly every day and includes prayers from my copy of The Lutheran Prayerbook and conversation that has offered us opportunities to share deep thoughts related to our faith. 

In the "safe-at-home" isolation we are experiencing in our respective independent-living accommodations during this pandemic, our daily contact has become not only stewardship of a friendship, but I begin to see it also as shared stewardship of our spirituality. 

We hope you will want to participate in the collection of stories which will appear in the weekly Baa the Way if you give your permission. And if you are willing to allow us to share your name as having submitted your stewardship story, let us know that as well.

Please send your stories to our office email at gslc.ks@gmail.com  and put “Stewardship Story” in the subject line so it will be directed to our Stewardship team.

Join us on Good Shepherd's Facebook Page!

Like us at:  Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Keep track of all the exciting things to come. This is also a great way to share information about Good Shepherd with your friends.