Trinity Health Update
Hello Trinity Family!
Here’s a timely update regarding our efforts to help promote healthy environments at Trinity Church. Helping to keep others physically safe is a tangible expression of our mission to love God, love others, and serve the world.
First of all, we have invested greatly in our online campus and online church experience. We want you to know, especially in this season, that online church is real church! We have many members who have pre-existing conditions, are immunocompromised, or are concerned with the potential of spreading Covid to others. You don’t need to apologize for attending online! With any church venue, it makes a difference when we attend faithfully, invite others, communicate prayer needs, contribute toward the ministry, and interact with others. All of these are easy to do through our app, our website, our YouTube channel and Facebook. We’ve also worked hard with multiple camera angles, lighting, background, video mixing and audio mixing to help create an engaging experience that feels like we’re physically together. Our YouTube Channel and Facebook stream are staffed live and interactive, with great sensitivity to prayer needs and welcoming guests. When you like, comment, and share, you bring the hope of the gospel to the online community. Please drop us a note if you’re attending online and let us know if you’d like to serve in our online ministry to others. Please also let us know how we can serve you!
At every physical meeting location, seating is distanced at 6 feet or more in the worship space and classrooms. Spaces are cleaned and sanitized with great frequency, especially restrooms, classrooms, door handles, and common surfaces like counters and tables. We do not use bulletins or pass offering plates. Communion is pre-distributed in pre-filled containers. We’ve limited our time of corporate singing to fewer songs each week to help reduce spread of germs and viruses through aerosols. While masks are not mandatory at Trinity campuses, we support and respect the choice to wear a mask.
Children are important to Jesus and they are important to us! At every physical meeting location, we are employing campus-specific protocols to help keep children and their families safe. For example, due to space and volunteer considerations, as well as local Covid stats, our Goodland, Indiana children’s spaces are currently self-serve. You can attend in person to worship and then watch the service on a monitor with your child in a clean and age-appropriate setting. In Watseka, a sanitized nursery is available through the entire first service. Socially distanced Pre-K, K, elementary and middle school settings are also available during the first service during the message. In Ashkum, nursery is available upon request and Pre-K, K, elementary and middle school ministries are available during the message. We take great care in providing safe and distanced environments for our children every week and will keep parents and volunteers updated if these ministry conditions change.
We’ve had many folks ask if or when we would cancel meeting in person or cancel children’s ministries. We seek the Lord regularly and discuss those questions frequently among staff and leadership. We are ever-mindful of national, state, and local protocols and we have excellent relations and open communication with the health department. We desire to be responsible and loving members of our communities. We also take seriously our Biblical mandate of meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). It is our desire to continue to offer in-person gatherings for healthy individuals as long as we are legally, ethically, and Biblically allowed to do so. We’ve had comments that people feel safe in our children’s ministry areas because of all of the precautions we take and because the children are accustomed to distancing at school. Of course, availability of healthy leaders and volunteers is a critical factor. Providing safe environments for our volunteers is important. Please bear in mind that hosting children’s ministries in various forms not only provides a great environment for our kids to learn about Jesus, but it also helps to minimize crossover and potential spread of germs with adults, as well as managing appropriate attendance and distancing in the worship space during the services. These issues are complex and we appreciate your prayers as we seek to glorify the Lord in these decisions.
In addition to taking all of these physical precautions, it’s important that we remain vigilant spiritually and diligent in prayer. Heavenly Father, we desire to be transformed to be more like Your Son, Jesus. We long to see our communities transformed by the life-giving power of the gospel. Please help us to love you and to love others in tangible ways, including caring for the sick at home and helping to keep others healthy. Please bless our online and physical ministries, knowing they are essential and critical ways of bringing salvation, hope and healing to the world. Have mercy on us, oh Lord. We humble our hearts and pray that you would heal our land. We ask in the mighty name of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.
Thank you, dear friends! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of the staff, elders, or leadership.
In Christ’s Matchless Love,
Ryan