When Should I Return to the Church Building - Pastor Jason

Currently virus numbers are trending down and some in the church have received their first or second dose of the vaccine.  With that in mind, over the next few weeks, our staff will be providing a series of articles to help you think through when you should return to the church building.  It is our goal to encourage you to prayerfully consider when you should return and not to make you feel guilty for watching from home (unless God has shown you that you should return, and you have not done so yet).

Today 2/19 I, (Pastor Jason) want to discuss our gathering for worship on Sunday mornings.

I am deeply grateful that we have gathered weekly since June without having to cancel a worship service due to COVID spread or notify the church of any spread that related to our church gatherings.  Let’s praise God for that and ask him to continue working in that way.

Our sanctuary is large and has very high ceilings.  A small viral load in a large room is less likely to impact someone than the same viral load in a smaller room.  We are also circulating the air by continuously running the fans during our worship gatherings.

Though this does not eliminate the risk, if you are comfortable with your children playing indoor sports or returning to school, you should probably also be comfortable with returning to church gatherings.  If you are comfortable going to the gym, you should probably be comfortable returning to church gatherings.

If you are comfortable eating inside a restaurant and removing your mask while others are doing the same thing, then you should probably be comfortable returning to church where everyone but those on stage has on a mask, we are maintaining distancing, and where there are less people per cubic foot of space than at the restaurant.

Though I have focused on your comfort so far, our worship of the Lord in obedience to his word and our gathering together to encourage each other in the things of God should be a priority in our life.  I am sure that your couch is more comfortable than the church pews, but God intends for us to gather together regularly, so let me ask you to prayerfully consider when you will plan on returning to the church building.  I am confident that many of you should still be watching from home, but I am also confident that some should be joining us live on a Sunday morning in the near future!