Texas Opens Door For In-Person Church Services

You may have read by now that the Governor and Texas Attorney General have revised their guidance for churches and houses of worship, removing the limit on the number of attendees. Here is the full press release. Given this and the fact that there have been only five cases of Covid-19 in Kerr County, your elders have decided that we will re-open for live worship gatherings beginning this Sunday, May 3.

This news comes with a few recommendations from the state government that we agree with and a couple of our own requests and caveats:

• For the time being, we are dividing our directory in half and asking one half each week to Livestream the service.
  • Last name A-L, you may join the live gathering this Sunday
  • M-Z will stream the service this week
  • Groups will flip-flop next Sunday, May 10
  • We will re-assess after two weeks
• If you have recently traveled outside the are where the virus has been less-contained, please continue to stay home and watch services online.
  
• If you are elderly, we strongly encourage to stay home and watch services online. Persons age 65 and older have accounted for 20% of the positive tests and 75% of the deaths in Texas.
  
• We ask that all attendees who have underlying at-risk health conditions to stay home and watch services online.
  
• If you are sick, please stay home and watch the services online.
  
• There will be no ushers, greeters, or bulletin. The doors will be open.
• There will be no child care or Children's Church.
  
• We encourage all attendees to sanitize your hands and put on masks before entering the building. (Masks are not required but encouraged.)
  
• We ask that you sit with your family unit and keep a reasonable distance between each family.
• There will be no passing of collection plates. Instead, we will provide central collection boxes and continue to encourage online giving.
• We will monitor the capacity of the Worship Center and will have the Fellowship Hall available for overflow.

We are hopeful that by following these guidelines, we can ease back into meeting together and enjoy worshiping together once again. If you are the least bit uncomfortable, please feel free to stay home and continue to stream the services with our blessing until you are confident about returning.