June 4, 2020 Announcement

Hey church,

I hope you are all doing well in the Lord, and we want to praise him for the process of reopening so far. I’m thankful for your faithfulness, church, to come back together for worship as you are able, and if you are able, we encourage you to come and to join us on campus for worship. I’m also thankful for the faithfulness of all of our folks who need to continue to shelter-at-home and who are continuing to worship with us from home. We know how much you desire to come together with your faith family for worship, and we want you to know how much we love you and miss you. We’re praying for God’s blessing on you as you join us in the spirit from your home to worship each week. 

Today, I wanted to give you a quick update on phase 2 as it relates to our church. Since the governor announced that our state is moving into phase 2 on Friday, June the 5th, we have been waiting on the guidelines for churches to be released so that we could make our final changes under phase 2. We received those guidelines this morning, so I wanted to share with you the changes that are going to take place here at FBC St. Francisville under phase 2.

(1) The first change is that registration for our Sunday services is not going to be needed under phase 2. Although registration wasn’t required under phase 1, it helped us plan for accommodating everyone on Sundays while we were under the 25% capacity restriction. We don’t believe that this is needed at this point in our reopening process.

(2) The second change is that capacity has increased to 50% under phase 2. Although that sounds wonderful, it actually doesn’t change too much for churches. The only real difference that this makes for us is that every other row of pews in our worship center will be open, which adds about 6 additional rows to our large group gathering capacity on Sunday mornings.

(3) The reason that the 50% capacity doesn’t change too much for us is that social distancing of 6 feet is still the rule under phase 2, which means that our capacity is still quite limited. We will need your help in practicing social distancing in our worship services, so as you find a spot on an open row, please make sure to space your family group out from others on that row and to stagger yourself from groups on other rows in order to ensure social distancing of 6 feet between other family groups.

(4) Because social distancing has not changed under phase 2, there is no change to our current plan for small groups on campus. Our small groups on campus are limited to adult groups at this time, and we have limited locations to accommodate the group sizes under social distancing. If you plan to attend your small group, please check with your group leader to see if you group is meeting on campus and to find out where your group will be located.

We want you to know, families, that we were so hoping that phase 2 would clearly allow for us to reopen some of our regular youth activities and even some children’s ministry activities. While that doesn’t seem to be the case, we are actively praying about and discussing ways we can encourage youth and children’s ministry during this time. We hope to be able to offer some things soon, but until then, we encourage you to bring your family to worship. Come and worship with us as a family, and utilize the various resources that we have each week to help your family continue to talk about God’s Word and worship together in your homes as a family group.

Finally, your leadership needs your prayers. We are working hard to think about ways that we can adjust our schedule and ministries in order to encourage and enable participation in large group and small group gatherings in our church. Pray for the Lord’s wisdom and direction in those efforts. We want to be faithful in the work of the gospel during this extended, unique time.

Thank you, church, for following the example of our Lord during this time by being of the same mind, counting others more significant than yourself, and looking out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:1-4). We need to persevere in this for the protection of the body of Christ and the work of Christ at this time when God’s an opportunity to shine the hope and light of Jesus to those around us.

As under phase 1, masks are still recommended and individuals 65 years or older and people with underlying health issues are still encouraged by the CDC to stay at home as much as possible.

Click here to view the Reopening Planning Document (April 29 Version)

Per the current recommendation of the CDC and the current mandates and recommendations

of the state of Louisiana, FBC-SF is continuing to reopen on-campus under phase 2.

Click here for more information about our response to COVID-19.