Re-Opening Plan for James River Baptist
Friday, May 15, 2020
The following is our plan to re-open James River Baptist Church. This was developed by the pastor and the deacons working together. This is a work in progress. None of us have ever gone through this kind of situation before and we are doing our best to keep everyone safe and still have an opportunity to worship together as a church.
Please exercise patience and compassion as we move forward over the next few months. Changes may have to be made along the way. For the next few weeks this is the official plan. Anything you may have heard before will defer to the following plan.
Stage 1:
- We will begin having Services on Sunday morning of May 31st.
- For stage one, all services will be in our Worship Center (the Multi-Ministry Building).
- The Worship Center will seat a maximum of 100 people. We have spaced the chairs in our Worship Center in groups of different numbers (groups of two, three, four, five..). Each group is six feet away from every other group. This is in line with mandates we have been given from the governor.
- For stage one there will be no Sunday School Services or children’s church or nursery.
- We will stream the service live on Sunday morning.
- First Service 9:00 - 10:00 Traditional Service
- Second Service 11:00 – 12:00 Contemporary Service
- We are having the traditional service first because the room will be really clean for the first service. More older folks go to the traditional service so it will be safer for them to meet in a clean room that has not had another group in it first.
- Many of our Sunday School classes are meeting on zoom at 10am on Sunday morning. We encourage you to move your class to another time of your choosing so that people can watch our online service on Sunday morning.
- The online service will be live streamed at 11am.
- There will be two entrances into the building with the doors kept open.
- Only the Multi-ministry building will be open for phase one.
- People will be ushered to their seats similar to the way people are ushered to a table at a restaurant.
- No bulletins.
- No coffee station.
- We will have infrared thermometers checking temperatures at entrances.
- There will be free masks available to those who are not wearing them.
- Wearing of masks and checking of temperatures is recommended but not mandatory.
- Signs will be posted next to the rest rooms recommending one person in the bathroom at a time.
- No meet and greet time during the services.
- Signs will be posted discouraging people from shaking hands, hugging, or engaging in other physical contact.
- No offering plates will be passed. Three boxes, one at each entrance will be used to collect offering before or after the services.
- The Lord’s supper will be served differently because of cross contamination dangers. Individual packets containing both the juice and bread will be placed on chairs before the service.
- After the services are over, the side doors of the room will be unlocked and propped open.
- Room will be sprayed at beginning of the morning with anti-Covid spray, and sprayed after each service. All hard surfaces wiped down, bathrooms cleaned, everything cleaned between services.
- We will have two separate clean up teams of 5 people for each service. One for each bathroom, two for the sanctuary, and one for welcome area. All areas will be cleaned between services.
- If we have over 100 people show up for a service, we will open up the sanctuary and seat people in there and live stream the service into there on the flat screens in the front of the sanctuary. This will only be done if there is a need, otherwise the multi-ministry building will be the only building open.
Stage 2:
Around four weeks after stage one, if all goes well, stage two will begin.
- Continue worship services
- Add nursery
- Restart Women’s classes that meet during the week
- Keep the live online service going.
- Begin Sunday School classes.
- We are currently working on the schedule for these classes.
Stage 3:
Around four weeks after stage two, if all goes well, stage three will begin.
- Add Wednesday night program
- Add Children’s Church on Sunday mornings
Pray for our church and all the other churches in our community as we minister through this challenging time. God bless you all.
