Hello Church Family,

We hope this email greets you enjoying another beautiful day God has given us, rain is coming in droves but we need that too! The board of trustees has some updates that we wanted to share with you. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

We are excited that Jesse Roman has accepted the position as Associate Pastor at LBC. Jesse will start the position on June 6th, and the next few months will be a transition period for Jesse and his family as they will be moving from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Please continue to pray for Jesse and his family and specifically that they are able to find the right residence in the area.
Praise God! It appears that conditions are changing and we are coming out of a long season caused by Covid 19. The church can now be open to full capacity. The ribbons between pews have been taken down so that all pews can be used. We will continue to have seating in both the sanctuary and the overflow area to allow people to space out as they choose. This has been a very difficult time for all of us and we continue to ask our church family to be the Church, love God and love your neighbor. Each of us is in a different place, for different reasons so please be considerate and love each other well. We have Christ in common, let's start there and follow his example. Through this past year, we have done our best to follow local and state health standards, as you may know there was a change in the recommended use of masks Friday, May 28th. The government is no longer requiring vaccinated people to wear a mask indoors in most public spaces such as restaurants, malls, gyms, pools, casinos, indoor amusement parks, stadiums or theaters. The government is recommending that unvaccinated people continue to wear masks and socially distance themselves. Governor Murphy said, "We won’t have law enforcement checking people’s vaccination status, but we are asking people to be responsible," Murphy already lifted an outdoor mask mandate last week for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. If this is the standard that a governing official is asking for then we must hold ourselves to a much higher level of love, mercy, kindness, and brotherly love as we wade through this next phase together. As we each make personal decisions in this and all situations we must remember to love our brothers and sisters and treat them accordingly regardless of how we may agree or disagree about this stage and all that is involved. There is no possible way, nor is there a desire to "police" these things among the body but let us remember that we are already given a much higher standard within God's word. What a great opportunity to "show that we are His disciples by how we love each other." With the fact being that children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated our teachers will continue to wear masks unless outdoors.
We will be moving to one service starting June 6th, that service will be at 10am. Sunday school will also start that day and will take place from 8:45-9:45. Children's church and nursery will be available during the 10am service.
Children's day is June 13th at 10am. Children's day provides an opportunity for our youth to run the service and to share what they have been learning.

We love you church and we are excited about what God is and will do at LBC. We will face challenges and blessings, let's lean on the Word together and pray without ceasing as we go through life as a family in Christ.

Sincerely,

LBC Board of Trustees

Psalm 80:7 Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.