Due to the recent spike in the spread of Covid-19, we are taking the following temporary steps to mitigate the spread among our church family.
We recently paused our weekly Wednesday night meal and monthly Merrymakers luncheon, and we required masks for all children (except those four years old and younger), students, and volunteers in our NextGen spaces. We are fully committed to your safety and feel an urgency to take additional steps to mitigate possible Covid exposure to everyone who joins us in person for any worship service or small group meeting.
Beginning Sunday, August 22, everyone except children four and younger should always wear masks while on the church campus in the hallways, lobbies, stairwells, and in all of our classrooms. If for medical reasons or other reasons you are unable or unwilling to wear a mask, we invite you to connect with your class or another online. Contact Tom Farr (tom@fbclagrange.org) to find an online Bible study. We encourage our Bible study groups to offer an online option for those who are not comfortable coming in person during this Covid spike.
Every area of our church is being impacted by this Covid surge. Masks are once again required when you enter the church office. For the next two Sundays our worship choir that sings at the 8:45 and 11:00 worship services will not be singing out of the abundance of caution. Our next gen classes on Sunday mornings for children and teenagers will be meeting in larger rooms where necessary to provide a more spread-out learning environment for our young people.
This is not the time or season for anyone to be negligent about any of our church’s Covid policies. We are aware that some people feel very strongly about masks, one way or the other. You need to know that this is not an issue of personal freedom or politics. Ours is a decision for the personal safety and welfare of our faithful members and attenders. We are asking everyone who attends to abide by the policies of the church in the spirit of Christ-likeness, submitting ourselves to one another in love. We are hopeful that this will be a short-term sacrifice that all of us will make during these critical weeks where Covid cases are spiking all around us.
For anyone who is concerned about gathering in person with others at this time, we will continue to provide our worship services live on Sunday mornings online (Facebook, YouTube, and Online.Church) and on TV 33. Please remember to practice social distancing before, after, and during all of our church gatherings. If you are exposed to anyone with Covid, have symptoms, or test positive, please quarantine from all church activities for 10 days or until symptoms have subsided, following current CDC guidelines.
Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and faithfulness in the midst of what has been one of the most extraordinary seasons that we have faced as a church. Pray for our front line workers in our hospitals. Pray for those who are in the hospital in critical condition from Covid. Pray for every leader on every level of society who is having to make difficult decisions because of this recent spike of Covid. May God continue to bless First Baptist Church and protect each and every person who makes the decision to come, grow, and share with us.
In Christ,
Pastor Cade