Reopening Update May 28, 2020
Dear Brookswood Church Family,
Rest assured that I (Pastor Tom) and your church staff and leaders very much miss being with you and seeing you all together at church. In that regard, I would like to give you as much information as possible regarding the gradual and careful re-opening of our church facilities. Please read through this letter slowly and carefully so as to not misunderstand anything.
A special Reopening Task Force comprised of staff and church ministry leaders has met several times and recommends that we not try to start an actual on-site worship service quite yet, but recognizing the need for gathering together, we want to encourage people to consider joining us each Sunday for a time of intentional fellowship. Bring a lunch for yourself and your family, bring lawn chairs or blanket, and groups of up to 50 persons at a time are welcome to come and connect with each other. We will provide some gathering spaces (tables and chairs) in our Community Hall, as well as make use of outdoor spaces (preferred) such as the front lawns and parking lot. At this time we suggest Sundays 11:30-1:30pm.
For our first meeting together on JUNE 7, 11:30-1:30 – we are going to observe the Lord’s Supper together using special self-contained recyclable communion cups. We will gather all together in the Community Room at 1:00 pm Sunday. We hope to do this on the 1st Sunday of each month if at all possible.
Here are some considerations:
- When in the building - we request that social distancing (6 feet) be observed and, for the time being, masks be worn at all times to reduce the chances of spreading the virus. If you do not have a mask, one will be provided to you at the front entrance and hand sanitizer will be available for your use upon entry and exit.
- If you are feeling ill or have any symptoms of a cold, flu, or COVID-19 or if you have direct contact with anyone who is unwell please stay home for everyone's safety.
- Regarding Bathrooms - we will limit occupancy to a maximum of 2 persons in the men’s room and 3 persons in the women’s room. Some of the stalls or sinks will be blocked to encourage proper social distancing. Masks need to be worn in hallways and bathrooms out of courtesy to others.
- Most of the time the main building entrance will serve as our ENTER doors, and the Student Center doors will serve as our EXIT doors.
- Facility access will be limited to the Community Room, Bathrooms, main hallway and minimal use of the office (bank card machine is still available) in order to respect our Administrative Assistant’s workspace. We are trying to minimize the number of rooms we must disinfect so all non-essential doors and rooms will be off-limits for the time being.
- There must be a limit of 50 persons on our property at any one time, and we must keep track of each person by name. You will need to phone in your reservation/registration by Thursday each week (604-530-5440) to reserve a place among the 50 and you will receive a confirmation email or phone call prior to each Sunday. Should more than 50 desire to gather then we will split the gathering time and ask you to choose between an earlier time (10:00am-12:00) and a later time (1:00-3:00pm) giving us time to wipe down common areas in between the meeting times.
- Finally, you must agree to follow our recommendations in order to participate in on-site gatherings.
Currently, we are not able to live-stream our services on Sundays, so we will continue to record our service content on Thursdays and have it available each week by Saturday evening. When we start up worship services again, we may at first simply play our pre-recorded service in the sanctuary for those who wish to gather, and eventually move to providing live service content as we are able (the more staff, worship leaders and technicians we have on-site means fewer members can attend).
We realize the development and distribution of a vaccine is essential to our ability to gather safely together. Several churches in the USA found that after they met together recently, not only was there an outbreak of the virus among their congregation, but at least one person died because of it. We do not want that to be our story. We appreciate greatly your patience and understanding as we navigate this new world together. To that end, please do not feel any pressure to come to church just because the church is holding a gathering but decide what you personally are comfortable doing at this time.
Also, regarding supporting our church financially at this time, my wife and I, along with others, have decided to significantly increase our monthly giving. Statistically, about ½ of our people have stopped giving altogether since March! This is worrisome to me. Others have decided to start giving, even a little, each month to do their part. I would ask you to pray about what your family can do to start giving, or increase your giving so we can continue to minister and serve you and our community. The truth is, if everyone even gave half their tithe (5% of income), we would be financially OK. Giving to the Lord is not only a duty for every follower of Christ, but a privilege. Not giving indicates a spiritual heart issue. Ironically, the Bible says those who choose to hoard their money for themselves will not be blessed by God, but those who choose to give it away for His kingdom will in turn receive back much more in the blessings God alone can give. Choose to be a blessed family and watch how God blesses you in ways you never imagined. Tithing 10% of our income back to the church is both a spiritual discipline each person should strive for and it is a demonstration of the priorities in our life. Trusting that God knows what He is doing, that He will fulfill His promise to take care of us and obeying Him to the utmost of our ability indicates a healthy mature faith. Loving Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength is not easy but is well worth the effort.
We will continue to send updates as they become available. Watch our website and read the emails that are sent out to keep up to date and we will all get through this safely together! The Bible tells us not to forsake meeting together, so we are doing our best to make that happen in the safest way possible.
Should you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at the church office or by email at any time. I am excited to be able to gather together with you soon!
Grace and peace, Pastor Tom
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