Hi everyone,
It’s finally time for our official Church In A Brewery launch! In just a few days we’ll be hosting our official launch party at Augustino Brewing on Monday July 6th. After having to postpone the original launch due to COVID-19, we’re excited that it’s finally here.
I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m everything you can imagine I would be when stepping out into the unknown. This first night will be the most difficult part for me, but I consider it similar to jumping into a pool. When the water first hits you, it’s cold and shocking. But after a few minutes, the body adjusts and the water feels good. Well, metaphorically speaking, it’s time for our team to jump into the pool!
Launching during COVID-19 is definitely not ideal. On Tuesday the state of Kansas decided to require masks in public as part of an effort to prevent another economic shutdown. Yesterday, our county voted to override the state’s mask mandate. Things keep changing here and it’s certainly been confusing, but we’ve come up with a policy with contingency plans to maintain social distancing. We will have a second room available to make sure we have enough room for everyone to spread out. Our team will have masks on hand for situations when social distancing isn’t possible, as the state recommended. If necessary, our team will run discussion groups in both rooms.
We have no idea what to expect as far as attendance goes. On the one hand, there’s been a lot of interest in what we’re doing. There are also some who are not ready to venture out to public gatherings yet. Responses to our online advertisements have been outstanding. We ran ads for about 14 days on Facebook and Instagram. From our Facebook event ad alone, we had almost 300 people hit the “interested” button and 65 people hit the “share” button. After that we turned the ad off, not wanting to get overwhelmed on launch night and not be able to maintain COVID-19 precautions. We don’t expect anywhere near 300 people to actually show up on launch night (especially with the timing of COVID-19), but we think the positive response is a sign that there’s a clear need for what we’re doing. At this stage, if another statewide shutdown occurs we’ll switch to online meetings until public meetings can resume.
Video Series updates:
We’ve filmed 10 episodes for our Bible Overview Series and have completed animation and editing on 6 episodes. I was hoping to make the series available in June, but I’m still working out some website logistics. We’ll announce more details on the series soon. We also have a number of other project ideas and we’re excited to see how these resources can be helpful to the people we’re reaching.
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement. You’ve helped make our upcoming launch possible. Next time you hear from us, we’ll have four brewery church sessions under our belt. Take care and we’ll talk to you soon!
Sincerely,
Nathan
Brewery Ministries
Romans 10:13-14: “For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”