 Bishop McKee and so he doesn't need to be introduced but I would like to present him to you at this point and offer greetings. Hey good afternoon thank you all of you for joining the call. The first thing I want to do is say to all of you that clergy and lay at the alike how deeply I appreciate I've written by about my gratitude on a number of occasions but again how deeply I appreciate the work that you're doing. As I've talked to clergy around the conference and as I've served served through worship services on Sunday morning I can't be any more proud of you and your congregations that I am and I want you to know that. I know that this has been most challenging and I know that we've probably learned more about technology or about how to craft worship services online that we ever thought we would need to know. I gotta tell you we're in a time that I never could imagine that we would be in so I want to thank you for the way in which you've done that and to our laity who've been supportive and faithful as well and understanding about this difficult challenging time I want to thank you as well. I know that we're going to talk about how we relaunch and reopen churches and we're gonna be doing it in phases and I've sort of made a blanket statement that the East and the Northwest District churches can begin to reopen. I do want to say it's provided that all the guidelines are met and we're also dependent I think on each one of our clergy and lay teams to really determine if that's feasible at this time given given the numbers in your county I do want to say to you that those numbers continually change and so to lay it on the call we're giving your pastors authority to decide when and if the date actually happens and I do want you to know that and I think what we want the reason I say that is because my great concern is is that none of our churches become what I would call and other people have called a petri dish for COVID-19 in your communities and that is is that people go to church one Sunday morning as they've happened around this country in a lot of ways who believe that it couldn't happen and all of a sudden you know there are 20 cases of COVID-19 which means the spread can happen quickly so I know that there's some people who deny the severity of this virus or maybe even the numbers at times they are very real they are real and I think none of us want to either pass on the virus unwittingly and none of us want to blatantly do it but we want to ensure that everybody's as safe as they can be and and so that that's our work as churches and I know what I know that this has become a political football for some people the way this is what it is I think for the North Texas Conference it is our overwhelming desire and calling to do that which God calls us to do to share the gospel and in so doing to harm no one and while there is no insurance policy for that there is good judgment for that and there is faithful people to do that and if you get you know if you get into place with a layperson or somebody else in the congregation the community and it gets challenging for you we do want to know that and it especially it happens within your congregation I do want to know that and I do want to know that because you know there are times I may just call someone up and say hey let's sort of talk this down off the ledge no one should be at severe risk because of this so anyway I want to welcome you and thank you again and I want to say a special word of appreciation I've not done this out loud in a public group we've been written wise to our district superintendents and members of the point of cabinet I want to thank thank them for the work they've done and they continue to do to to continue to stay engaged with clergy and with laity and the work they do in terms of helping learn new things and to provide some content about our work together I also want to thank members the Connectional Leadership Office for their work as well so I want to thank you very much about that do we have somebody sharing screens who's Duncan Graham Mario can you help with that I can't see anything okay there we are anyway so welcome and thank you for being here and for the work you do I'm gonna I'm gonna allow the folks leadership to walk us through this and to be helpful and they they can answer a lot of questions about a lot of information and I want to tell you this is not something at which this is a this is an environment that changes daily I mean we'd never would have thought three weeks ago that we'd be talking about the danger of singing but this has become a very real apparent fact from the difference from studies and we got and we have the musicians are saying let's don't sing that we know then it's a challenge that we need we need to reckon with in some way so God bless you and God bless your ministry and thank you again for what you do appreciate it very much I'm gonna get on another zoom call related to something else and that I already had scheduled and I was unable to be with you the whole time anyway and but I know you're very very good hands so Cami it's to you God bless all of you bye bye thank you so appreciate you all being on this call and I just want to go over what our plan is for the day so that you can our time together so you can know what to look forward to we are gonna be spending some time discussing a pastoral leadership and what it means to be a pastoral leader and that is both for the clergy and lay people who lead the churches so I'm gonna invite you to just consider what biblical or scriptural direction leads you in the work you do in faith so I I want to you guys to think about that secondly we're going to be identifying the contextual challenges and realities that the that we are all facing and what that looks like in your own communities and how it is that you will be responding to the the needs in your communities thirdly I'd like us to step through a template that we have taken from somebody else's good work and that's Jeff Powell's good work and and I just want to go back to say we did invite persons who are in the small to medium-sized churches to be on this call today if your church is large you can put it into a context but our focus today is gonna be on the small and medium-sized church and he's done a great job in Archer City and thinking through how to you know go through the and make a plan for his church then I'm gonna also show you all the the state regulations and the guidelines just so you know where to find them or you can download them so you can have them at your ready and then we're going to put you all in groups to be able to have conversations with group leaders that are either your DS or center directors in order to engage in a fuller conversation so that you can have shared wisdom and go through the process of what it looks like to when you get to a point of reopening to can to make a plan ahead of time so that's the the part that's going to be most of your time and then lastly we're I've invited our leaders our district superintendents and our center directors to pray for you and for you to pray for one another so that we can as we walk together in faith continue to be those who uphold one another and spiritually so that's my our plan for today and I just want to continue to thank you for your presence here and in our time so let me begin by setting the table a little bit with some theology and give you a little background when when all of the residents that the pastors who come through our conference enter into a residency program we asked them to do integration work we asked them to take their theology and put it into their practice of ministry and so one of the things I want to share with you today as you think about who you are as the people of God that are leading the church you know we are different than than say opening up an office building we are we are not managers particularly of facilities although that's part of our purview our call as Christians is to lead theologically and so I started to think about what that might look like in today's context and I was thinking about the fact that when I was asked originally a few years ago to be a district superintendent in the middle of the night I had this dream and it woke me up and it was a dream of God saying to me ground yourself in me and partner with me and help me create a healthier body of Christ and I had a long conversation in my journal with God what does it mean to be a healthier body of Christ what does it mean to to live in ways that you know I guess acknowledge and other people's gifted in this and and so so I started living that out and as I did I started thinking about the fact that everything that God was asking me to do was really empowering others and also thinking about what gives I bring so as I think about the situation that we're in right now and what it means to be a healthy body of Christ we really are those who are asked to look at at the present circumstances and place our vision of what God has asked us to do so for me it's thinking of all of the ways that God is the body of Christ is living itself out some some folks are in sheltered places because they need to to their giftedness needs to be in all of us are in sheltered places but we're using our giftedness in different ways so some are delivering food others are receiving it and and encouraging one another through phones you know there's all kinds of things that are going on we can translate that to how we move back into our buildings as well and recognize that there will be parts of our body that will be in our buildings and they'll be parts of our body that are not going to be in our buildings they can't be but that doesn't mean that their giftedness is not utilized so I just want to lay that framework of how I'm thinking about the church and how the church is being the church and I could take that to the next degree of how we look at the facilities and using everybody's giftedness and abilities as they you know look at the use of the buildings in different ways and I'm just gonna stop there because I wanted to just take a minute to give Todd Harris an opportunity to unmute and to talk about his theological point of view as he thinks about being in a different way go ahead Todd so can we thank you for for leading us in this exercise because I think as local church pastors and as local church members as followers of Jesus Christ we look to scripture to guide us and we look to our theological reference references to guide us in making decisions in all seasons of life so can we thank you for for engaging us in this important work engaging us theologically because hopefully hopefully we all think differently I've long resonated with the image of God as shepherd the 23rd song is a song that always speaks to my heart and that different verses spoken into different seasons of my life and so I've long resonated with the image of God as shepherd and then for years and years and years and even to this day I've resonated with the image of shepherd as in pastoring church for nearly 30 years I saw myself as a shepherd in the midst of that and even now as a district superintendent I continue to understand my ministry as as a shepherd and and as I think as I think about that I certainly am not the lead shepherd and I see Christ as the great shepherd and Christ is the head of the church and is the shepherd of the church and that Christ is the one who leads us and guides us in all that we do and and I think as pastors or at least as I understand my role I think Christ invites me into that role of shepherding people as Christ shepherds me but anyway so I find myself thinking in terms of shepherding in the district that that there's so many ways you can you can talk about a ds as a shepherd and that part of my role is just to guide the sheep and the sheep include both clergy and laity and I have had many conversations with with laity in this season but primarily my conversations have been with pastors in terms of how do we guide our congregations in this I I see my role as a shepherd and and not only do I engage them in how they lead their sheep but also hopefully guiding us as a as a district into green pastures and besides still waters and to experience all the ways in which God refreshes our souls and so I understand my role as as the shepherd now sometimes the shepherd is out in front of the sheep and calling them when I used to have cows when I was in high school I'd go out into the pasture and I'd call the cows but they'd come to my truck and eat and off the back of my truck and so there are times when I call the sheep as a district superintendent and and I do that through a variety of ways and I've come to do that through zoom is one of the ways and and hopefully offering times to engage with one another and to eat and to be refreshed at least spiritually and then there are times I'm in the middle of the of the flock and and sometimes I'm in the middle of the flock or the herd of sheep it's like ultimate chaos but but I find that even in the chaos God is guiding us in a mutual direction for the most part and then there are times I'm at the end of the herd and I'm moving the sheep forward and in terms of where we go and I felt that way in a local church as as the shepherd and seeing myself in all those different places thank thank God for sheep dogs that come along the way to help us in hurting the sheep because we can't do it by ourselves and so there are those that come along with us and our partners with us and in that image and and so as I live that out in the role of district superintendent in this in this crazy currently time I've already mentioned some of the ways that I've tried to shepherd in my district but but I have to ask myself what what the shepherd of the church do as we think about not not only how we've been doing ministry and looking for new ways of doing ministry but as I think specifically about how do I how how would I return or invite people to return to the building what would I a shepherd do and as shepherd I see myself as having a responsibility to make sure the sheep are safe to make sure the the sheep are are aware of the guidelines of how we gather safely as as shepherd of the flock I make sure that the people know the parameters of of how we gather in sacred space and all of this is applicable to the district as well I see my role as as lifting up the rules and regulations that are provided by our conference and by the state of texas and by county guidelines and and so making sure that people are aware of those the other thing is a shepherd that I do in terms of helping people get safe to be safe is is to make them aware that we're we're bigger than than just one person that that we as as sheep who are part of of God's flock have a responsibility for our neighbor sometimes sheep have a tendency only to think of themselves and not of anyone else and so as the shepherd I need to remind the sheep they are part of something much larger than what they realize and we each have a responsibility one to the other to make sure the other is safe and and so there are things that that I do that hopefully will model that as I think about inviting the sheep back to the building I do I think about what's my example in all of this so like wearing a mask I know there's a lot of debate about whether or not we should wear masks but I should I believe I should model that that right behavior I believe I should model not hugging people or shaking hands as much as I want to as much as I need that I feel like as the shepherd I've got to model that so anyway you know as I think theologically about this season is I think theologically about my role as a leader in the church it is the image of the good shepherd that I resonate with and and it is the good shepherd that guides us all that knows us all by name and is continuously at work in our lives calling us to be a part of the herd of the flock so thank you go on and on yeah okay um so today what we'd love I appreciate what you've offered Todd and that's why I asked you to speak um I I think today as we engage in this conversation I want us to just begin thinking of ourselves as spiritual leaders and how how will we employ a biblical scriptural theological imagery that leads us and so in probably about 10 minutes you're going to be ask the question in your small groups what guiding biblical image best describes your view as you make plans to reopen your building for ministry use and I'd love for you to just consider that as you are thinking of who you are as the faithful leader and I'll I think we can get that in the chat that question and and then we'll also be asking you the question with this image of mine what is the message and that you're going to communicate and say to your congregation so just keep that in mind as we move to the the next thing and you'll have some time to think about it um the next thing I I would like to do is invite Kayeck to to say a couple words now Kaye is not from a medium or small church but she is a from Lovers Lane United Methodist Church she is a great resource and she their their church is divided into smaller congregations that all meet within the church and they recently had a survey and one of the things that I'm lifting up for you all today is that I want you to keep in mind your context they took their context and they decided to do a questionnaire survey to find out how their people are feeling right now and and their responses to the church so okay if you just come up and offer your insights from that appreciate it thanks for being with us today Reverend Kayeck. Hi friends my name is Kaye I'm so happy to see some familiar faces and it's great to be with you this morning or I guess it's this afternoon now um when Kami called I said Kami I'm not an expert in this subject at all but we do have a great staff team at Lovers Lane that's really been thinking about the best way to approach this and I would say that we've made a shift from the whole like let's get back to normal as soon as we can to asking questions like what does the new normal look like and how do we adapt to continue to meet the needs of our congregation. If you don't know or follow Kerry Newhoff I strongly suggest that you do I'm going to drop his website in the comments in just a minute. He's a pastor of a large church called Canexus in Canada and teaches on leadership and he actually has a free leadership course at seven I think seven sessions that's totally free that you can do online that's that is definitely worth your time. I follow him and he is one of the most influential people when it comes to my growth but he said this recently in a blog he said reopening your church is so much more complex than closing it ever was. Reopening your church is so much more complex than closing it ever was and I think we find that to be true right. So like Cammie said we have at Lovers Lane it's a unique church because we have seven worship services on a Sunday morning so that makes those individual congregations small to medium size and so that really is affecting how we're thinking through this. The first thing that we did is sent a survey to our congregation which I'd be happy to share with you asking questions like have you attended worship online? How have you experienced God online? Have you participated in any online group or class? Are you in what the CDC considers the high-risk category? Would you bring someone if we were to open would you bring someone to worship with you who is in the high-risk category? Would you bring your children if we were to open? Would you be interested in participating in a home church? And so we started analyzing some adults and they really were about what I expected but I was pleasantly surprised that over two-thirds of the people who took the survey reported that they have experienced God more or the same as they have in person so I thought that was really encouraging. We had about half of the respondents say that they have participated in an online group or class and many of the comments actually said once we do reopen can we continue doing these groups and classes online so I don't have to get out get out of my house and drive to the church they're really enjoying that. About 60 percent of the responders are in what the CDC calls the high-risk category. 75 percent of people said that they were unlikely to come back or it depends on the safety precautions in place when ask if they would come back if we reopen. That's 75 percent said eh and 92 percent said they would not bring a person in a high-risk category or that it depends on the safety precautions in place. So I think just to Todd's point about shepherding that's told us a lot about where where our people are and what they are ready for. So just a couple of things that we're doing at Lovers Lane I'm sure you've already thought through some things but this has been helpful conversation for us. Right now our staff on campus we only have the administrative staff on campus and anybody who comes in has to sign in. We enter through one door that's propped open so people aren't pushing on the handles and then you have to wear a mask and maintain social distance barriers. We do have volunteers on campus who are working with our food ministry we're distributing food but they also have to sign in sanitize wear a mask and gloves and then any staff on campus if if you need to go on campus for a certain reason you have to sign in so we know who's there and that way we know more about where all to clean what offices to clean but and you have to leave campus five five wear a mask. So for worship we've been thinking about ways what it would look like if people do start to come back and those things are just making sure that we are cleaning each space after a worship service requiring people to wear masks and providing one if you don't have one and also thinking through questions like if you ask people to come and wear a mask and you give them one and they don't wear it what do you do what you know do you throw them out you know it's just we're thinking through those sorts of questions. We have well we will have hand sanitizer at all entrances to the campus and of course continue to keep doors propped open and we're talking about moving as many services as we can to our largest venue which is our sanctuary just so that we can be spaced out even more. We have decided that we'll do no kids programming until school starts. That we'll ask people to enter and exit through different doors as we can. We'll remove the offering basket and put one in the back you know not past the plate we removed our registration pads we've removed bibles and hymns and pins from the pews those things that we touch will eliminate bulletins that sort of thing. Of course we've already talked about no congregational singing but we'll utilize prerecorded small ensembles instead and then we have we've said we won't have any kids programming this summer on sunday mornings including vds and our summer camps that we have planned and the same thing with our youth ministry we won't do camps or mission trips this summer but we are trying to figure out can we gather small groups of youth and backyards and then live stream i think our kids are using instagram live can we instagram live that small group or worship time from different places around the city. But with all of that said we've been talking about how do we switch our thinking to address this new normal and and not just trying to go back to the way that things were so we think we'll see a move toward online so we want to keep planning worship with that in mind i think if we were just to open the doors of the church and say hey come on back that we'll see a small percentage of people who actually are ready to come back and so we want to continue focusing on a great online worship experience. So what is it like to create worship where we continue to address our online viewers as well as the people in the room? I think i've heard it said like before covid happens many of us were doing facebook live or we were live streaming and we let the online viewer look over our shoulder into what was happening in the room and since covid we have started streaming online and we as people come back can we let them look over our shoulder into our live broadcast and continue to focus on meeting the needs of the people who are online. So one resource i want to share with you that might be helpful if you are trying to use facebook live if you don't have a you know a tech team you can set up facebook live and hit record but there's a resource that's also free it's called StreamYard and it allows you to put words and pictures on the screen you know like on the lower thirds so for those of you who might not have access to ProPresent or other things like that you can set up your whole worship service and anything you want on the screen from you know scripture or hymn lyrics or whatever it is and then you can run that as you are doing your worship service so that's free and it's called StreamYard so as we're planning we're considering the quality of the worship experience too and we're we're not quick to say we need to reopen for the same reason that the bishop said that we believe it's our call to do no harm but we want to consider the quality of the experience not only for the online viewer but also for those who do come back once our campus starts to open. There's a pastor named Larry Osborn at North Coast Church in California who has a video and I'll share this link with you as well but it really helps you ask the questions around quality of worship, children and then your worship and music experience so will early services once you start to allow people back in will it be a quality experience and at Lovers Lane we're talking about is it going to be okay to come in and not be able to greet anyone to wear a mask and to not seeing or can people experience God online more than they might in worship. He also asked questions like if we don't open our children and youth program and we ask our kids to come to church and sit with their families and then they don't have a great experience a quality of worship service because we're saying like this or you know whatever then what does that teach them about God I think that's a great theological question and then what's the experience of the congregation without singing so I'll share that video with you it's only about 10 minutes and it's worth it to take a watch so all that is to say being very cautious at Lovers Lane we don't have an open date in mind but we are really relying on the bishop's recommendation and it is really helpful it has been really helpful for me to be able to say oh I'm sorry the bishop won't let us open yet I've even sent a text to the DS and said I need you to say no to this request can we blah blah blah and Deborah responded with a no and that's just having our back is really helpful as well thank you okay I think there were a couple folks that wanted to know about the possibility of seeing an example of your survey so that's on the chat and if that's possible that could be a resource for people just to have good questions so absolutely great thank you thank you for that I'm going to move to back to Todd and he has an example of a plan that was made as I talked about it earlier before that's from the Archer City Church no that's not right I have a park church apart and yeah they are connected because their their pastors are married so I just want I also want to say that I really appreciate the work that all of our pastors are doing with the guidelines and I know in my district I've heard from many of you and some of you I still owe an email too and I will get to that later today but you've shown me your plans for reopening and the guidelines that you're following so I appreciate the work that all of you're doing. Jeffrey Pell is one of those who emailed me and said here the guidelines what do you think about them and and so his sort of systemic thinking helps me when he puts it in a chart and and I know right where he's going and it has a checklist so am I do I need to put that up or y'all going to put that up so so anyway this is and we're going to have time with this in the small groups but this is a checklist and a guide that Jeff put together and and and that he's using within his church and a couple of things that that I really find helpful about that would be he has guiding principles that could be a theological reference for why we're doing what we're doing and and he is putting everything under this idea of doing doing no harm which we as United Methodists know is very much a part of part of our DNA and who we are and how we lead and how we interact with other people and so especially in this time of COVID-19 and sheltering in place and thinking about reopening I think at the heart of what we're doing really is thinking about doing no harm to other people or putting people at risk so the other thing too that I appreciate about the sort of his guiding principles he has a purpose statement there and and and so the purpose of this document is to sort of detail their procedures and and will be a guiding force for them for now and into the future and they'll be able to amend it for the future and so I know he's working specifically with his leaders and we've all been encouraged to work with leaders not to be in highland out there on our own not to be the solo shepherd but to really think about working collaboratively with our leaders but guiding them in this process so I appreciate Jeff's thinking about how do we minimize in person activities and maximize their experience Kay talked about that and then and then providing alternatives for people to meet I do know that there's some places in the Northwest District because we're more outdoors that there are some churches that have provided some small group gatherings outside and people are spacing their chairs out underneath trees and enjoying the outdoors but they're doing it with parameters and how people are to gather in those so but providing alternatives I like what Jeff says here for those who do not wish or unable to attend in person worship services and participate in the worship rituals alternative options will be made will be made for you be made available to you and so you can see that for yourself but they're thinking about all the people in the community of faith not just those who want to come and gather for worship so then if we scroll up a little bit you begin to see more of the framework for this template and when we meet in our small groups you'll see how how the folks at Iowa Park filled in their their response in the middle column but you see the description of all the things that they're thinking about and you see how detailed they get from the number of worship services that they're going to offer the social distancing to movement of people how the greeters will function what the doors would look like down to singing music a lot has been said about congregational singing and and there's stuff that's coming out from musicians now that they talk about the dangers of congregational singing and not just congregational singing but the sharing of liturgy the recitation of liturgy in the church and how that can can can share germs with other people so let's keep scrolling down and you'll continue to see the details that Jeff goes into so he covers childcare Sunday school how they're going to clean their worship spaces their ongoing ministry so he's got a detailed guide and then communication communication is a huge part I've shared with the pastors and the district here that we cannot over communicate our plan and we know this day in time people get their information from all kinds of sources and so I really appreciate how Jeff has thought about the communication plan and how he's going to share the information and he's gone into great detail from everything from the pulpit to the church sign out front and and to word of mouth helping people to sort of script the narrative about how the church is taking precautions so so anyway this is a template and and this template will be made available to you and like I said when we get into our small groups you'll see the detailed plan that I will park is using and then you even see how the the document even put a place for me to sign on there so so you see how this document is is fleshed out and how it can be utilized and then then in the the columns to the right there's spaces there for you to check off put a date in ongoing kinds of things so really all of this is ongoing but but anyway but there's a great template and and I appreciate the work that Jeff is doing but I also appreciate the work that all the pastors are doing to adhere to the guidelines laid out by the by the north Texas conference and by the state of Texas thank you thank you and thanks to Jeff Pell for his leadership I want us to see two documents then I'm going to invite us to go into breakout rooms and have about 45 minutes of conversation and so what I'd like to have up is a checklist for churches and houses of worship this is the the document that we put out with with the bishops letter last week and so just wanted to just remind you that that this is the health and human services has sent this to us and this is where to follow the regulations so please follow what this document says it's part of what we walk with with the law and then also guess no I want you guys there's three pages of it so go ahead and scroll down just so you guys know what's on here there we go and you can just follow all the things that they are saying for places of worship you can keep on scrolling and that is on our website and it'll also be on the chat and you can download that and the second is something that we've put together that's a little bit more for our local use as we think about who we are as a church and these are just the guidelines for returning to your local church sites and I want you guys to note that when we talked about pulling this all together that as a cabinet we realized that so that you as a church your lay people the lay people the pastors all have agency to be able to think through all you know all the different ways to look through the worship setting and look at the the ways the building is used and but we just wanted to be able to prompt you with questions for you to go through and consider how you're going to respond given your context when we stand at the moral balcony perspective we have so many different contexts that we are looking at and we know that you know your context best and we we trust we we also talked about in the cabinet that we will have your back so just make sure you ask us for assistance along the way and we're certainly welcome we'll welcome your phone calls and to walk alongside you as you make these decisions so those are the two pieces that are we've offered for you to to utilize and we we will also have those in the chat sections so at this point if mariel is ready are you ready mariel which okay she has now put she she and kelly need to be commended because they have coordinated 152 people into breakout sessions and if you've not ever done this before when they ask for you to join a breakout session just click on to it and that'll put you with a what I thought was going to be a small group but it's going to be a larger small group of you with a district superintendent or one of the center directors and we'll go ahead and have our own conversations about how we engage this so thanks so much see you all soon thank you once again for your participation today if you look in the chat room on the very low bottom of your screen if you haven't done this before you can go to chat you can see there that there's all the documents there's the north texas church's places of worship document there's andy's also putting in a list of recommendations from the texas department of health and human services there should be there's several other items on there from lovers laying in item at this church and things that she has done as well as it looks like some work from mike bonham who is a church consultant for all of you guys to be able to use the resources that we've got here there's also where if you go on the website you'll also see places where you can use utilize resources we've been putting up for the whole churches and thank you for the time you spent today here thanks to the district superintendents for leading the groups and the center directors appreciate that kelly carpenter who's been helping with the chat and adding information to your resource and particularly mariel that uh who spent some time trying to sort you all into to rooms so appreciate the gifts that they brought today um before we go i have been asked to share that last announcement that there's going to be a lunchtime trivia if anybody wants to just do something for fun and not just work work work on zoom you can join yet another zoom opportunity for that's hosted by owens center and oh according to him there's prizes so there you go you'll have fun with that you want to say anything more about that owen just the grand prizes bishop mckay will record his voice on your answering machine so if that doesn't bring everybody to the game then i don't know what we'll so i guess i'll be there hope to see some of you on thursday at high noon um also we are here for you all um our the center directors would like to support you in your work so please don't hesitate to contact us through email and and if you want a phone call just have a chat leave your phone number we'll call you and help you along the way um thanks for the the way that you are faithful and uh you're leading our churches thank you to lay people who are part of leading today as well and the and the clergy so go with this benediction you are the people of god sent by god created by god and empowered by god and pray your holy spirit the holy spirit's present be in all of you as you walk in faith as you journey this life in these next coming days in the name of christ amen blessings to you all