By SI Filings
May
05
2020
On deciding when to begin meeting again for corporate worship: "I think it is likely that 80 percent of the members in your church understand that there is no clear-cut answer to this question. They know there are good arguments on both sides, and are willing to submit to whatever you and your fellow elders prayerfully decide is best for the church. But among the rest, 10 percent don’t believe you should have stopped gathering for worship in the first place, and 10 percent can’t believe you’re even thinking about resuming corporate worship anytime soon." - 9 Marks
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We are in an area with few COVID cases. Our whole state has only had 24 covid deaths as of 5-5-20 so we decided to resume services with caution. We spaced the rows farther apart (we have chairs so this was easy). We are also a small group. We only had 30 people on Sunday. Our largest family is 7 people so we put only 7 chairs per row and moved the one side against the wall. Since the rows are so far apart there is practically an isle in front of each row. This made for a larger center isle so we then put only 2 chairs on the other side of the isle and spaced them even farther apart. We also put chairs around the wall and let people know that they should not approach anyone sitting next to the wall in case they were choosing to social distance farther.
We also did the Lord's supper. A few days earlier, I disinfected my hands and poured crackers directly from the newly opened box into zip lock bags from a new box of baggies. I then took small bottles of grape juice and wiped them down with disinfectant and place the crackers and juice on the piano and a desk and spread them around so people could take them without touching the one next to it. Instead of having them passed out. we let the people come and get them. We let them take their time so that they could social distance (we are a small enough group that this was not a big deal).
Here is a portion of the letter that was sent out: