Stanley Baptist Church “Back to Sunday School” Plan
The past months have been uncharted territory for everyone in our community, state, nation, and world at large. COVID-19 has been an ongoing issue and though the pandemic has been tough, we have done our best to remain a church family while navigating this new ground.
As we have come forward, we have slowly moved into doing more and more activities at the church while still practicing social distancing and working toward being safe. Moving into September we have decided to begin having Sunday school again. We have outlined a program that we feel will be safe, supportive, and inclusive in moving ahead and plan our first Sunday school classes to start Sunday September 6. The classes will be outlines as follows:
Women’s Adult Class: Use Largest of Sunday school rooms or Social Hall
Men’s Adult Class: Use 2nd Largest of Sunday school rooms or Social Hall
Children/Youth: Use the normal youth room Each of the classes will only have people in it the one day for Sunday school and will be cleaned according to COVID-19 standards between Sunday services. The classes will additionally remain empty and untouched other than on Sunday for class to be as sanitary as possible. IF the social hall must be used the far area near the bathrooms will be used AND wiped down immediately after use.
Sunday school will start at 10 AM and run to 10:35 AM (first bell) and 10:40 AM (second bell) having dismissed and cleared out of rooms by 10:45 AM at the latest. If the fellowship hall is used this will give adequate time to clean the area and disinfect it before anyone may walk through. It will be sanitized again by our cleaning person before class is held the following Sunday.
We are also starting our children’s bulletins and welcome all ages for church and Sunday school. The nursery will NOT be our normal nursery program due to COVID-19 restrictions, however we will have two (2) rooms available for those needing nursery for church worship service and Sunday school. We are asking that family of those needing nursery use these rooms as they are needed and encourage you to listen to the service on the overhead speaker or watch on the Facebook Live feed. This will allow social distancing and one family per room. As we have more people come, we will accommodate that growth with other rooms to be used for nursery as well and advise you accordingly. Our hope is that with the children’s bulletins activities that more people are able to stay in the sanctuary for worship.
During worship service we want you to be assured that we are still working toward social distancing and remaining as safe and cautious as we can. We are still following the following guidelines for both Sunday school and Worship service:
All People are to wear masks at all times (unless you have a medical condition preventing this).
We ask that you use hand sanitizer after leaving classrooms and ensure that you touch as little as possible. We are helping to facilitate this by leaving doors open and ensuring common areas are wiped down between services.
Families can sit together as normal, but we are asking that the 6-foot rule be respected for social distancing for anyone that is not in the guideline of family or those in close contact regularly.
We are using paper bulletins; however, ushers are handing them out individually with gloves on.
Singing is still kept to a minimum and offering is being collected before and after service in the offering plates in the front.
After services we ask that you not congregate inside and exit in a timely manner. We prefer you talk outdoors as this allows more space and less crowding.
This list cannot possibly be exhaustive and will need to be amended as needed. We are keeping a close watch on COVID-19 cases in our area and will change services as needed. If there is a double-digit spike in cases in the area at any time during the week, we will announce whether or not we will have Sunday school that following Sunday. If needed, we will take this week by week and cancel Sunday school for safety reasons and let you know in as timely a manner as possible.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at: pastor@stanleybaptist.org or call the office number at: (540) 778-1037. Our goal is to be as safe as we can during these times and your comfort levels are important to us. As always, use your own judgment and if you do not feel comfortable please stay home and watch our Facebook Live feed for service. If we have enough interest, we can always do Zoom meeting for Sunday school. We are holding off Bible Study for the foreseeable future and plan on having it as soon as we feel it is safe. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.