Update for Worship at Faith UMC
June 1, 2020
Dear friends,
Our Administrative Board met on Sunday night (5-31-20) and prayerfully decided upon the following schedule and protocols for re-entering into in-person worship. Our decisions have been driven out of concern for the safety of our congregation and our community, and our desire to include as many people as possible in our shared life of worship.
The schedule for our re-opening is as follows:
June 7: Drive-In Communion Service
June 14: First In-Person Worship with just the 10AM Service
June 21: In-Person Worship for all Services (10 AM Service in Sanctuary, 1 AM Mizo Service in the Fellowship Hall, and 12:30 Corazones Cristianos service in Sanctuary)
I’m so grateful for your patience and grace for me and the leadership of your church, as we have done our best with the information we have. As we have tried to do all along, we will be flexible with our plans.
I urge you to please read ALL of the protocols below for our in-person worship.
Things will be very different, and we want you to know exactly what to expect. I know that many of you will not be ready to worship in the building yet because of concerns about Covid-19, and there is absolutely no pressure to attend. We encourage you to worship online through our Facebook live stream until you are ready to return.
Also, please let us know if you plan on attending in-person worship, so that we can be adequately prepared for our numbers. You can let us know by filling out a survey at the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X98PSV7
If you are not able to take the survey online, please call our church office at 270-843-8430 and leave a message telling us your name and if you plan on attending in-person worship on June 14. We really need to know who all is planning to come, so your help is greatly appreciated.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Cam
Faith UMC In-Person Worship Re-Opening Protocols
These protocols are motivated by a love for neighbor and intended to protect everyone’s health as we come together for worship. Thank you for helping us love and protect our neighbors by your cooperation.
Please do not attend worship if you are exhibiting ANY symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, sneezing, shortness of breath).
Please attend at your own risk. We have many new cleaning and social distancing protocols in place to protect everyone, but these do not guarantee that you will not be exposed to COVID-19. If you are in the high-risk categories defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), we strongly encourage you to not attend in-person services and instead worship online.
Based on what we know now, those at high-risk for severe illness from COVID-19 are as follows:
- People 65 years and older
- People who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility
- People of all ages with underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, including:
- People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
- People who have serious heart conditions
- People who are immunocompromised
- Many conditions can cause a person to be immunocompromised, including cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications
- People with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)
- People with diabetes
- People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
- People with liver disease
Worship Online: We will continue to stream our worship service on Facebook Live. Please feel free to continue worshipping with us virtually if that is best and safest for you and your household.
Cleaning Protocols: We have assembled a team of volunteers to make sure touchable surfaces are wiped down appropriately before, during, and after our worship services.
Arrival Times, Parking, and Entering the Facility:
- Church will open 20 minutes prior to the service, please do not arrive earlier than that.
- Entrance: We will only use the front doors of the church to enter the building, and the doors will remain open to avoid people having to touch them.
- Transportation: We will not be using our van to pick up families for church.
- Maintain Social Distance: Please maintain six feet of social distance as you approach and enter the facility.
What to Expect as You Enter:
- Bathrooms: Our bathroom facilities at church will NOT be open for use. We are sorry for this inconvenience.
- Avoid Interpersonal Contact: Please maintain six feet distancing between household units, and please do not extend hugs, handshakes, or physical greetings with others.
- Face masks will be required to be worn. Please bring and wear your own face mask: if you do not have one, there will be free disposable masks in our front lobby. Please do not dispose of masks on the church campus. Health officials recommend that children aged 2 and under do not wear masks.
- Temperature Check: As you enter the church, a greeter will ask to check your temperature with an infrared, no-touch thermometer. This involves a quick, non-contact scan of your forehead. If you have a fever over 100.4 degrees, you will be asked to come back at another time. We would like everyone in the facility to be fever-free.
- Avoid Gathering in Common Areas.
- Hand Sanitizer: Hand Sanitizer will be available in the front lobby.
- Bulletins: We will email out the bulletins to our church lists, as well as post them on our Facebook livestream, so as to avoid contact through paper.
- No water fountains or coffee: We are temporarily turning off our water fountains and suspending coffee availability.
- Limited Facility Access: Access to the building will be limited to the Sanctuary and the front lobby.
What to Expect in the Sanctuary
Seating:
- Seating will be limited. There will be a row of pews empty in between each row used.
- Ushers will show you where to sit when you enter; we will maintain six feet of space on each side of all household units.
- Please sit only with members of your immediate household unit.
Worship Service:
- We will not have congregational singing in our service for the time being. We will have special music, sung by a soloist; but to err on the side of caution and inclusion, we will refrain from congregational singing until there is more information that it is safe to do so.
- We will wear face masks as we enter, during the entire service, and as we exit the building.
- All pew Bibles, hymnals, connection cards, and ink pens have been temporarily removed from the pew racks.
- The Offering will not be collected during the service. We will have drop-off baskets in the sanctuary, or you can donate online at faithmethodistbg.org/donate.
- Our service will be 35-40 minutes long.
Leaving the Service:
- Ushers will dismiss each row starting at the rear of the Sanctuary. Please wait until your row is dismissed to exit.
- Please make your way immediately out of the facility without stopping to gather in the front lobby. Please maintain six feet of distancing as you exit the facility.
- We will have a team of volunteers to wipe down the facilities after worship.
Children and Babies:
- Children of all ages are invited to remain with their households in the Worship Service. There will be no nursery care. We do ask that children above the age of 2 wear a mask.
Connect to our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/faith.umc.bgky/