It is the heart of our staff that you take whatever precautions you think is best for your own safety.
What to do if you have been in close contact with a known COVID-19 infected person:
If you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or with someone who is in the same household as the person who tested positive, we ask you to please stay home until it has been two weeks since your last contact with them, and you are symptom free for those two weeks.
If we become aware that someone who has been in a service becomes ill, we will follow these procedures:
- We will ask the person to stay at home and seek medical car if needed. The person should stay at home for at least seven days after symptoms start AND three days after symptoms have improved and fever resolves without the use of fever-reducing medications.
- We will contact local health officials.
- If public health officials determine we need to, we will assist with determining who needs to be contacted for contact tracing.
- Any areas we determine a confirmed COVID-19 person visited will be sanitized.
Attendees are asked to wear a mask until further notice and to maintain a six feet of distance when speaking to one another. (Many face masks have been purchased by Emmanuel Free Will Baptist Church and are available for anyone who forgot to bring one with them.) No one will be permitted into the auditorium without a mask. Adults and children, age 5 and older, will need masks.
A plexiglass barrier has been installed on the platform, in front of the podium, to protect the audience.
To simplify this process, the following practices will be observed:
- Wear a mask (ages 5 and up)
- Wash your hands before and after services
- Cover your coughs or sneezes
Visit hand sanitizer stations frequently - Be willing to have your temperature taken
- Shake hands
- Hug others
- Come to church if you are sick
Touch your face, nose, or mouth
Leave trash in the Auditorium
With the help of our volunteers, we will be observing these distancing policies:
- No one will be permitted into the auditorium without a mask. Please bring a mask. If you forget one, they will be available in the foyer by the auditorium doors. Adults and children, ages 5 and older, will need masks.
- Ushers will wear masks
- Ushers will wear gloves when passing out our collecting materials.
- Attendees and ushers will maintain the social distance of six feet at all times. Social distancing will take place from the time we drive onto the campus and exit our cars until the time we get back into our cars after the service.
- Ushers will seat attendees before the services. Families will sit together. There will be 3-4 empty seats between families.
- We will sit every other row, and stagger the rows in an alternative seating pattern to ensure social distancing. Distancing will be kept in all directions – front, back, left, and right.
- At the end of service, Bro. Jason will come to the pulpit and dismiss attendees in a controlled manner starting from the back and working toward the front. There will be no gatherings at any doorways.
- Offering plates will not be passed during the services. There will be a designated place to give as you leave.
- Attendees are encouraged to promptly return home and refrain from fellowship at the end of the service.
- The Auditorium will be cleared at the end of each service and will remain closed until fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the next service.
- No food or coffee will be shared on campus.
- At the end of the Bible message, attendees will be encouraged to make decisions in their seat or to speak privately with a staff member.
- After the service, prayers with people needing spiritual counsel will be made in our church workroom observing social distancing guidelines.
Believer’s Baptism
- We will resume baptisms when we are able to return to normal.
The Lord’s Table
- We will wait to observe the Lord’s Table when we have a better sense of health needs.
Children’s Ministry
- We will not have children’s ministry at this stage of our reopening.
- If your child has had a fever in the last 24 hours, please keep him/her at home for the well-being of workers and other children.
Entry Doors/Lobbies
- Handles to all entry/exit doors are being sanitized before and after each service.
- Handles to all restroom and closet doors are being sanitized before and after each service.
- Light switches and chairs in the foyers will also be sanitized before and after every service.
- Water fountains will be unavailable for now.
Auditorium
- Handles to all entry/exit doors are being sanitized before and after each service.
- Chairs and tables used by the users are being sanitized before and after each service.
- After each service the arms of each pew will be sanitized.
- After each service, we will remove all trash and left over personal items from the auditorium. Personal items will be taken to the small table in the church lobby.
Nurseries
- All large toys that are used will be wiped down with Clorox wipes or equivalent after every service.
- Smaller toys that are used will be disinfected in the dishwasher.
- All chairs, counters, and tables will be cleaned with Clorox wipes or equivalent after every service.
