In Person Service Of Evening Prayer: What To Expect

Jan 16, 2021 | news and announcements, Pastor's Blog

Greetings Dear Church!

I most certainly want to begin with thanks. Your patience, support, faith, and willingness to work with us as we continue to learn and adapt day by day has been immeasurably helpful. And now, as we transition to offering a time of worship that is both indoors and in-person, I wanted to send out again what our indoor policies are.

But a word on why we are introducing this Wednesday service of Evening Prayer. We continue to monitor health department guidelines and recommendations. What we have continued to see is that several factors of the way we conduct Sunday worship remains to be in a high risk category: Namely Singing, responsive words, communion/eating, and length. I had been stuck in thinking about ways to mitigate those risks to move toward a Sunday worship return.

But there would be ultimately too much to restructure in the short term. However, a service of Evening Prayer does not contain the risks mentioned above, while still offering a time of worship & prayer together. It isn’t a perfect solution, but at least for me, offers much of what I have been desiring. In short, the yellow image below encapsulates the main mitigation efforts that we have in place.

What can I expect for indoor worship?
  • Your LCM staff and Council Leadership have worked on and have an active plan to return to worship indoors.. The following measures and modifications that are specific to our context and building:
    • To accommodate for the limit of twenty-five* people allowed for current indoor gatherings, registration will be required for both preparation and contact tracing purposes.
    • Registration and sign up for services will take place via Sign-Up Genius. Here is what the sign up website will look like:
    • The sign up link is currently active and spots are available for each of the remaining services in January. Subsequent Wednesday services will be put onto this link in the coming weeks.

Wednesday In-person Service of Evening Prayer Sign-up

On the evening of worship itself, here’s what to expect:
  • Temperature checks will be conducted upon your arrival to the building for worship.
  • Face masks will be required throughout your time inside the building.
  • You will be directed and asked to head directly toward a marked clear seat in the sanctuary. And once service has concluded we’ll ask for you to please head directly back to your vehicle
  • The Sanctuary will be sanitized after each use.
    • We have use of an industrial fogger sanitizer for this purpose. We will also have spray and wipe sanitizers for you to use for sanitizing purposes.
  • The online registration for indoor worship also includes spaces for you to volunteer for these specific worship service tasks: Entry Ushers, temperature checkers, Exit Ushers, Cleaners/Sanitizers.
  • We will also continue with the practice of having you either print your own worship guides at home or use an electronic device or tablet here in the sanctuary.
    • Very limited quantity of Guides will be available including large print.
    • The Sanctuary also now has a specific WiFi will also be made available for those who may need to download the worship guide upon arrival:
      • WiFi Name: LCM-Stream
      • Password: LCOTM580
  • We will not be able to offer any time of fellowship after service of coffee or refreshments as to discourage lingering.
  • Washrooms will be made available but are encouraged for emergency use. Washrooms will also be single occupancy.
  • Nursery will be available for diaper changing as needed and will not be staffed by volunteers. The Nursery will also be encouraged to be single family occupancy.
  • For now, Sunday School will continue to meet via Zoom twice a month.
What Guides Our Decision Making?
  • As I mentioned above, we have been following closely the recommendations from both all levels of public health departments as well as our Metro Chicago Synod and the resources they’ve provided that have taken the public heath guidelines and made them specific to churches.
  • In the event there is notification of anyone having tested positive to COVID, we will immediately provide notice to all who attended that same worship service or event as the person who tested positive.
  • The affected individual must have a negative test and have followed all medical protocols before rejoining in person.

I greatly look forward to worshipping with you all! Please take time to take all fo this information in. I know it was a lot! And for any and all questions you have, please direct them my way. I will be happy to help you. I will see you soon Dear Church.

Peace & Blessings,

Pastor Dave