Dear South Creek Family,

We are so incredibly grateful for your patience and faithfulness during this season that has been marked with lots of changing and moving pieces. So again, thank you for being so gracious. Here is a current re-gathering plan…

This weekend we will remain online. We had originally planned to have a Saturday outdoor worship experience but due to some logistical, but primarily weather issues, we are not going to be able to gather on Saturday as intended. Sorry for the inconvenience.
On Sunday July 5th we will be re-gathering with the hopes of having an outdoor worship experience that will included physical distancing but will allow you to bring your our lawn chair or blanket. If weather is bad we will move inside.
Starting Sunday July 12th we will begin gathering again inside our building with the following guidelines put forth by our governance board after much prayer, discussion, and wisdom seeking.

Guidelines For Re-Gathering

* 6 feet social distancing will be in effect.

*We ask if you have been sick, had a fever, or recently had known contact to someone with Covid-19 or symptoms of Covid-19 or tested positive yourself, please watch online.

*We ask that unless you are volunteering that you do not enter the building until 15 minutes prior to services start time and go directly to find a seat in the sanctuary.

* One entrance and exit will be in effect at the front of the building. Volunteers will be in place for opening doors for you.

* Volunteers will be present to help with directions.

* Seating will be spaced to allow social distancing. Extended families may sit with each other.

* The lobby and other common surfaces will be wiped down before, during, and after service.

* We are asking for no hand shaking or hugging

* Face-masks are encouraged but not required. Lobby Volunteers will be wearing face-masks.

* No food or drink will be available in accordance with the instructions from the State of Indiana

* Kids ministry and nursery will be closed until further notice.

* No onsite Sunday meetings, aside from main service, will take place until further notice.

* Communion will not happen onsite until further notice.

*Service will be intentionally shorter and we will provide safe/quiet activities for kids

*Offering will not be passed. There will be mounted locked boxes to drop offering off or online/texting options will still be available.

*We will not pass out paper bulletins until further notice.

*We will have hand sanitizer throughout building for your use.

*We will ask that when service is over that you exit the building and any congregating would happen outside

*We encourage those over 65 or with medical conditions placing them in the most vulnerable category are encouraged to continue worshiping online. And any of you who do not yet feel comfortable worshiping in a large group should also feel free to continue worshiping online. No judgment here.

We fully understand that for some this will seem like overkill and some will feel like it is not enough but we have tried think through what are the most wise and loving guidelines for this season. We obviously know that things can and will change over time. We are also exploring some ways to allow for audio of the service outside for those who might enjoy coming to worship with others but would prefer not being inside.

Update On May 7th, 2020

Dear South Creek Family,

On May 1, Gov. Holcomb revised his stay-at-home order for Indiana. This revised order states that churches can re-convene physically again after May 8, if they observe very strict health and safety protocols. His recommendation is that, if churches can continue to meet online, they do so. I have linked the PDF below of all the recommendations that have been made for church.

https://backontrack.in.gov/files/BackOnTrack-IN_PlacesOfWorship.pdf

We are thankful for the incredible work Gov. Holcomb and his team have done to ensure our safety and the safety of our community! We are sure you are wondering what is South Creeks response and plan in light of this news...

For now, we believe that South Creek should and will continue to meet online at least through the month of May. We understand that may be disappointing to some but below are some reasons why the board and staff have come to this decision….

We logistically are not ready. We have to many ducks that need to be in a row in terms of what is allowed and what is not…amount of people in a service, set-up, mask availability, children’s ministry which cannot really happen, volunteer comfortability in serving, deciding on amount and times of services, how will we clean in between services, how do we get online church to still be done with excellence in the church building, do we have enough of the cleaning supplies to handle physical gatherings, how will we enforce safety precautions if people don’t follow them, and probably other details not listed. We don’t want rush into something and not have a solid plan but during this month we will be working hard on answering the questions for whenever we resume meeting physically again.

If we open up too quickly, it could unnecessarily put people’s lives at risk. We want to be a blessing to the city, and that means doing all we can to keep people safe. We find mixed reviews from all sorts of people and that includes those in the medical field but I find more of those in the medical field that would say its wisest to not move too fast, especially if you don’t have to. We believe this isn’t totally a question of is it right or wrong to gather physically again….we think its more of a matter of is it the wisest and most loving decision.

.

Similarly to the first point, we don’t want to get back together again until it can be a great experience for most everyone. If we couldn’t do Kids Ministry or we had to put stringent restrictions in place so we can follow the 6-foot distancing guidelines, no coffee, no real time to actually connect with others, that wouldn’t be a great experience, especially for anyone who has never been to church before.

We believe that waiting will give us time to properly plan and prepare for when we will eventually start to meet physically again and to figure out what that will look like. It also gives us more time to see how things continue to play out in particular in our community in regards to the status of the virus. Our plan will be that at the end of May we will give another update on where things are at in terms of our plans for June and beyond.

Now stay tuned for ways we will look at creatively gathering together in a distance manner like a possible drive in prayer and gathering. Also be sure to lean into the various opportunity’s to connect with others in this team.

We totally understand others may have very different thoughts and opinions on this decision but we hope you will see this as a response that has been carefully prayed about and thought through, that comes out of a desire to respond in grace and wisdom not react of fear and worry. We know and you know our church has never been closed, we merely just continue to be the church in various places all around our communities and we will continue to do so.

We love and appreciate each one of you!

Blessings!

-South Creek Staff and Governance board