Sunday Services at Church

To Members, Adherents and Visitors of Open Baptist Church Hartbeespoort

Commencement of Sunday services at Church wef 7th June 2020

Following the Government’s decision to allow churches to, at their own discretion, open their doors for services, we have taken the decision to do so. This will be done with due consideration and in full compliance and adherence to all the conditions, as required and specified in the Government Gazette Number 43365, published on 28th May 2020.

Rationale for our decision:

• We believe that there is a need to do so as there are members of the church who do not have access to the Internet and or data and who otherwise have not been able to hear God’s Word since lock-down;
• We are acting in terms of the law and are permitted do so by Government;
• We have the ability to comply with all the laid down requirements, including the sanitation of our premises, screening of everyone, record keeping and the observing of social distancing requirements, etc.;
• We are, as Leadership, in a position to fully commit to observe and to be fully compliant with all the laid down requirements and regulations;
• Being a small church our numbers allow for this without any real complications in doing so. Given our size, there will be no need to have multiple services on anyone one day, which obviously significantly eliminates complexities of deep-cleaning the church in between services;
• Given strict adherence to social distancing requirements and respecting each other’s views and rights, the risk in spreading the COVID-19 disease is greatly reduced and therefore unlikely;
• The exceptionally low infection rate currently in the greater Hartbeespoort / Brits area;
• We currently do have the necessary resources to allow us to fully comply with all requirements;
• The recording and streaming of the service will still be done, albeit a little later than normal. This will ensure that those not attending in person will still be able to partake and to hear the teaching for the week. The service will be loaded onto YouTube at 11:15 each Sunday morning.Please find below the salient requirements, which kindly familiarise yourself to ensure that you are comfortable to adhere to all the conditions and requirements, which we as leadership, are committed to fully comply with and to enforce at all times.Should you in any way feel uncomfortable, or for any reason feel that you will not be able to adhere or observe any one or more of the below requirements for the full duration of the services, we respectfully request that you please continue to watch the services online and in the comfort and safety of your home. This is perfectly fine and we wish to re-iterate that it is essential that we all respect each others views in this matter, which as we know, might vary significantly from each other.

Requirements

• The wearing of facemasks, throughout the entire duration of the service – (from getting out of your car till the time you get back into it again) – covering your nose and mouth is compulsory;
• No more than 50 people will be allowed to enter the building at any stage, before, during, or after the service;
• Each person will be screened, bwo a questionnaire, which will be kept for 6- months by the Church,, on or before entering the place of worship for symptoms associated with COVID -19. This will include questions regarding fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, or difficulty in breathing, body aches, loss of smell or loss of taste, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, weakness or tiredness;
• The temperature of each person will be taken and recorded before joining the service;
• A separate and detailed plan is available for your information detailing procedures of how leadership will deal with cases where symptoms are displayed, or where symptoms are being presented, during the service;Social distancing and Personal ProtectionIt is especially with regards to the requirements of social distancing and personal protection that we require everyone’s commitment to strictly adhere to minimum requirements, irrespective of your personal views and or opinions of the COVID-19 disease. As a minimum the following requirements need to be strictly observed:

• No physical contact is allowed between anyone in the church. This includes, but is not limited to hugging, shaking of hands, or kissing;
• Sanitisers will be made available at the entrance of the church and everyone is required to use same;
• Please endeavor to limit using of the bathroom facilities to one person at a time only;
• There will be no material towels put out in the bathrooms. Please directly discard all paper towels in the bins provided;
• Please note that the baby / cry room will not be open for use;
• Chairs have been set-out at 1,5m intervals – please do not move any chairs, or add any chairs whatsoever;
• Please observe a 1,5m distance between you and the next person when in conversation;
• There will be no singing, as this is not allowed. We will play a song at the beginning of the service and one in closing where everyone will be seated and asked to reflect on the words on the screen without actually singing aloud;
• There will be no Communion served. Pastor will discuss and guide families to take same at home;
• Pastor will not be preaching with a facemask on, but we have increased the distance between him and anyone else to the required 2,5meters;
• No offering will be taken up during or after the service. Our request is to please EFT any offering or tithing directly into our bank account, the details which are available on openbaptistchurch.co.za/giving,
• No coffee, tea or any other beverages or snacks will be served at all;
• No water or glasses will be provided. Please feel free to bring your own bottle of water to church, which is obviously not to be shared with anyone else;

Considerations

You may wish to prayerfully consider the following before deciding whether or not you wish to attend the services in person at this point in time: –

• Age
o Although not prescriptive in any legislation, we would encourage anyone over the age of 60 and especially anyone with co-morbidities to continue to worship at home;
o How you would deal with infants and young children wearing masks, as they too need to wear the required protection throughout the service;
o If looking after, or sharing accommodation with elderly parents, or grand-parents;

• Specified and laid-down Requirements
  o Can I and will I be able to fully adhere to all the above requirements all the time;
• Social distancing and personal protection
  o Can I and will I be able to fully adhere to all the above requirements all the time;
• Children

o Will my children be able to adhere to social distancing rules, including the wearing of a mask and staying in their de-markated seats?
o We will accommodate the children in a separate building (designated Paper World building), subject to all of the above requirements and conditions.

▪  Once screened with their parents, the children will directly be taken to the designated building without first going into the church,

▪  All social distancing rules are to observed by all children at all times.

▪  Should parents feel that their children will not be able to obey these rules, or the instructions of the Sunday school teacher at all times, the children are to remain with the parents in church. All the above conditions will however, still have to be enforced and complied with.

• Arrival time
o To avoid bottlenecks and congregation of bodies waiting to be screened can we please ask that you try to arrive between 8:30 and 8:50 latest;
o Kindly observe social distancing whilst talking to others and whilst waiting to be screened;
o If at all possible, please bring your own pen with you to sign the screening document.

Although we look forward to welcome those members, adherents and visitors who will be comfortable and able to adhere to all of the above requirements to worship in person, we equally pray that everyone else will continue to be blessed in hearing God’s Word being taught over the Internet, via openbaptistchurch.co.za. and the YouTube link that will be forwarded onto you each week.

God’s richest blessings to all.
Pastor Rudi and Leadership of Open Baptist Church Hartbeespoort.