NORTHLAND UPDATES

WEEKEND SERVICE UPDATE

While we never stopped gathering in spirit, our physical doors are open for those who desire to return to campus. We cannot emphasize enough, that there is no pressure to join in-person and our online remains available. Whether you join us in-person or online, here are some details to help you decide what’s best for you and your loved ones.

Northland Christian Church will take the following steps and precautions to ensure the safety of staff, volunteers, and attendees:

  • The Worship Center and Northland Kids are open for our Sunday 9:00 and 10:45 am services.
  • Enhanced and frequent cleaning and disinfecting will be performed in all areas.
  • All high touch surfaces will be disinfected before/after each service.
  • Hand sanitizer stations will be added at key entry points and throughout building.
  • All individuals over 10 years of age will wear masks. 
  • All volunteers and staff will be required to wear masks (exception for anyone onstage during service leading worship and teaching).
  • Seating will be spaced out to accommodate physical distancing (6 feet between rows and leave 2 chairs between your family and the next).
  • We’re discouraging Handshakes and hugs, but encouraging waves and smiles!
  • Communion will not be passed, rather we will have prepackaged elements available at the door or at stations in the room during service.
  • Offering drop boxes will be placed near the exits of the Worship Center or you can drop it off with an usher holding a white bucket.
  • The Cafe will be open with primarily pre-packaged items. 

RE-OPENING WEEKEND – 6/21/20

Hello Church,

We can’t wait for this Sunday and the opportunity to welcome you back to the building for services! We have brand new service times at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM beginning this week, June 21 (if you missed that announcement, be sure to check out northland.cc/updates). We’ll still have our Live Stream online at northland.cc/live or on our Facebook at these same times.

We know that coming back is a big deal. And we want you to know we’re working hard to prepare for your arrival. We also know there are different approaches everyone has when it comes to being out in public. We want to create a welcoming environment no matter how or when you show up.

Here are some of the details:

Cleaning and Disinfecting: We have a team lined up to help wipe down commonly touched surfaces, handles, knobs, and anything we can think of before and between services.

Masks: We will not require masks, but will in no way discourage them. We want you to come back as comfortably as possible. Shorts, flip-flops, and a mask? Come on in. A suit, tie, and no mask? We’re glad you’re here, too!

Northland Kids: Kids’ ministry will happen at both the 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM services. Our teams will work hard to create a safe, clean, and exciting environment for your kids as they come back. Our Children’s Director, Angela, will be communicating with families directly about those efforts and what you can expect as we re-open.

Adult Sunday School: Adult Sunday School will resume on July 12th. Our Discipleship and Spiritual Formations Pastor, Doug Mingus, will work with Sunday School Leaders to find which service time works best for their specific group.

Communion & Offering: Communion will take place at stations with pre-packaged elements for increased protection. The offering will not be passed during the service, but, at the end of each service, there will be ushers at the back of the Worship Center to receive your offering, as well as your Connection Card.

Bulletins & Connection Cards: We will have a printed bulletin and Connection Card as well as a digital option for both, and you’ll be able to open them using your smartphone and let us know you’re here by filling out the digital Connection Card.

Cafe: Our cafe will be open with coffee and a reduced menu during this season.

Welcome Team: Our Welcome team is gearing up to welcome you back into the building. They’ll be here to greet you with a wave and a smiling face as you walk in. There will be 6 feet between rows in the worship center. For parents who do not feel comfortable dropping off kids at Children’s Ministry, we will have an activity bag they may use and take home with them.

Northland Student Ministry (NSM): NSM is headed to their own camp experience this summer – called “Reset” – on July 6-9. There will also be a couple of gatherings for students after camp before Fall begins. You can check out the details and register for camp at northland.cc/students. Student Ministry Sunday Mornings will resume in August when the new school year begins..

I think we’ve said it already, but we’ll say it again…We can’t wait to see you soon – maybe even this Sunday! Don’t forget the new service times at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM.

Thursday, June 18, 2020, 3:40 PM.

WEEKEND SERVICE UPDATE

Hello Church,

Here at Northland, we believe God’s rescue mission started with His Son and continues through us. This is our home, this is our mission. We believe Jesus should be the center of every home. But for this to happen, people have to meet Jesus. The lost must be reached for them to hear the Gospel. That vision moves us beyond our walls and towards an unwavering pursuit to go and make disciples. This will not be easy and will require us to move beyond our comfort zone, to keep the focus on the vision and be unified as one church going forward.

That focus will start in our largest environment, the weekend worship serves. This is our first and biggest opportunity to welcome guests and communicate the gospel. Now, more than ever we’ve felt the need to bring focus to how we plan, prepare, and provide weekend services. With that in mind, we believe we will have to make some difficult changes to support the vision.

For the last twenty years, we have had a dual focus which gives the impression Northland is two different churches. In those same twenty years, more people in our community are walking away from faith rather than towards faith in Jesus. This breaks our hearts and pulls us towards a different approach to how we pour ourselves out to counteract this trend.

After much prayer and time with the Lord, our hearts have been drawn back to the heart of Jesus as He shared and prayed for unity in John 17:20-23. He desired that His people would be one and brought “to complete unity.” This starts in the way we worship together. We desire to lead a body of worshipers who worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24) together as one.

This will play out in four major categories:

  • MISSION: The mission must continue to be our priority – to Love God and Love People. We will continue to do our best to honor the Lord and reach those people in our community who do not have a church home or faith in Jesus. We will strive to pursue showing Jesus to the Topeka area by following the example of Paul in being “wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity” and “not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved” (Colossians 4:5 and 1 Corinthians 10:33). 
  • FORMAT: We will move from two styles of services to one. Northland started with one style of service and with that came a focus that led this church towards growth and alignment in every other area. We will use our collective voices to praise God as one by “…singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16). Jack and his team will prepare and lead services that mirror the previous 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM services.
  • SERVICE TIMES: Our two services will be offered on Sundays at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM, beginning June 21, 2020. Doing so will unify the church, provide a little more time between services for people to connect, and take pressure off our parking lot, tech team and children’s ministry space.
  • CAPACITY: We desire to have each service at or above 60% of people to chairs. This allows the energy and synergy of the worship to increase in bringing glory to the Lord and encouragement to others. Currently, we set up 500 chairs in the worship center. In recent history prior to Covid-19, our largest attendance was not averaging 60% of capacity and our lowest was below 20% of capacity. After reopening for Sunday services, we expect attendance will be less than pre-Covid-19 attendance for a period of time, and we will be reducing the number of services to allow for more people to join together. We pray this will allow us to worship together with more energy, authenticity, unity, and passion. 

We understand that transitions and changes are never easy. We recognize we are asking everyone to sacrifice certain personal preferences to the Lord for His glory and for the good of those yet to meet and know Him. We realize there may be questions. We want to support you and answer those questions as best we can. If you would like to discuss these things personally, please contact the Elders by email at elders@northland.cc.

Finally, we would like to say thank you to so many people who have contributed to the traditional service over the years in so many different ways. There are countless hours of practice and rehearsal that bring glory to God. We are so grateful for your faithfulness to the kingdom and living a lifestyle of worship that is holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1).

The elders and leadership team continue to pray God will overwhelm Northland with grace, peace, purpose, love, unity, healing, and courage as together we step into the future for Him. At the same time, we openly praise God for His faithfulness and all that He has done for us. We also eagerly await the promised incoming blessings and good works of God as we follow Him to the best of our abilities. We are excited for all God has done and will continue to do in, around, and through Northland.

All we are, all we have, all we will be, is all for King Jesus.

Your Elders:
Mike Damman, Todd Beemer, Steve Johnson, Dave Rizer and Dennis Morgart.

FAQs

Adult Sunday School will continue. Our Discipleship and Spiritual Formations Pastor, Doug Mingus, will work with Sunday School Leaders to find which service time works best for their specific group. We will target July 12th as a restart date for Sunday School.

Yes. We will move forward with one service style at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM. 

church reopening update,

Hey Everybody,

Let’s cut to the chase.

While the date is subject to change, we plan to relaunch our in-person Northland services on June 21st.

Why another month?

You can hear more in this video update from our elders:

As you well know, our Sunday mornings have a lot of moving parts from our friendly welcome team all the way to our active children’s ministry environments. We want you to come back to an exciting and safe environment in this time of social distancing. We also want you to be able to extend a warm welcome to your neighbors to come with you.

Until then, we’ll continue to gather online for services. And we encourage you to begin getting your small groups together as many of you have done. Oh…and by the way, if you haven’t watched the video above, please do so.

Thanks for your patience and flexibility during this incredibly challenging time. We’re praying for you and with you. And believe God’s work is continuing in this time as well.

Your Elders,

Mike Damman, Todd Beemer, Dennis Morgart, Steve Johnson and Dave Rizer.

Thursday, May 21, 2020, 4:49 PM.

SAFER AT HOME UPDATE,

It was amazing to see just how great Northland Online went this week. We saw more people engage with our online service last week than Easter last year! During this unique time, I believe we will pull together and continue to be the church. We are so grateful for you and all that you bring to our church home.

We now have a “Safer At Home Order” issued by our local authorities and which includes all “non-essential” people. This is unprecedented and in order to respect our leaders and follow their direction, will include all of us. This means we will not have on-site church until at least May.

What does this mean for Northland?

  • We will continue being the church, focusing on God, His Word and people; connecting with our church family, providing online worship experiences, encouraging with specific content for people as they navigate this challenge, and meeting needs in our church family and community. The mission stays the same! (Matthew 28:19-20)
  • We will be discontinuing office hours and working from home if at all possible during the dates of this order. We will be checking voicemail messages regularly responding when we can.
  • Northland Devotions will continue to be available. To subscribe, go to northland.cc/devotions and subscribe. You will receive an email daily, Monday through Friday.
  • We will have church online weekly during this time. You can join us by going to northland.cc/live or like us at Facebook at Northland Christian Church. Live streaming will happen Sunday mornings at 9:30 and 11:00 each week.

How can you help right now?

  • Consider moving from in-person giving to online giving. Our current percent of online giving is 43% of our total giving. Our goal is 80%. In order to continue to fuel the mission of the church as we attend to the needs of our church and our greater community, we are asking that you make the shift towards online giving. Online giving is available at northland.cc/giving to set up either a one-time tithe or an ongoing tithe. If you have questions about this, please contact lynnette@northland.cc or call the church office at 785-286-1204 x 101 and leave a message, she will set up a time for you to connect with someone to walk you through the process.
  • If you would like to volunteer to help others with needs or make contact with those in our church family, please contact Kathy at kathy@northland.cc or Lynnette at lynnette@northland.cc, to be added to a list of volunteers.
    • Partnering with Logan Elementary as they give out meals through the summer lunch program. Christine Saunders, the Logan Principal just messaged us to say, “You and your congregation are amazing! We are so thankful for you!”
    • Partnering with Diner 24, as they give kids affected by the school closings a hot meal.
    • Opening our building for TNO to help families picking up meals.
    • Deploying a plan for staff and volunteers to reach out to shut-ins and those who are more affected, and hoping to be able to call most everyone in our church in the following weeks.

Thank you for helping us make these things possible!

Whether we are meeting in-person or online, we are still called to be the Church. While I’m saddened that we are walking through such a difficult time, I am encouraged that this is when the Church shines its brightest.

I was reminded of the verse in James 1:2 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, since you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

May we be the light together.

Dave Rizer

Monday, March 30, 2020, 9:05 AM.

NORTHLAND FAMILY,

What a week! So much can happen in a week! COVID-19 has reorganized, rescheduled, and ransacked so much in all of our lives. Yet, as we shared Sunday, what you believe determines how you respond. That means we respond with faith, with sacrifice, and with prayer. Let’s all celebrate that TWO people responded in baptism this weekend!

With the ongoing recommendations from the CDC and civic leaders, Northland’s leadership team has chosen to make a difficult decision to meet in an alternative way on the weekends. We don’t want to be fearful, but we do want to be responsible.

We have chosen not to have in-person services or weekly programming at Northland the next two weeks, including the next two Sundays, March 22 and March 29. This includes Sunday School classes, Northland Student and Children’s ministries, Awana, re|engage, Rooted, on-campus small groups, and so on.

We held out as long as we could on canceling our on-campus, in-person gatherings – and we will pursue reestablishing them as soon as we can. We invite you to join with your small group, family, and friends to worship, learn, serve, and grow together during this time.

We will provide Sunday worship services online and invite you to join us Sunday at 9:30 and 11:00 AM on our Facebook page.

We will continue to evaluate and communicate as decisions are made. Serving opportunities and ongoing updates will be available at northland.cc/updates and our Facebook page.

See you (ONLINE) Sunday!

Dave

P.S. Let’s continue to spend time praying for our leaders, first-responders, medical personnel, researchers, and all affected during this time.

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”- 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Monday, March 16, 2020, 5:29 PM.

SERVICES LIVESTREAM

This Sunday, March 15th, we will be having all three of our services at Northland at 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00am. We also understand, that some of you may not be able to make it in-person due to your own health and the concern that you may have. To accommodate for that we’ll be Livestreaming our entire 9:30 service Live on Facebook. Be sure to like us on Facebook and join us with your whole family live from your livingroom. 

Saturday, March 14, 2020, 10:55 PM.

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL CANCELLATION

In order to honor the recommendations of our community leaders by heeding their guidance to avoid having any large group gatherings over 250 people at a time in one location, we have chosen not to have Adult Sunday School classes at Northland for at least the next 2 weekends, starting March 15. By not having adult classes this will prevent our campus from exceeding the recommended number of people on campus at one-time. Children’s programing will continue as scheduled on March 15.

This decision was not made lightly or out of fear, but faith that is prudent, practical, and filled with love-in-action. We believe we should, in honor and respect, follow the guidelines of Romans chapter 13, and heed the guidance from our state leaders and medical professionals to limit large gatherings. We want to show love and leadership by utilizing wisdom and helping do our best during this trying time.

For any that are comfortable, we encourage smaller groups of people to gather together in homes and workplaces to pray, read the scriptures, and coordinate opportunities to Go and Be the church by caring and showing compassion for neighbors and co-workers.

We will continue to send updates and communications details as they become available. Continue to follow us at northland.cc/updates and on Facebook.

Thanks for helping us be the church and the hands and feet of Jesus to North Topeka and beyond.

Northland Leadership Team

Saturday, March 14, 2020, 5:28 PM.

NORTHLAND FAMILY,

Let us be reminded that Jesus is firmly on the throne! We live by faith and not fear. The fear of this virus has spread far beyond the reach of it. So let’s breathe a bit, pray, and then respond.

Our leadership is carefully and continuously monitoring the situation. We want to be wise and lead and walk in faith and trust, not fear. Currently, we have decided to have all three services and regular programming at Northland Christian Church. This might be just the opportunity for someone to hear a message of hope, love, and peace that comes from knowing Jesus. We would love for you to join us and bring a friend! Have you taken that breath? Prayed yet? Now let’s talk about our response.

WHAT WE ARE DOING AS A CHURCH

We consistently strive to provide a safe and clean environment for all our guests each week with the following strategies:

CLEANING AND SANITATION

  • We will continue to supply hand sanitizer throughout our building at doors and at check-in stations, pending supplies.
  • All surfaces typically used during services on the weekend will be cleaned in between each service (e.g. door handles, railings, counters, etc.)
  • Volunteers will be encouraged to use a different greeting rather than shaking hands.
  • We will continue to utilize appropriate cleaning as well as wiping down surfaces with disinfectant, and our early childhood department will be disinfecting toys after each service.

COMMUNION AND OFFERING

  • To attempt to prevent the spread of germs when passing items from hand to hand, we are adjusting our strategies for the weekends.
  • We will be taking communion during each of our three services at stations set up on the perimeter of our Worship Center utilizing a 2-cup method of communion. Each cup will have a juice cup sitting on top of another cup with the wafer inside of it. (Gluten-free wafers will still be available as before.) For those with any concerns, communion is optional and can be taken at home.
  • The offering will be taken at the doors on your way out of service. You may also take this time to consider giving online at northland.cc/giving.

WHAT YOU CAN BE DOING

PRAYER – HOW YOU CAN BE PRAYING

  • In our last sermon series, Joshua reminds us to have courage in all circumstances. As people of faith, we know that we only ever move forward with prayer. To that end, let’s pray together for our community and world as we deal with this virus and also remember where our hope is placed.
  • Please be in prayer for our leaders; locally, nationally, and internationally. Pray for medical personnel and leaders as well. We have the calling and blessing to know that we “Do not have to be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
  • May God use our fears to draw us to Himself and respond with courage. One way to do that is to pray that God would open doors for the Gospel to go forth in power and love. (Ephesians 6:18-20)

TAKE PRECAUTIONS

We invite you to join in helping us keep everyone healthy and caution you to practice the standard, flu-season safety precautions we are already familiar with:

  • Washing your hands often and thoroughly using hot water and soap for at least 20 seconds (this continues to be the most helpful, effective, and important measure everyone can take). This is particularly important after touching your face and surfaces.
  • Limiting your physical contact with others.
  • Greeting with a wave and a smile as often as you can.

STAY UPDATED

Should the COVID-19 virus continue to spread and hit the Topeka area we will respond accordingly and will consider how to continue to best play a role in our community for good in a time of need. You will be able to see future communications on our website at northland.cc/updates. We will continue to post on our Facebook page.

For general coronavirus information, the best source of information is the CDC’s website.