Dear Church Family,  

I am so very excited about our upcoming joint worship opportunity with Second Baptist Church, and I hope you are, as well.  On Sunday, October 22 we will welcome our brothers and sisters from Second Baptist Church to our campus for worship at 11:00 am and a wonderful fellowship lunch afterwards.  

Here are some things that you can look forward to.  Members of Second Baptist’s choir will join our choir for a special anthem, “Days of Elijah,” and the Second Baptist praise team will also offer a special selection during the service.  Leaders from both congregations will guide us throughout the entire service, including communion served by deacons from both congregations.  Additionally, we will be blessed as Rev. Doug Slaughter brings the message that morning.  Then, we will all get to share wonderful barbeque and sides as we break bread together following worship.  

Here are some things to be aware of and some ways that you can help us welcome Second Baptist well that day.  

If you are able, please park at one of our more distant parking locations for that day.  We, of course, have our parking spots across York Street next to the African-American Museum.  We have also secured permission to park across Barnwell at the Anderson & Anderson building.  If you need to park closer, please park toward the Roberts Building side of our parking lot as we are seeking to reserve the York Street side of our parking lot for our guests that day.  Additional handicap spots will be noted for the day, as well.  We will need additional ushers to assist with parking and welcoming everyone that day, so if you are able to serve in this way, please contact David McGuire or the church office to let us know.  

We will have security present for this day.  It will be provided by a company our safety team has reached out to as we learn of what we need to implement long-term here at our own church.  Second Baptist is accustomed to having a safety team in place, so we are doing this as an act of hospitality since our safety team is still in a research and formation phase and is not yet operational.  

When you enter the sanctuary, do your best to spread out, welcome our guests from Second Baptist, and sit alongside them for worship.  I know we all have our seats that we are accustomed to using every Sunday, but we will be flexible and hospitable this day as we would anytime we welcome guests.  

When worship ends and we begin making our way toward lunch, please offer to show our friends from Second Baptist the way to the gym and fellowship hall and then join them in line.  We are accustomed to letting guests go first, but if we do that this time around we will accidentally end up separating ourselves from one another and not be able to share lunch around the same tables.  So, let’s help folks find their way to lunch, join them in line, and then share tables, good food, and great fellowship together.  By the way, lunch will be served via two lines in the gym and seating will be available in both the gym and the fellowship hall.  

Finally, let me close with a huge thank you to all the folks that have already put in great work to prepare us well for this Sunday.  I know even more work by more folks will be offered in the weeks to come; and I am grateful.  It is going to be a wonderful day, and it will be so because of the good work and the good hearts of God’s people in this place.  

Grace and Peace,  John