Pastor Stephens Covid Update June 2020

Hello, this is Pastor Stephens, Pastor of The Door Christian Fellowship here in El Paso, TX.

We have two challenges: We want to move forward and continue with what God has called us to do and at the same time we need to exercise caution and wisdom as far as how we are going to move forward in this era Coronavirus.

We are living in interesting times...and probably the most challenging as far as the church is concerned in our lifetime.

I want to take time to go over some of the most recent decisions I’ve made concerning our response to the Coronavirus and how we are going to proceed over the next few weeks.

Some of these are common sense guidelines that I expect everyone will implement for your own safety and health and some are protocols that we have to keep in place for the time being that will facilitate us to continue advancing God’s will and purpose in our lives as His Church and at the same time provide a healthy, safe environment.

First of all, I know most everyone is very excited about being able to gather together again. Our services have been very powerful forums of God working and part of that is due to the fact more people can come and physically gather.

As you know our sanctuary has limitations as far as the size of the crowd. We have the benefit of having a large, recently remodeled fellowship hall to further accommodate our church.

Going forward we are going to further limit the number of people in our main sanctuary. We still want everyone in our church to come who are willing and as long as it is safe for you and everyone you are gathering with. We are going to cap the number of people in the main sanctuary at about 275, then after that number is reached everyone one else will be guided into the fellowship hall.

We will also be cancelling all of our in person events; Concerts/ outreaches/ band and drama practices/ Our Bible Studies, Youth and Serous Men will continue via zoom. We will continue to have our scheduled prayer meetings. There is plenty of room for people to spread out and pray.

While we are excited to be able to meet together, but we must continue to do so safely. So we will need to follow a number of common-sense health and safety guidelines. These guidelines fall into a number of categories:

Basic Common-Sense Guidelines

1. If you are currently sick, showing symptoms or develop a fever, please do not come.

2. If you have come in direct close contact with COVID-19 recently you must monitor yourself and you may want to get tested.

3. If you are elderly, or have existing illnesses, please recognize that larger crowds may put you at greater risk. You may consider it wiser to join us online, instead of in person.

Safety Procedures We Will Put in Place For You

1. We will continue to have extra cleaning and sanitation of all common areas.

2. We will continue to practice some of the CDC recommendations for crowds, such as refraining from handshaking and hugging, etc.

Safety Procedures You Can Observe for Yourself

1. You may prefer to wear a mask in church – that is acceptable, and recommended for some.

2. As I said earlier, in our sanctuary, we will further reduce the number of people to ensure the practice of social distancing in seating.

Safety Procedures We Will be Requiring of Every Attender

1. We will continue to require every person to sanitize their hands as they enter.

2. We will continue to be temperature screening all attendees as they enter the building.

a. This is to identify anyone who is running a fever, and may not be aware of it. If you are – you should not be gathering with other people.

b. Temperature screening gives extra reassurance to those who are at greater risk, or those who have more personal concerns for their safety.

c. If you have objections to being required to sanitize your hands, or have your temperature screened, then it would be wiser for you to not attend personally.

Overall, some of you may not be able, or comfortable attending at this time – for various reasons. In that case, we are glad for the technology that enables people to be a part of the conference online. Every service will be Live-streamed. One way or another, we believe that God is going to help us and meet with us. Jesus will be glorified, people will be helped, and the work of God will go forward.

May God bless you all. Thanks.