As churches begin to reopen in the coming weeks, we support leaders making decisions to remain online as well as those reopening their church buildings—assuming necessary precautions such as wearing masks are being taken. Our churches are represented in each of these camps. If churches in the association can extend grace to churches that choose different paths, then we’ll really be approaching our goal of "collaborative innovation."

But now we need to talk about how to reopen well. I know that many of you have already made plans, but if not, there are some great resources out there. If you haven’t surveyed your congregation about their thoughts and want help developing a survey, contact me and I’ll help you write and deploy a survey for your church very quickly. 

REOPENING WELL STARTS WITH PREPARATION

There are a million resources out there to help you prepare your campus for people, how to clean it between services (including what products to use), best practices for the worship service itself, and even how to open up the church office for the staff. Rather than reinvent the wheel(s), here are some of the best resources that I know of with an eye toward those developed locally when possible (because context is king).  

• Houston Responds has a one-stop landing page for quick summaries about cleaning (including disinfecting sanctuaries between services), campus planning, and office-reopening. Several UBA churches contributed to this resource, so if you had to plan in 10 minutes, this is your best first stop. https://www.houstonresponds.org/reopen

• The best in-depth guide including checklists and helpful team questions is the guide provided by the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, found at https://www.reopeningthechurch.com/.  

• The best FAQs come from Guidestone. And frankly, a lot of these guides leav more questions than answers. Their landing page has several helpful links, but here is the FAQs page. 

• If you’re curious about the actual CDC guidelines for churches and protocols for children, you can find them here. 

OPEN UP TO A PARTY (WITH LIMITS)

Gregg Matte at Houston’s First Baptist Church has said repeatedly that when people return to the church, he wants them to feel a sense of joy and not a sense of dread. By communicating what the church is doing to take every possible precaution to keep people safe ahead of time, Pastor Gregg wants the focus of people attending to be on worshipping God. Many pastors across the city have gone out of their way to prepare their congregations in similar ways through videos, emails, and social media: setting the expectations of those who are attending so they can concentrate on the reason they decided to come in the first place. 

Houston’s First Baptist has divided their volunteers and staff into three teams for reopening: cleaning, logistics, and “party-planning.” The party-planners will be welcoming people in the parking lot (wearing masks) and setting the tone of celebration from the first moment back on campus—complete with music to greet people in the parking lot. Crosspoint Church in Pearland regularly pipes music into their parking lot, and you might be surprised at how much it helps get people ready to be in the worship service. 

NO ONE LIKES GETTING LEFT OUT

For many churches, reopening weekend will be a fork in the road. Some families will not immediately come back to the in-person gathering but will choose to continue online. There will be various reasons for that choice: fear of the coronavirus, lack of childcare provided by the church, unsure of the worship experience given the 25% capacity, etc. But one thing is clear, if those choosing to stay home begin to feel like second class citizens, the church will fracture. 

This is a tremendous leadership challenge, but one I think pastors are rising to meet. For one thing, there are groups—like those aged over 65 and those with underlying medical conditions—that the CDC has asked to refrain from regathering at this point in time, and many pastors have lovingly asked those groups to please stay online for the time being. I also hope that pastors will continue to preach to the camera as if someone is looking them in the eye, because they are. Pastors will do well to remember that the man or woman running the camera represents families in the church wondering if they are being left behind or left out of the party.  

WHAT TO DO IF SOMEONE GETS SICK

Tony Morgan wrote a great blog recollecting conversations that he’s had with pastors, and he’s asked questions that I’ve heard repeated elsewhere. The blog is worth your time. But these questions haven’t been conclusively answered to my satisfaction unless I missed it, so I’m asking for your help. If you have seen an authoritative source recommend steps for what a church should do in the case that someone in the congregation gets COVID-19 after the church reopens, please send it to me. 

There are at least five churches that have had to close since reopening to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, and one of them was in Houston. If you haven’t thought through these questions, please begin doing so. 

Learning from the example of a couple churches that have had to contain outbreaks, there are some steps you should take immediately. 

1. Report the case

Harris County Public Health to report a confirmed case (other counties can be found at the same site). This will begin the contact tracing protocol. They will ask for the names of anyone who had “close contact for a prolonged period of time”  which operationally means anyone who sat or stood near that person for more than 5 minutes. Those people will all be asked to take a COVID-19 test, quarantine for 14 days, and take another COVID-19 test before leaving quarantine. 

2. Contact your people

Many churches are using a reservation system like Eventbrite to keep occupancy limitations under control. It's also helpful for communication purposes if you have a confirmed case. If someone in the 9:30 service gets sick, the church knows who attended so that those people can be informed. 

3. Contact insurance

Churches should also contact their insurance provider to understand how/if liability coverage works in these cases.

Beyond those steps, Tony Morgan’s blog recommends additional questions that your team needs to think through, and I highly recommend them. UBA consultants are ready to walk alongside you and connect you to other churches that are wrestling with these same issues as well. 

• How will you communicate that news with your congregation?

• How will you track down the people who were at the service to encourage them to get medical attention?

• How will you communicate with volunteers on serving teams after known cases surface?

• Under what circumstances will you stop in-person gatherings again?

PRAY, PREPARE, & PARTY

As I have for weeks, I pray for churches that have been open and those additional churches that open each week. I pray that God is glorified and that he is pleased. I pray that God would speak clearly TO the church, and THROUGH the church. I pray that the message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ would be clearly communicated in every way possible. I pray that churches would unite under his banner and bring a message of calm reassurance to a world that is starving for signs of hope. 

I pray we love people well, just as God is loving. As the world seems focused on darkness, may every household that knows the gospel be a lighthouse for his kingdom and a safe harbor for those in need. I pray healing for those who are sick and that God would prevent others from getting sick. 

Lord, use your church in new and amazing ways for the sake of your name and your glory. Bring people to a saving relationship in you throughout these days, and may the church be ready to celebrate and engage every opportunity you place in front of it. 

#BetterTogether

Josh Ellis is Executive Director of Union Baptist Association. He has a PhD in Leadership Studies and has served on the UBA staff since 2005. With both practical and scholarly knowledge, he leads the association into innovative collaboration for the sake of strategic gospel advancement.

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