Good news folks! Our Health and Welfare Committee, chaired by Renee Baca, RN, met this past Sunday and after looking over the statistics related to COVID-19 in Gwinnett County, and the CDC guidelines, we plan to open again safely for in-person worship services sooner than expected. If the number of COVID-19 infections continue their downward trend, and the number of people being vaccinated continues to increase, we plan to open for in-person Sunday morning worship services on March 14. When we do re-open, we will continue using the same pandemic protocols we used previously: no more than 50 people in the sanctuary, RSVPs through Sign Up Genius, always maintain social distancing, proper mask wearing at all times, and temperature taken prior to entering. We also understand that when we go back to in-person meetings, other small groups may want to begin meeting again. If you have a small group that would like to begin meeting again, please submit a request to Renee Baca with the Health and Welfare Committee at grb911@aol.com or contact the church for a case-by-case review. Ideally, we would like to see small groups waiting until after Easter (April 4th) to meet again, which will give us time to work out any problems in our process. Our long-term goal, if all goes well, is to have our Grand Opening on August 15th. At that time, we hope to be entirely in-person for all church activities, including two services on Sunday morning (8:30 and 11:00), all Sunday school classes in session, nursery, youth and children activities, Wednesday Night supper and Bible Study, other small groups, like Joy Club, Jim’s Bible study, Choir and Handbells, and other groups, such as the Scouts, sports teams in Berrier Building, etc. I’m not sure what a full church schedule looks like here, so I am excited to see it unfold! I invite you to pray for the church as we consider how best to provide a safe and nurturing environment as we fulfill our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Isaiah 65:17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.