CoVid-19 Mitigation Update
Hello everyone. Given the new restrictions NJ is placing on indoor gatherings I wanted to write to everyone about what they mean for Central Baptist.
Worship
First, while indoor gatherings in general are being limited to ten persons, religious gatherings have been given a rather generous cushion. We are allowed 25% of our capacity, or 150 persons, whichever is smaller. Our maximum capacity is 245, which means we are permitted to have 61 persons in worship. This is a number we weren’t reaching before the pandemic, and we haven’t had over twenty persons in attendance even outdoors, so we’re not likely to violate the state’s public health guidance regarding crowd size.
Because we have a both small crowd in attendance and a large sanctuary in which to worship, we will be continuing to worship in person on Sunday mornings. Pastor Ronnie is also taking steps to increase mitigation efforts with Ide.
Having said that, I do need to point out that a virus does not look at a Church and say, “Oh, that’s a church, I won’t go in there.” Limitations on gathering sizes are in place to slow the spread of a potentially deadly disease, and Central should do everything we can to support this necessary work.
Even though the sanctuary will be open for worship, please do not take that to mean anyone should feel an obligation to come. If you are in a high-risk group, stay home. If you work where you have an elevated risk of exposure, stay home. If you simply feel uncomfortable with indoor gathering for any reason, stay home. And, if you have any sort of illness or feel under the weather, stay home.
Yes, having to remain apart is heart-breaking, but we will continue to do our best to remain connected and doing the good work to which we have been called. We will always continue to stream worship, and we’re in the process of expanding our capabilities so we can include more of our streaming family as we worship.
Church Council also recognizes that there is a distinct possibility we may have to close the building once again. If and when that happens we will return to our online-only streaming, and perhaps have few folks present in the sanctuary to help conduct worship.
Christmas Eve
We had been preparing an outdoor Christmas Eve celebration with Epworth United Methodist and Bethany Lutheran, but given the new guidelines we felt it wasn’t appropriate to continue with our plans.
As such, Central will be putting together a Christmas Eve service which we will stream. Some of the service will be pre-recorded and some will be live. We hope it will be special for everyone, even though it’s not what any of us want. As plans settle we will be looking for some volunteers who will be willing to take part.
Pastoral Message
I want to reiterate again how proud of am of the Central Baptist community. We have not just put up with disruptions, we’ve learned to surf the turbulence and manage to do some very good work. I know we’re all feeling exhausted by the stress of these restrictions and the threat of the virus. I know we are all down about not being able to celebrate the holidays the way we would like to. I know this is all so very old. Allow yourself to feel both the exhaustion and the emotional turmoil that’s present. And when these feelings wash over us, and they will, let them knock you into the arms of Jesus. He’ll gift us the strength to continue in our calling and live with love.
This will come to an end, and we will gather again without masks and be able to belt out as many songs as we want. Even this will pass.
I love you all,
Pastor Wes