St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church
Physically Reconvening Strategic Options
After spending time utilizing some of the Spiritual Disciplines such as Prayer, Scripture Reading, and Fasting to hear from the Lord concerning physically reconvening as a church. It was then time to speak with our Full-time staff, Board of Management, and Ministry Leaders. In discussing our ministry setting here at St. Stephen we concluded that a August/September date is not a good fit for our Church family for the following reasons…
Barriers
1. 65% of our members are 65 or above
2. Church size (700 in Sunday School)
3. L.A. County population (10 Million)
4. No Vaccine
5. No Sunday school in person
6. Government restrictions
7. Contraction Rate still high
8. Hospitalization Rate is high
9. COVID-19 Testing still inadequate coupled with long results wait
10. Legal Liability
Blessings
1. Medication Remdesivir (Decreasing illness time)
2. Mortality rate plateaued and decreasing
3. Vaccine looking strong in December/January
4. Church is still OPEN, people cannot touch right now, but the church is still TOUCHING people
Worship
· Dates- Earliest December/January
· Numbers- 200 with COVID-19 Safe Distancing
· COVID Detection-Testing available throughout L.A. County
· COVID Distancing- Entering, worshiping, exiting
· COVID Sterilization- Entire building cleaned and sterilized after each service.
Sunday School
· Dates- 2021 in person
· Numbers- Vaccine Dependent
· COVID Detection
· COVID Distancing
· COVID Sterilization- Sterilized after each use.
Academy
· Date- January 2021
· Numbers- 50 or less
· COVID Detection- Testing available throughout L.A. County
· COVID Distancing- Classrooms, lunch, playground, gym, restrooms, and hallways.
· COVID Sterilization- Complete sterilization at the conclusion of each day.