As our church resumes worship gatherings, we will be taking precautions. As Christians we do not trust in precautions; we trust in God. But we do still take precautions nonetheless, so we formed a “Safe Open” Committee to look carefully at CDC guidelines and best practices for churches to decide how to safely reopen ours. Some of the safety measures we’ll be taking may seem obvious to you like encouraging everyone to wear a mask, refraining from shaking hands, disinfecting the facility after every service and encouraging those who feel sick, have a fever, have been exposed to COVID-19, or have traveled to a hot spot area to not attend. Others may not seem so obvious, but please understand that our goal was to provide the safest and most inclusive way for us to resume worship.

 

General changes to the setup of our facility to help avoid spreading germs

• Doors will be propped open

• Sanitizer and facemasks will be made available

• Coffee stations and water fountains will be shut down. Water Bottles will be available.

• In order to make disinfecting the facility after service more manageable:

  • Unused areas will be closed off (The Children’s Area, Library. Kitchen, etc…)

  • All items will be removed from the pews (hymnals, Bibles, pens, envelopes, seat cushions, etc…)

 

 Changes to our worship services

• We want to strongly encourage you to wear a mask.

• Offering Plates will not be passed but will be positioned around the room.

• Communion will not be served at this time.

• Worship Bulletins will be eliminated for the time being. 

• Music will look quite different. Singing puts a lot of aerosols into the air, so we’ll be limiting the number of people singing by not having choir or congregational singing at this time. For most of us this will be a good exercise in worshiping God with our hearts while a few lead us in worship with their voices from up front.

• Every other pew will be closed off to help encourage social distancing.

• We will offer a mask only overflow room in the youth room where the service will be livestreamed every Sunday. Please do not enter this room without a mask on.

 

We hope that these measures make you feel safe enough to gather with us in worship again, but if they do not then we look forward to continuing to see you on our livestream. Let us strive to remain united as a church in our love for one another and for God in this incredibly divided time.