We are excited to announce that we are open again per our State’s Re-Opening Mandates! Thanks for your patience and understanding during this unprecedented time. It is the first time we have gone through this as well, and we are doing our very best to “Be The Church”.
We know that you all may have quite a few questions regarding what it might look like when we re-gather as a church. The rules that are placed upon us are different than those put on restaurants and other businesses, and they are going to cause things to feel a bit different for a while. Here’s some of the questions we thought you may all have:
What steps are being taken to keep everyone safe as we re-gather?
Our desire as a church has been to meet or exceed all of the recommendations that we’ve been given as an act of love to everyone that attends. It is our hope that our efforts will work to prevent the spread of disease as well as provide everyone that attends confidence in our precautions so that they can relax and focus on the worshipping together with the people of God and hearing from His word. Here are some of the specifics that we’ve done:
Where will my children be during the service?
Due to social distancing guidance it is pretty much impossible to operate our children’s ministries, so children will remain with their parents during the entire service. We are shortening the service to about an hour to make that easier for them. We know that it will be a challenge for many of our children to make it through the hour, but we are family and they are an important part of our community. You know your children the best, so we’d encourage you to bring some quiet things to engage them during the teaching time if you don’t think they’d benefit from sitting and listening. We will have activity packs available to help with that process each week. Fortunately, our children are used to being together with the whole church during the worship time, but if you have to get up and leave, as your church family we’ll completely understand! Please be careful, if you leave, or have to go to the rest-room, to do your best to respect social-distancing guidelines.
How will seating work with social distancing?
We have ample space to Social Distance per the Governor’s mandates. One thing that is clear, however, is that we will need to manage movement and seating in our building in order to honor Governor Brown’s guidance. Here’s a couple things that we’ll need everyone’s help on to make it all work:
The CDC has put out some cautions around singing. Will we be singing?
Yes! We are called to corporate worship and it is one of the means of God’s grace to us, so we are planning on singing! We’ve tried to put things in place to minimize that risk, but if you aren’t comfortable joining with others at this time, we will have a live-stream available for you.
What about Communion?
We are planning on celebrating the Lord’s Supper with the same frequency as we have previously. We will be administering it differently than we usually do, taking extra steps to prevent the spread of infection.
Will everyone be wearing masks?
Governor Brown has instructed us to encourage the wearing of masks. We would encourage you to bring one from home and we will have some disposable ones available if you would like one when you arrive. At this point, while encouraged, the wearing of masks is not required. We are asking that our ushers and others who are serving in proximity to people to wear masks as they serve.
This is the link to the CDC guidelines for Communities of Faith
Click Here
Let us know if you have any other questions!
We know that you all may have quite a few questions regarding what it might look like when we re-gather as a church. The rules that are placed upon us are different than those put on restaurants and other businesses, and they are going to cause things to feel a bit different for a while. Here’s some of the questions we thought you may all have:
What steps are being taken to keep everyone safe as we re-gather?
Our desire as a church has been to meet or exceed all of the recommendations that we’ve been given as an act of love to everyone that attends. It is our hope that our efforts will work to prevent the spread of disease as well as provide everyone that attends confidence in our precautions so that they can relax and focus on the worshipping together with the people of God and hearing from His word. Here are some of the specifics that we’ve done:
- We have gone to great lengths to ensure that we meet all the recommendations given to us by Governor Brown.
- Hand sanitizer will be available from our Greeters and at key places in the building.
- We are asking everyone to check their temperature at home on Sundays before they arrive and not attend if they have a fever over 100.3 degrees (set by CDC). We will also have touchless thermometers available if you weren’t able to do it at home. Just ask!
- The frequently touched surfaces (i.e. handrails, doorknobs, etc.) will be disinfected prior to and after services.
- Seating will be structured in a way that ensures social distancing throughout the entire service.
- We will continue to provide a “Streamed” Service for those that are not comfortable attending yet.
- We will continue to record our Services and provide weekly podcasts, just like we did before quarantine.
- We are choosing not to have some of our normal amenities until we enter the next phases of mandates. These include: bulletins, coffee and pastries, our monthly breakfast, etc… Please caffeinate well before you come to Service ; )
Where will my children be during the service?
Due to social distancing guidance it is pretty much impossible to operate our children’s ministries, so children will remain with their parents during the entire service. We are shortening the service to about an hour to make that easier for them. We know that it will be a challenge for many of our children to make it through the hour, but we are family and they are an important part of our community. You know your children the best, so we’d encourage you to bring some quiet things to engage them during the teaching time if you don’t think they’d benefit from sitting and listening. We will have activity packs available to help with that process each week. Fortunately, our children are used to being together with the whole church during the worship time, but if you have to get up and leave, as your church family we’ll completely understand! Please be careful, if you leave, or have to go to the rest-room, to do your best to respect social-distancing guidelines.
How will seating work with social distancing?
We have ample space to Social Distance per the Governor’s mandates. One thing that is clear, however, is that we will need to manage movement and seating in our building in order to honor Governor Brown’s guidance. Here’s a couple things that we’ll need everyone’s help on to make it all work:
- There will be ushers to help with seating you when you arrive. You may have to wait outside as people are being seated. Please honor social distancing guidelines as you do.
- We’ve planned out our building, seating, and flow. We’d ask that you help us by being flexible and going along with how the building is set up. Many of the things aren’t what we’d want to do, but are necessary due to the regulations.
The CDC has put out some cautions around singing. Will we be singing?
Yes! We are called to corporate worship and it is one of the means of God’s grace to us, so we are planning on singing! We’ve tried to put things in place to minimize that risk, but if you aren’t comfortable joining with others at this time, we will have a live-stream available for you.
What about Communion?
We are planning on celebrating the Lord’s Supper with the same frequency as we have previously. We will be administering it differently than we usually do, taking extra steps to prevent the spread of infection.
Will everyone be wearing masks?
Governor Brown has instructed us to encourage the wearing of masks. We would encourage you to bring one from home and we will have some disposable ones available if you would like one when you arrive. At this point, while encouraged, the wearing of masks is not required. We are asking that our ushers and others who are serving in proximity to people to wear masks as they serve.
This is the link to the CDC guidelines for Communities of Faith
Click Here
Let us know if you have any other questions!