Dear Church, 

Church Worship Services: 

Social distancing—Our goal is to ensure we stay below 25% capacity of the sanctuary. For us, we can have 250 people at any one time. We have taped off every other row leaving 500 seats available for 250 people to spread out. Please maintain a 6 foot distance with anyone you have not been sheltering in place with at home. 

Service Times: 9 am and 11 am 

Anyone can come at anytime they choose. However, we have had several requests by our senior adults to encourage those 55 and older to attend the 9 am service. We want to encourage our younger folks to utilize the 11 am service and leave the 9 am service for those “more mature” or immune compromised. We will live broadcast the 11 am service for those who desire to remain at home. The hour between services will be used to disinfect. 

Face Masks: 

Face masks are not required but highly encouraged. We encourage you to at least wear one until you are seated and stationary during the service. We highly encourage anyone attending the 9 am service to especially wear a mask to help protect our older church members. We have ordered face masks to give away for free to help (if you want to help offset the cost, a $5 donation is suggested—the masks may not be here until Sunday May 24th depending on shipping). 

Hand Washing: 

We will have hand sanitizer stations at each entrance. Please use the sanitizer upon entering the building. Bathrooms are also available to wash hands thoroughly for 20 seconds. 

Who should come to the service? 

We are leaving this up to your own personal responsibility. However, we highly encourage those who are older (65+) or with compromised immune systems to either wait till we enter the church’s Phase 2 to return or attend the 9 am service if you choose to come. If you are sick with any illness (fever, coughing, sore throat, etc), please do NOT come until you are fever free and fully recovered. 

Data Collection: 

We at no point will ever for any reason give your information to the government. We do ask that if you attend one of our services and are later diagnosed with Covid-19 to please inform us of the day you attended and the day you tested positive. We will only use this information to notify our church in a general fashion that they may have been exposed without using any personal information. (Example: On Sunday, June X, 2020 an individual attended our 9 am worship service and tested positive for Covid on Thursday June Y, 2020). No personal information will be given out to anyone under any circumstance. 

Handouts: 

We will not hand out any material or pass any plates during phase 1. We are planning on having the Lord’s Supper on Sunday May 31st. We will utilize the individually wrapped elements and they will be available to pick up on your way into the sanctuary. 

Office hours: We are reopening the office full time (Monday-Friday) and ending our rotation/remote working. We are here physically if you need us but please utilize telephone and text where possible while in Phase 1. 

Phase 2

Now that we are officially in Phase 1, we will start planning and mapping out Phase 2. Tentatively, we hope to enter Phase 2 on Sunday, May 31st. In Phase 2 we will open the buildings to indoor ministries and small gatherings that can utilize larger spaces. Look for a contact over the next couple of weeks from the staff seeking your input and desire to return/serve during Phase 2 if you are involved in one of these ministries. As we approach Phase 2, we will release a list of possible meeting rooms and there maximum occupancy for social distancing to help leaders/volunteers in planning their ministry. 

Thank you all for being flexible and gracious. We are in this together for the glory of God. 

I look forward to the day we can return to something of a semi-normal gathering and can’t wait to see many of you this Sunday! 

Yours faithfully,