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As Church gathering restrictions are being removed from one state to another, in most pastor’s mind, we are watching and waiting to see how things will unfold in the next few weeks. Some church leaders are planning to delay re-opening for few more weeks to see how to best handle the re-opening. It is important for me to suggest that as Pastors and leaders situated in various states of the nation, we must study the peculiarity and the severity of covid-19 in our state before adopting any form of re-opening. Some states are allowing more than 50people to gather while others are yet to implement such, no matter the pattern we are to adopt, it is crucial that we are prepared for a smooth and safe re-opening. The situation in Headquarter states of most of our churches might be different from that of our state, kindly exercise caution as we must put the spiritual, physical, mental and emotional health state of our congregations first.
1. The fear, pain and trauma the people will be bringing back to church
2. The family with kids will be faced with several decisions to make; will they want their kids all together in a public place.
3. The safety of the elderly and the pregnant women also will be a challenge
4. The accessibility to the church facilities like the restrooms, the children church etc
5. How ventilated our Worship Centre will be in the minds of some worshipers or do we engage an open air service outside to alleviate worshipers concerns
6. In the place of a large turnouts are we breaking our services down and will the workforce be able to cope effectively.
7. Getting equipment like gloves, cleaning agents, sanitizers, masks for all ushers and greeters will definitely come to mind.
CREATING SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR OUR CHURCHES AS WE RE-OPEN FOR SERVICES
1. Deliberate with our local church leaders and members who are health professionals for counsel before adopting any re-opening pattern.
2. Have hand sanitizers/hand washing points located around the auditorium
3. Setup a small temperature screening table around the auditorium with the help of medical professionals among us. Non-contact Infrared Thermometer will be good to buy for the church, if we can get one it will be great.
4. Get equipment like gloves, cleaning agents, sanitizers, masks for all ushers and greeters
5. Put up signage that explains symptoms and ask the congregations to consider their health.
6. Greeters must avoid the shaking of hands but they must welcome people with smiles
7. The rest room is a huge challenge, the best is to have it closed but that will be very challenging. We must therefore ensure that it must be clean before, during and after each service.
8. Please! Avoid the passing round of the offering bags or buckets. We can have a team stationed to provide hand sanitizers and gloves for our ushers as they do their work of collating, counting and recording.
9. Encourage our congregations to move out orderly after service and to avoid too much physical contacts.
