I know that many churches are wrestling with the same questions we are at Malvern Hill. As a pandemic continues to rage, we have to make decisions about how we will move forward with corporate worship. At Malvern Hill, we have been blessed to be able to be outdoors for worship since Easter while maintaining a high-quality livestream of our worship services.
As leaders wrestle with decisions, very little is as important as communicating your decisions and the thought process behind those decisions with the people you lead. Below, I’ve pasted the email that we sent out to our people at Malvern Hill explaining our reasons for moving indoors and the process for evaluating that decision. I post this here in hopes that some of you might benefit from our process as you wrestle through similar decisions.
This Sunday, we will move our worship indoors. Our worship time will continue to be at 9:30 (explanation for the blog: We are keeping our worship service at 9:30 so that if we choose to be back outdoors, the time won’t change, only the venue.). If you haven’t already, you can watch our video from Wednesday night that explains the process here.
We have worked to create social distancing inside of our facility by spreading out chairs and by creating an extra worship space. If your last name begins with A-K you will be asked to gather in the gym for worship. If your last name begins with L-Z, you will be asked to gather in the sanctuary for worship this week. Next week, we will flip the schedule and those who were in the gym will be in the sanctuary.
I have attached a graphic that explains the guidelines we are putting into place and the requests we make of you as you gather with us on Sunday.
- Please give each other space. Remain 6 feet apart.
- Please do not hug or shake hands.
- Masks are not required, but are encouraged. Masks and hand sanitizer will be available as you enter.
- If you are seated in the sanctuary, please leave at least one open row between you and the next family group. If you are seated in chairs, you should keep 3 chairs between you and the next family group.
- Please limit restroom visitors to 2 peopole at a time.
- Please respect the convictions and concerns of others. The most important question you should ask is not “How do I feel about COVID-19?” but “How can I love on my neighbor during COVID-19?”
- Offering plates will not be passed. Offering will be collected at the doors of the sanctuary and the gym.
- If you are worshiping in the gym please enter through the glass doors under the covered awning in the gym. If you are worhsiping in the sanctuary, please enter through the main doors on the front porch.
In Wednesday night’s video, I made reference to the fact that this is not necessarily a permanent move. We are moving indoors this week and will re-evaluate following our service. Our goal is to do all we can to minister to as many of you as possible in person. The heat for this weekend is predicted to be oppressive, and at this point, the weather forecast for next weekend is stormy. At the very least, by making indoor worship an option, we can make sure that weather does not keep us from gathering for worship in the future.
The online stream will continue to be available.
In addition, we will have “Tailgate” fellowhsip on Sunday evening at 6:00. You are invited to bring your own picnic dinner or grill or whatever you would prefer and enjoy some socially distanced fellowship with your church family. Because of COVID-19, the church will not be providing food, but we do hope that many of you will come and enjoy spending time with each other.
As we continue to navigate these waters, I know that any decision we make will be fraught with negative side-effects. I wish there was a way to make perfect decisions that would care well for each and every one of you equally. Since that isn’t possible, I am re-doubling my efforts to pray for all of you who are unable to attend our worship services during these days. You are not forgotten.
If you would like to discuss any of our plans, please feel free to call or email me. I would love to hear from you.
A few extra comments for pastors and leaders:
- Make plans for when, not if, someone in your congregation is diagnosed with COVID-19 after attending worship. One pastor recently told me, “We had perfect plans for everything, except what to do if someone tests positive.” Learn from his mistakes.
- Be flexible. We need to be able to transition between indoors, outdoors, and online at a moment’s notice.
- Prepare for this to be around for a long time. We hope and pray it isn’t, but we make plans anyway.
- Protect your church by practicing social distancing among your staff. I don’t gather in the same room with my staff members. We can’t afford for our church to be without their entire leadership team because one of us tests positive and everyone else has to quarantine.
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