By: Jeff Wreyford, Senior Pastor
With cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) being confirmed in Memphis as well as Arkansas, and with organizations like the NBA and NCAA making the hard decision to limit exposure, we wanted to make you aware of our plan as a church and let you know we have health professionals in our community monitoring, sharing, and advising.
Let me first say what Scripture reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and sound mind.” However, this doesn’t mean we aren’t also called to protect our flock and use wisdom and discernment.
We would like to share the following changes to our services in order to help prevent and limit exposure for the time being:
1. We have a small team who has offered to help clean and disinfect the church prior to Sunday worship this weekend. We are also looking for more volunteers to disinfect directly after Sunday worship each week. If you would like to help serve in this way, please email Becca Overcast (bkovercast@gmail.com).
2. We plan to have volunteers stationed in the lobby to open the front door and greet you as you come in and leave to minimize your need to touch handles.
3. We are encouraging parents to consider using our app to check in your children for classes, but we will also have someone there to assist you on Sunday morning.
4. We will suspend our “doughnut ministry”, but will have sanitizer by the coffee station and ask that you “pump before pumping.”
5. We will continue our time of offertory but will not pass baskets and ask that you either give online (https://christredeemer.churchcenter.com/giving), through our app (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/church-center-app/id1357742931), or use our visitor card boxes by the entrance to give. For online giving, please use the ACH/Bank Draft option as this takes a much smaller portion off the top than using a credit card.
6. We plan to keep our time of greeting, but ask you to smile, say “hello," wave, air-five, fist bump, or elbow instead of hugging or handshaking.
7. On communion weeks, we will have the bread and cup stacked together separately. Beyond that, we encourage you to stay home if you are sick in any way, and to let us know so we can minister to you there. Also, wash/sanitize hands often, and avoid touching your eyes, nose or others with unwashed hands.
Should there be any change, we will communicate to you primarily through email and our text messaging system. We have a great opportunity as believers to be a light and voice of hope and healing during this season. We can show our confidence in the Great Healer who touched and healed the untouchable. We look forward to Sunday.
Your Pastor,
Jeff