Spring is almost here and we sense new life and new hope in the air. We have seen God meet us in our wounded winter, He’s healed us and set us back on our feet again. Ministry is reemerging in the form of Sundays on campus, kids in the classrooms, groups meeting online and in person… and we’ve been blessed with a great interim pastor for the coming season.
Ciff Tadema comes to us from Skagit Valley, and has many opportunities leading churches in situations like ours. The awkward gap between FORMER and FUTURE senior pastors is best filled with someone strong in pastoral care, staff leadership, and decades of ministry experience. Cliff is that guy for Arbor. He will steer the ship while the Pastoral Search Committee works on finding our more permanent senior leader.
Cliff is looking forward to meeting with you over coffee. He’d like to hear your heart and help you take steps forward in healing or in discipleship. Reach out via email and he will connect with you as soon as possible (cliff@arborchurch.com).
Spoiler alert: everything’s going to be okay. Also: he is tall.
We’ve reopened our doors on Sunday which is absolutely lifegiving! Of course, forever and always we’ll be streaming our services online for those who are out of town, out of good health, or out of gas… but the rest of you are warmly invited to worship, learn, and connect alongside your real-life Arbor family.
Things feel mostly the same, but just like with local restaurants and businesses, there are a few discernable changes. We’re sorta spaced out. We’ve got hand-sani scattered around. We’re masked. We use a nifty RSVP SYSTEM to manage capacity. All of these things are to provide the best and safest faith community we can; not everyone is blessed with robust immunity! Not everyone can afford 2 weeks off work. Not everyone lives in a household that can withstand weeks of illness. We gather to worship with respect to the community that surrounds us, both inside and outside the Arbor walls.
We invite you to join us Sundays ON-CAMPUS or ONLINE at 9 & 11am… you’ll find the RSVP button smack dab in the middle of our web homepage (arborchurch.com). Excited to be with you, however and whenever!
We’re delighted to welcome all the kids back ON CAMPUS for ministry fun each Sunday. During March, we’re opening the Greenhouse, Thicket, Grove and Orchard for children during the 9am service. We use the same RSVP system on the homepage (arborchurch.com) to ensure capacity guidelines; thank you in advance for your patience with it.
If your child’s class is full, you can click to add them to the waitlist. We will notify you ASAP via email if an opening occurs!
If you happen to wake up not feeling well on Sunday, or if your family has been exposed to COVID this week, have the kids jump on ARBORKIDS ONLINE at 8:50. Fantastic faith friends and leaders are there every Sunday to continue connection with your family for the foreseeable future. More info (and the zoom link) can be found here: arborchurch.com/kids/.
Health Notes about ArborKids:
- leaders and children over 5 wear masks… temps will be taken upon entry.
- touchless check-in and frequent sanitizing
- kiddos will enjoy time with their friends in a low-exertion activity pod to reduce exposures.
This too shall pass! Someday we will look back on this year and chuckle/weep, won’t we? We’ll do it TOGETHER…. and in the process, we’ll learn a lot about community life and the beauty of being together. God is a restorer and we look forward to the time He restores us back to normal! Maybe we’ll be even better than before.
With great hope,
The Arbor Team
