Dear LBBC members,
I am very much looking forward to seeing each of you in person back in the church building for regular services. I am thankful for the technology that we have to preach the Word of God in each of your homes, but I am looking forward to being able to preach face to face from our pulpit.
I want to take a few minutes of your time to explain how things will be different than they were the last time we met. Please be patient as we may even have to change these plans in the future. (We all understand how fluid the regulations and recommendations have been.)
Unless otherwise stated, the changes in how we have church services will be in place until Sunday, September 6, 2020. Until then, we will…
o Not have Sunday School classes
o Bro. Abraham and Bro. Harris have agreed to continue to record one lesson a week for the adults
o Bro. Alex DeJack and Bro. Ethan Schrock have agreed to continue to record one lesson a week for the teens
o Not run the bus route
o Not have choir or special music
o Not have a nursery for 3 year old and under
o Not be passing out
o Sunday bulletins
o Prayer bulletins
o Offering envelopes
o Offering plates
o Songbooks
o Discourage any form of physical contact including handshaking
o Streamline services so that we are in and out of the building in under an hour
o Have greeters wearing masks
o Have only the greeters opening the foyer and auditorium doors
o Record services and upload them to our YouTube channel until we are able to livestream divisive in many churches.
As you enter the church building for the service, please do not linger and fellowship in the foyer. If you are in attendance in tonight’s (Wednesday, May 20 th ) service, you may choose your seat. Families need to sit together. Do your best to sit in a seat where no one is sitting directly in the row in front of you and your family so that we can maintain a six foot distance from one another. Wherever you choose to sit in tonight’s service, you will need to use those seats until otherwise directed. There are songbooks in each row. Please leave them on your row and use only those books for the duration of the summer. After tonight’s service, anyone in attendance will be directed to the open seating by the greeters. We have contingency plans for overflow if necessary. Only those who are in attendance in tonight’s service will have the opportunity tochoose their seats. We are not requiring anyone other than greeters and ushers to wear masks, nor are we discouraging anyone from wearing one.
Tonight, we will not have any children’s ministries, but going forward we are working on having a children’s ministry for each service. The children will be in the fellowship hall. We have instructed the leaders to space the children at least six feet apart. This will allow us to better maintain a six-foot distance in the auditorium. Below are some cautions:
• If you are uncomfortable with these arrangements, please stay home.
• If you are over the age of 65 and/or you have health conditions that cause you to be more susceptible to any communicable diseases, please stay home.
• If you or a family member has a fever, please stay home. (I recommend taking the temperature of each family member before coming to church, but we will not be checking temperatures at the door.)
• If you or a family member has a cough, please stay home.
As mentioned above, after tonight’s meeting, we will upload the service to YouTube so that if anyone is unable to attend, they will still able to watch the service. The very small bandwidth of our current internet provider does not allow us to livestream the services. After looking into other internet options, it will cost us $2500.00 to run the necessary cables to the building to get the internet required to livestream. Although this cost is not in our annual budget, I believe that this is important. If you feel lead to help with this cost, it would be much appreciated.
Finally, I understand that there is a spectrum of opinions on this virus and all the restrictions that our local and state governments have put in place because of this virus. Wherever you fall on this spectrum, please understand that we are doing what we feel is necessary to make sure that we
1. Prevent the spread of any diseases among our church members,
2. Follow guidelines given to us by medical professionals and requirements by our local government, and
3. Will be able to keep the doors to our building open going forward. Please help us to maintain these guidelines for all of these reasons.
Thank you to all those who have emailed, messaged, and given me information from doctors, medical professionals, churches, and local governments that have helped form these guidelines. Also, thank you to our church members in advance. These regulations have become divisive in many churches. I pray that this is not the case here at Lafayette Bible Baptist Church.
All for Jesus,
Pastor David Bragg