If you were with us for corporate worship last Sunday (Aug. 19) you know it was hard to find a seat. We had 308 people in the building, including 277 in the “big room” for corporate worship. Praise God it was crowded! We are grateful and humbled that God has brought so many new folks to our doors to gather with the body of Christ to worship, hear the Word proclaimed and be transformed by the gospel. As Bonhoeffer said in Life Together, “It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing….the physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”
We hope and pray the corporate gathering of Imago Dei Church is a “source of incomparable joy and strength” to you and your family. We also pray our recent visitors return to worship with us again, and also that they are able to get plugged into a Growth Group soon. Please continue to invite your neighbors, friends and coworkers to gather with us on Sundays, and to join you for Growth Group. Finally, as we learned Sunday from Luke 14, let’s commit ourselves as a church to display biblical hospitality. Jesus has welcomed us to his table, and likewise we should be inviting our neighbors to join us at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6-9) and for meals in our homes.
We could also use your help with some practical matters relative to Sunday mornings, particularly seating and parking. You’ve heard much of this before but now more than ever we need your help. At least one family chose not to attend corporate worship Sunday because they couldn’t find a parking place. So with this need and our commitment to be hospitable in mind, please help us with the following:
- If you are able, please park in the Big Lots lot across the street.
- Arrive a 10-15 minutes early, get your coffee or other hot beverage and move on in the auditorium prior to 10am.
- Do the Imago Dei Squeeze! Please sit as close to the front as possible and fill every seat. If you are sitting in the middle section, move toward the middle of the row; if you’re in one of the side sections sit as close to the walls as possible. This will make it easier for new folks and visitors to find seats along the aisles.
- Leave the back two rows (to the right of the center doors) open for parents with newborns and those needing assistance.
- Fill in the “children’s choir” area to the right of the stage. It would be great if Growth Groups volunteered to rotate sitting there together. We are also in the process of purchasing more chairs so we can use the lobby as an overflow seating area. Once we have those ready we’ll schedule Growth Groups to rotate sitting there (approx once every 3 months).
- If you are sitting in the front half of the room, please come to the communion tables at the front. This will help us with crowding at the back tables.
- Please help guests and first time visitors find a seat.
Thanks for your continued help and patience. The overwhelming feedback we’ve received from IDC members is that you desire to continue to have one corporate worship service as long as possible. At some point we may have to add a second service but until then we want to do everything possible to be able to worship all together at the same time every week. We also hope to find a new home in the not too distant future, so please pray for that, as well as the finances that will be necessary for a bigger facility.