Blood Drive - December 2020
Please consider giving blood at our Community Blood Drive, sponsored by First Baptist Church & West Bend High School. First Baptist Church is hosting the blood drive on December 8 & 9 from 1-6 p.m. both days.
Register online here: www.versiti.org/westbend or you may call the Blood Center: 877-232-4376.
Location:
First Baptist Church (next to Meijer) 2300 South Main St., West Bend 53095
Safe social distancing measures will be in place to ensure donor safety. As per state-mandated regulations, we require all donors to wear personal masks or face coverings. Thank you!
Covid-19 antibody testing on all successful donations! More information/FAQs: www.versiti.org/covid19
Helpful tip:
Make sure to eat a healthy meal and drink plenty of water before donating.
Location
Located about 30 minutes north of Milwaukee, just off of Highway 45, First Baptist Church is easy to find. Take Highway 45 to the Paradise Drive exit. Turn east on Paradise and go to Main Street (three traffic lights). Turn right (south) onto Main Street. We are located at 2300 S. Main St. across from a car dealership and in-between the Kettle Moraine Ice Center and the new Meijer. The church driveway/entrance is on the south side of the property.
Directions
October In-Person Service Update
Over the past few months, we as a church have had to adjust on several occasions. Not surprisingly with a matter that is this unique, with people having different needs, and a matter that falls within the area of principles and discernment in Scripture there have been several different responses to what and how the church should respond. Although there are different responses and opinions, there should be a shared motivation for every Christian's response to these times, faithfulness to God and love for one another.
Each month during this time the deacons have been evaluating the situation and determining the schedule for ministry for the next month. This week the deacons approved the next step in our Sunday ministries' schedule. It is our desire to establish a format that will, out of love and a firm belief in the need to gather to worship God, facilitate the opportunity for the church family to come together. This new schedule for Sunday ministries will begin on October 4.
Sunday Service: We will be returning to having one congregational service at our normal time of 9 am. Our county's recommendations since mid-summer for churches has been that services should be no more than 50% occupancy. Based on our current attendance we will be able to hold one service and remain below that recommended level. With moving to a single service we are now able to offer ministries for our families with younger children, so beginning Oct. 4, Children's Church and nursery will be made available for those that would like to utilize those ministries. As always, families are welcome to use these ministries or stay together in either the auditorium or the cry rooms.
Closed-Circuit Distant Gathering: There are different needs within the body, but each of us still has the spiritual need to gather as a church. In light of that, the Teen Room will be utilized each Sunday for a closed-circuit service. The room will be set up with its own entrance, spaced out setting, deacon care, and a live stream of the service. It is our desire that those attending the service in this room be wearing masks. We know the needs of the church family are different, and it is our hope that this space will provide an opportunity for individuals to gather and be encouraged by worshiping God with others within the church body.
ABF and Sunday School: The church is not just a gathering. It is the one another relationships that minister the Word and love to each other. This is the main purpose of our Adult Bible Fellowships, so we are excited to begin Adult Bible Fellowships and Sunday Schools on October 4.
We make plans to the best of our limited ability, but always trust God as the one who is in control.
For God's Glory,
Pastor Luke
In-Person Service Update
June 1, 2020
Weeks ago we realized that flexibility was going to be an essential trait for us as a church family in the months ahead, and that has proven to be true. Again we will need flexibility as we make more adjustments to our times of gathering on Sundays. Beginning this Sunday (and continuing for the foreseeable future) we will have two options for attending a Sunday morning service. The service times will be 9:00 am and 10:45 am. Offering two services and utilizing an overflow area will allow us to follow the recommendations from the Washington County health department of keeping gatherings at 25% of occupancy. For these services, you will NOT need to sign-up ahead of time. The first 75 individuals will be directed to find a seat in the auditorium. After we have reached 75 in the auditorium, seating in the foyer will be provided as an overflow seating area. As always, the cry rooms will be reserved for families with young children.
We hope this service schedule and plan will help us provide an environment that provides safe distancing while also allowing us to gather as a church family and worship God together. As we have said before, we understand that each within our church family are evaluating their social engagements right now, and we are all reaching different conclusions based on our individual needs and concerns. In light of this we encourage those who are unable to attend in person on Sunday to stream the 9:00 service on our website: firstbaptistwb.org/watch-live.
In-Person Services on Sunday
May 14, 2020
Church Family,
In light of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling yesterday, we are planning on having our Worship service at our church building this Sunday. There will be no other ministries happening at the church building this Sunday, but the Worship service. For the Worship service, we will be limiting the size of the gathering and structuring the service in a way that provides a setting that allows for many within our church family to be comfortable attending. Because of limiting the size of each service we will be holding three identical services (9 am, 10:30 am, and noon) and leaving time between services for the building to be cleaned. To help us spread the congregation between the three services we are using an online sign-up platform. You can sign up by following the instructions at this link: Sunday Services for FBC West Bend. Like usual the 9 am service will still be streamed for those who are unable to attend the service.
- Sign up for a service time to attend by clicking on the "Sunday Services for FBC West Bend" link and then clicking the "Select Time" icon and choosing what service you will be attending.
- Arrive for the service no more than 10 minutes before your service time.
- Hand sanitizer will be provided at the entrance to the auditorium.
- Sit as a family or individually. Leave empty seats between groups. Every other row will be removed to ensure that there is space between different groups.
- Parents, please keep your children with you at all times.
- Although we will be happy to see each other, please love each other well by respecting that each person in our congregation is responding to this differently. We will be refraining from handshaking and other close contact.
- In order to limit what is touched by multiple people, doors will be propped open, offering plates will not be passed, and bulletins will not be offered.
- Each cry room will be reserved for families with small children and babies due to the fact that we will not be having any child care for these services.
These plans are made out of a desire to consider others as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4) and in light of a Scripture that repeatedly sets the command of loving our neighbor. We as pastors understand that some will think we could do less and some will desire us to do more in areas. Our thought on how we structure the service and implement some protections is motivated by the love that Romans 14-15 calls each of us to when the church has differences on wisdom issues, and we challenge each of us in the church to walk in the Spirit so that love can be part of the fruit in our life. I wish I could make each of you read this article on navigating potentially conflict in reopening church services. I can't make you read it, but I do encourage you to, as there is real potential for danger ahead for every church.
Looking forward to seeing you Sunday.
Pastor Luke Love
Instructions for Streaming Sunday's Service
As another Sunday nears we will still be unable to gather as a church. We still have the ability to study the Word and worship God. Online is not ideal, but it is a tool that we can utilize and be thankful for. Even though we are unable to gather as a church family, you are still encouraged to gather with others in your house and view the service together.
Moving the church from gathering at the building to being online has meant that the number of those streaming has risen substantially. We are thankful for all those streaming, but it has meant that we need to adjust some of the technology we use for streaming. Here are a few ways to watch the service now - church website, Facebook Live, YouTube, and a Deaf Livestream. Please choose the one that is most convenient for you.
Church Website
Facebook Live
YouTube Channel
Deaf Livestream
Problems during the service?
We also encourage you to comment on the Facebook livestream if you notice any issues.
COVID-19 Announcement
March 17, 2020 COVID-19 UPDATE:
Online Service: Due to the new instructions being passed down by our governor of gatherings over 50 people now restricted, we will for the time being move our Sunday services to being entirely online. Unlike last Sunday when some chose and were able to attend the service in the building, this Sunday the only option will be to view the service online. This is not ideal, as this is not the church body coming together to worship and encourage each other, but we are thankful for the ability we have to still gather through an online service. If you know of someone in our church family who is unable to stream the service, please let Pastor David Hinz know.
Stream live on our website: Watch Live.
March 14, 2020 COVID-19 Letter from our Pastor:
It is difficult to know where to begin as I know this letter will be one of many letters that have been posted concerning the COVID-19 virus. There has been an onslaught of information and announcements over the past week, and in many ways the situation has changed on an hourly basis which has made it difficult to know how to plan as church leadership. As leadership of the church we have been attempting to gain information from different sources (government and medical), so that we can make an informed decision.
This morning (March 14), the pastors and deacons gathered to prayerfully consider how we respond to our purpose to glorify God, our command to honor our government, our desire to love one another, and our concern for our testimony in the community. We know our God is in control and we know we are to respond in trust of God’s sovereign plan and love for others in need, but a call that says we need to trust God, is not a call to ignore the potential danger or put others in unnecessary danger.
In light of all that, the following decisions have been made regarding our church ministries until further notice:
- Morning Services: Our only service at the church building will be our normal 9:00 a.m. morning service. This service will be adjusted in many ways to minimize contact and with the focus being on online streaming as we know many in our church family will be choosing to be a part of our service through streaming the service.
- No Children’s Ministries or ABFs (adult Bible Fellowships): There will be no children’s ministries, nursery, ABFs, or evening ministries. We welcome families to stay together throughout the entire worship service, utilize one of the cry rooms, or take part of the service through on-line streaming.
- Attendance: We know each individual has to consider numerous factors as they think through all their activities right now, and as a church we respect that different decisions will be made. We are encouraging those who are in a higher risk age group or have pre-existing issues to utilize our online streaming (if unable to stream the service we will make sure you receive a recording of the service). For those who are feeling ill or have recently traveled from high risk areas, we are asking that you show love for your brothers and sisters in Christ and take part in the service through online streaming.
- Encouraging Community and Care: Even though many within our church body will be unable to gather with us, we want to be intentional in encouraging care for each other and community. We are working on online discussion forums to be able to participate during the service and share prayer requests with the church family.
- Online Giving: An aspect of our worship is also our offerings to God. To allow those who are unable to gather physically with us to still worship God through giving, we will be enabling an online giving platform in the next few days. Once that has been establish, we will pass on more information.
Church family, please pray. Pray for your church family, pray for the community that God placed us in right now to minister to and proclaim a gospel of hope to many who are in fear, and pray for our gospel partners of which many of them have been dealing with the impact of this virus for months.
Communication will be vital for the life of our church in the coming weeks, so please do not hesitate to reach out to the church office (info@firstbaptistwb.org), a pastor, or deacon if you need specific prayer, physical help, or if you know of another in our church family who could use assistance. In the coming weeks we will each have to be more creative and intentional to be faithful to love one another, encourage one another, and care for one another.
I’m encouraged that these events are not the first events that have caused Christ’s church to adjust. Far greater challenges for the church have arisen over the centuries, yet in all of that Christ’s church has continued to exalt God, edify believers, and evangelize the world.
In Prayer,
Pastor Luke Love