As you know our community has been experiencing a spike in the omicron variant of Covid 19. Currently, most of our staff and many of our volunteers and church members are dealing with positive Covid-19 test results, experiencing a variety of symptoms related Covid-19, or have been exposed to it by being in close proximity with someone who has tested positive.

One of the principles that we put in place back in May of 2020 after the very first shut down was to make sure we do everything possible to protect the integrity of our Sunday morning worship gatherings and provide a safe space for our people to worship. Given our current environment, we believe that limiting the amount of time that people are on campus and eliminating those instances where people gather in close proximity to one another will help us reduce our Covid-19 footprint on our community. We want to continue to act responsibly and in a way that keeps our church from becoming an epicenter of the spread of Covid.

The omicron variant seems to be moving much faster than previous strains which is why five day protocols have been suggested by the CDC. We believe that we can achieve a comfortable level of safety for our future gatherings by making a few adjustments to the schedule for this Sunday, January 9.

We will hold our two worship services at 9:30 and 11:00. We will implement as much as possible, every other pew seating, and our choir will not be singing. We will sanitize the worship space between services. We will not have any other activities on campus this Sunday. There will be no Life Groups or Next Gen ministries (student, elementary, or preschool) on campus this Sunday. Families are welcome to come to church, but please know that your children must be able to sit with their  families for the service.

We believe this brief reset will give us the five days that are needed for us to be able to start up Upward Basketball and Cheerleading and resume Wednesday night Next Gen activities as early as next week. Our plan is to move forward with Upward Sports on Tuesday January 11 and Wednesday night Next Gen ministries on Wednesday, January 12. We plan to resume normal Sunday morning schedules the following Sunday, January 16. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we seek to implement best practices in an age where that is still being defined. Please let us know if you have any questions.