Today we’ll be trying something many churches have been doing regularly for some time… but for us, it’s a first. As with all firsts, there’s a sense of the unknown, but we hope we can maintain some semblance of normality even in our ‘try-something-different’ approach.

We appreciate not everyone has Internet access and we’ll be doing our best to stay in touch with people through telephone conversations and texting as well, but since the vast majority can access the Internet, we’ll also be putting up services online on Sundays and on Thursdays when we would normally have meetings (and maybe some other times as well… we’re investigating options!)

This morning at 11 a.m., Garry and I will be in the church building doing a service that can be accessed by Facebook livestreaming. If you go to the church Facebook page (type in GPCC or the full church name to find it – https://www.facebook.com/GoldthorpePentecostalCommunityChurch/), at 11 a.m. we will hold a live service. You should be able to see us and hear us and we’ll be praying and Garry will be giving a short message.

Tonight at 6 p.m. we’ll be trying a service using a different technology (Zoom), just to see how things go and what people find easiest. I’ll be posting a link to that later today; to access the service, you will need to access the link on a tablet or laptop or computer. If you are using a mobile phone, please download the free app Zoom so you can watch it. That should be relatively easy to do, I’m told!

Please bear with us, as this is all very new to us, but we really do want to give people the opportunity to see each other, listen to God’s word and to pray. We’re working on songs etc., having just purchased a livestreaming licence which should allow us to sing our usual songs without infringing copyright laws. So we are doing our best to provide services to you all and hope you will take the time out of your schedules to pause and join with us, even though it may feel odd worshipping God in this way at first.

If you can, please let us know you’re watching (usually available through ‘comments’ and ‘chat’ facilities on these options) and let us have feedback so that we know you’re there! It’s going to feel very strange talking to a camera rather than to a live audience, but hey… maybe we can reach even more people this way!