Friendship Updates
It all begins with an idea.
The elders truly thank God every time we think of each of you because of your fellowship in the gospel of Jesus (Phi 1:3-5). COVID-19 has challenged us, but by God’s grace, we continue to see amazing things happening at Friendship. During the time we have met online, we have seen seven baptisms, giving increase, and the online interest in church significantly increase. Many things have been taking place behind the scenes that we want to keep you aware of.
Information at a glance
On March 8, (our last Sunday), we were averaging 228 in services (and 100 online “views”) and giving was slightly below budget. Over the past 11 weeks, online viewing has significantly increased. Giving has also pulled ahead of budget. We also rejoice in the number of people who have indicated they are watching the services online. Many of these are people who have either never attended, or only came a few times. The gospel continues to go forth!
Ministry changes
Food Drop: Fred has really stepped up the changes in our outreach ministries as we have provided four food drops that have distributed 31,000 pounds of food to over 2,000 people in our community.
Outreach in the community: from giving gas cards to providing benevolence requests to feeding the nursing staff at Calvert Health every Tuesday, we have invested over $7,000 into the community.
Growth Groups have transitioned to Zoom or Skype and continue to meet with fairly decent participation
COVID-19 Guidance: we continue to monitor the best practices for churches to enable a safe and secure return and have ordered touchless sanitizer stations and masks and are working to secure other supplies as needed. We are exploring options such as meeting under a tent outdoors and/or rearranging chairs in the sanctuary to appropriately social distance indoors. We have secured individually packaged Lord’s Supper packets and look forward to opening safely when permitted to do so. As much as we reasonably can, we will follow the guidance issued by the county and state when allowed to resume services. At this point we are still waiting for Anne Arundel county to encourage church meetings of more than 10 people. When we return, we will continue the same level of high-quality livestream as we expect many of our members to continue to join us online rather than in person.
Building changes
Livestream improvements: we have upgraded the streaming computer, transitioned to OBS to power our livestream, invested in a remote camera, significantly improved the stage lighting and enabled lyric projection on the video feed.
Sanctuary improvements: once you return, you will notice a brighter screen in the sanctuary. You should also notice fewer problems with the sound system as we are rewiring much of the platform to eliminate noise.
Pressing forward
With our theme of “Walk By Faith” in 2020, we continue to press forward with everything we began earlier in the year. In January, we had no idea we would be walking into such uncharted territory, but as followers of Jesus, we are uniquely qualified to walk by faith and not sight (2 Cor 5:7).
Elders: As you know, Frank and Amy have moved to Texas and Joe and Myong will follow shortly. We have two candidates in elder training and hope to present them to you mid-summer.
Deacons: we have developed several people who have agreed to serve as deacons and were ready to install them in March. However, we are waiting until we have in-person services to do that.
Parking lot plans: Messick has received the first round of comments from Anne Arundel County. They felt most of these are easy to address and will soon be resubmitting the plans in order to secure a permit.
Addition plans: Joe Mayer has given us a tentative floorplan to “square-off” the building. (see drawings below). These incorporate the major needs discussed at the family meeting earlier this year and the elders have asked him to proceed with the design process.
Lower Level
Two large classrooms and perhaps a third small one. This has an entrance facing the back of the church which is where most people would enter with kids. Check-in would remain downstairs before proceeding up the larger stairwell.
Upper Level
Small lift (elevator), offices, and rough-in for commercial kitchen in what is currently Fred’s office. Robert’s office walls would be removed to enlarge the front lobby.
Worship Pastor search: As we began to review the 40+ resumes the elders felt we needed to really focus on a worship pastor who could continue to lead us forward through what God has been doing in our midst. As such, we focused the search, have reviewed about 10 questionnaires and had first-round interviews with about 6 candidates. From those, it appears we have 3-4 strong candidates and will now be interviewing them with the elders and praise team before recommending one to you.
Payroll Protection Program: Friendship qualified for and received the PPP loan/grant that was established through the Small Business Association due to COVID-19. This effectively covers our payroll for 8 weeks. The elders have been prayerfully considering the pros and cons of this program, weighing our needs (we don’t need it due to God’s grace and your generosity) with the uncertainty of the future (we don’t know when we will be able to resume regular church, and we have absorbed significant unexpected expenses to serve our church and community during this unique ministry season). At this point we continue to seek God’s direction regarding the funds. One interesting aspect of the PPP is that it can be used to hire additional employees, so we are considering if this is God’s provision for the hire of the worship pastor (whose salary is not in the budget this year).
Business meetings: at this point we have generally been able to operate within the budget approved by the church. We anticipate needing to conduct some business over the summer (electing new elders, moving forward with the parking lot/addition, worship pastor hire, etc.). While we hope to meet in person for this, we may have to conduct the meeting via Zoom (or allow those of you who aren’t comfortable coming in person to participate via Zoom or something similar). Regardless, we will do everything we can to communicate clearly, and we will strive to hold any meetings as ethically as possible given the circumstances.
This is a lot of information! I feel so much of it keeps changing by the day, so I have hesitated to communicate to you, but at some point it’s best to let you know where we are “today” recognizing everything can change tomorrow. I’m thankful Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), so regardless of what happens tomorrow, we know God is with us. He has clearly provided all of our needs to this point, and we are confident if He continues to lead us forward in all of these areas He will continue to provide the guidance, leadership and finances necessary to see these things through.
As always, please reach out to any of the elders if you have questions or input on anything.
Grace and peace my friends,
Robert for the elders
Elder contacts
Joe Sites Cell: 240-210-5083; jsites14@comcast.net
Jason Hardesty Cell: 301-789-4827; aircondserv@yahoo.com
Mike Wiseman Cell: 410-991-8797; michaellee1027@verizon.net
Tim Russell Cell: 443-458-2039; wa7tof@comcast.net
Robert Kendall Cell: 240-476-8736 robert@fcbc.church