³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
³⁷ He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment.
³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Matthew 22: 36 -39

Now that the Governor has started to life the COVID restrictions do not throw away all that we/you have learned this last year about safety, care, online and outdoor worship and so forth. We all want to go back “to normal” but normal in March 2020 is no longer the normal in May 2021.

Before the session tosses away the masks consider the following:

• Have a thoughtful and respectful conversation about care for the church community and the neighborhood surrounding the church. Frame the conversation around the question “How can we continue care for our neighbors and ourselves?”. Another question for your conversations “How can we continue to welcome all of God’s people to the worship and congregational gatherings?”
• Develop a new policy/protocol for is for the most vulnerable. Meaning that your focus should be on protecting those who are not vaccinated such as people with health issues and CHILDREN who are not vaccinated yet or cannot be vaccinated until sometime in the winter.
• Continue to do outdoor worship or online worship, as possible, so that those who are not vaccinated can continue to feel safe and welcomed.
• Find ways to facilitate that coming together that is safe and welcoming even if it means you must continue to wear a mask so others can join you. What we have learned over the last 15 plus months is people need to be together. DO NOT tell someone who is not vaccinated that they should stay home and worship online. Do not have a “vaccinated” and “unvaccinated” section.
• Continue to avoid congregational singing inside until the time we have data that says it is safe. Here is some information about singing. We will continue to add more info as it becomes available.
• Indoor capacity and social distancing mandates are being lifted as of June 4. Continue to encourage social distancing while inside the sanctuary or indoor fellowship gatherings. Plan your gatherings for the most vulnerable. Remember Children are not vaccinated yet.
• Be thoughtful and respectful. Ask to make sure people are comfortable. Do all that you can to welcome all of God’s people.
• Keep asking “what did we learn?” and how can we move forward as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.
• Remember the pandemic is not over yet, we still have much more work to do for the new reality of our post pandemic life.
• Continue to encourage all to get vaccinated and help them if they need assistance.
• You have done some great work in adapting to online and in person worship. Most congregations are reporting that they have a stronger online presence than they ever had with in person worship. Make sure you are not going to undo all that good work but rushing into being “normal” again. The church world has changed for most for the better.
• Yes, I know I repeated myself several times but this is important. Emerging from the pandemic needs to be thoughtful, patient, and caring. How you emerge will have lasting effects into the future.