Pastoral Letter

Hey CG Family, 

It’s hard to believe that we’re already in the month of August! As we prepare to fully reopen in-person gatherings this coming fall, we’ve got a couple of really big and exciting announcements that I wanted to share with you on behalf of our church leadership. It's a bit of a long one so get comfy, grab a cup of coffee and read on =)

WE’RE MOVING!

It’s official — we’re moving our Sunday gathering location to Bellevue Youth Theatre starting in September! Hopefully this announcement doesn’t come as a complete surprise to you, as we have been leveraging BYT’s outdoor amphitheatre space for our summer outdoor in-person gatherings and have hinted at the possibility of BYT becoming our new home for us in this next season of ministry.

With the uncertainty of when we would be able to return to Resonance, having lost our shared office space at Soma Towers apartments during the pandemic (which gave us access to a variety of amenity spaces such as the 3rd floor lounge, conference room, and outdoor terrace pre-pandemic), and our ongoing need for a larger venue to accommodate growth, better spaces for children’s ministry, and a desire to locate ourselves in a neighborhood that would allow us to love, serve and minister to a more diverse community — the timing of this opportunity couldn’t have been any better. 

While we acknowledge change can always be hard, especially with so many incredible memories being made at Resonance and Soma Towers over the years, we are reminded especially in this past year, that the church ultimately is not about a building, but about the people. We are incredibly grateful to God for opening this door for us and look forward to all that God has in store for our community in the coming months in our new home!

If you’re interested in a virtual tour of BYT, you can preview the space here.  

WE’RE HIRING!

Many of you know that we have been wanting to expand and diversify our pastoral team for some time now in an effort to better serve and support our growing ministry, but because of the pandemic, had put those plans on hold for the time being. That being said, as we begin to make preparations to reopen in-person this fall, our leadership believes that now is the right time to begin to re-engage in that process.

As such, we have begun our pastoral search process with the intention of bringing on an Associate Pastor that can lead and serve our church especially in the areas of discipleship, spiritual formation, congregational care, family/youth ministries, and reconciliation. I’m excited to share that through divine connections and God’s providence, we have found a pastoral candidate that we are extremely excited about and think would be an ideal fit for the role and our church. Her name is Pastor Liana Sims, and as part of our ongoing interview and discernment process, we will be bringing her up to Seattle from August 12th - 17th to meet our church family. 

You can find her bio on the ‘Friends of Common Good’ event page here.

SUN 8/15 — AN “INSIDE” SNEAK PEAK & PASTORAL CANDIDATE MEET N’ GREET! 

With all these new and potential changes for the fall, what now? Well, Sunday, August 15th is our next in-person gathering, and in light of all these upcoming changes, we’re going to mix things up a bit as a preview of things to come. 

First, we’re moving our upcoming summer outdoor in-person Sunday gathering, inside! We know things will be heating up mid-August weather wise (as if it hasn’t already been hot enough outside!), so we figured we’d move the service indoors and at the same time give you an “inside” sneak peak of the Bellevue Youth Theatre. Because we’ll be indoors and with concerns around the Delta variant, we will be asking everyone to mask up, practice social distancing, and follow all updated CDC and King County COVID safety gathering guidelines. For those that don’t feel comfortable being indoors yet, we will be live streaming the service so you can watch and participate in the service in real-time from the comforts of your home.

Second, if you haven’t already made the connection by now, our special guest speaker for our ‘Friends of Common Good’ sermon series on Sunday, August 15th is none other than our pastoral candidate, Liana Sims, who will be joining us live and in-person! Not only will you have a chance to hear her preach, but we’ll also be hosting a pastoral candidate meet-n-greet outdoors immediately after service. So make sure to stick around for a free lunch and a chance to fellowship with one another and with Pastor Liana!

SUMMING THINGS UP

I know all that was a lot to take in. In fact, this past year was A LOT...for all of us. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking it out through a pandemic and for continuing to show up for each other. I'm grateful for your continued patience, flexibility, faithfulness and generosity to this community. We're still here, emerging on the other side of this pandemic, only by the grace of God and because of each of you. 

If you have any questions, concerns or just need to process any of the upcoming announcements that were shared, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email at royce@commongood.church or by phone at (206) 390-7102. 

With much love & gratitude,
Pastor Royce
For the CG Staff & Leadership