Reopening Church
Author: Pastor Mitch Williams
May 28, 2020
Can you believe this Sabbath will mark our 11th worship service that we’ve been closed? In some ways the time has gone by quickly, but in other ways, it’s been the longest 11 weeks of our lives. Let’s face it, we miss seeing one another at church! We miss looking into each other’s faces and connecting in the flesh week after week. We miss the hugs, smiles, and laughter as we engage each other at church. We miss meeting new people and encouraging others. And we miss the corporate worship experience in our church that simply cannot be duplicated at home. We miss worshiping Jesus as a body of believers!
But COVID-19 compelled us to protect each other’s health above the joy of worshiping and fellowshipping together. Then on Monday of this week, in light of the steep decline of Coronavirus cases in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced guidelines for reopening places of worship. The guidelines are for the next 21 days, when they will be revisited again.
As your pastor, one of my goals during this pandemic is to keep you safe and healthy, while also investigating when is the best time to reopen. Toward that end, the Ministry Placement Team has appointed a Health & Safety Team, led by John & Reena Cho. As many of you know, John is a physician and Reena is a nurse practitioner. They will lead a small team of other healthcare professionals from our church to help ascertain not only when to reopen, but all the precautions necessary to ensure we have the safest place of worship possible.
One thing I can tell you, we will not rush back to reopen our church. We will take the month of June to prepare and look to reopen thereafter. In the meantime, please continue to join us each week as we live-stream the worship service, join a Zoom Connect Group, and stay in touch with other members of the church. We are in this together and at the right time we will come back together to worship our Lord. Thanks for your prayers through this unprecedented process.
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