Are you ready to come back home?

Learn more about our plan to reopen the building beginning May 31, 2020.

At Southdale, we are carefully planning to resume in-person worship gatherings beginning on Pentecost Sunday.  We continue to pay close attention to the advice and counsel of state and local health officials and our board has developed a plan to come back home to the building.  Here are the details.

We plan to restart in-person gatherings on the following dates:

• Sunday morning worship: May 31
• Small groups (not meeting on Sundays): June 1
• Sunday School Classes: June 14
• Wednesday Prayer Meeting: June 17
• Sunday Evening worship: July 12

All of these dates depend on the current downward trend in numbers of new cases and new hospitalizations in our area continuing, and any changes to the Governor’s Back on Track Indiana plan may also necessitate changes.

We also understand that it is not safe for everyone to resume gathering in person on this schedule.  Underlying health conditions change the timeline for resuming gatherings for each individual.  It may be wisest for you to remain home even when these gatherings resume.  We not only understand, we are grateful that you are making wise decisions for yourself and your family.  We will continue to live stream our Sunday worship services to make sure there is a virtual option available for those who remain in isolation.  Our services can be found live and on demand afterward at facebook.com/southdalenaz/live.  And you don’t even need a Facebook account to watch.

If you do choose to come to an in-person gathering here is what we are doing to keep you as safe as possible:

• We will be stepping up the cleaning and disinfecting of our facilities. In fact, this is a large part of the reason for the delay in Sunday School and Sunday evening gatherings resuming.  We want to be sure we are able to adequately disinfect our facilities between every service for your safety.
• We will be making hand sanitizer and ear loop masks available to all who gather.  In addition to the hand washing sinks in our restrooms, we will make additional resources available to help you prevent the spread of this illness.
• We will be suspending all food and drink service in our building.  While we are coming back to worship, we are not going back to normal.  There will be no coffee or food available at any of our gatherings for the time being.  Kitchens will be closed and the water fountains turned off.
• We will be rearranging our facilities to promote social distancing.  Don’t be surprised when you come to church and find there is no place to sit in the foyer.  That’s on purpose.  We are reducing the number of contact surfaces as much as possible both to promote your safety and to conserve our cleaning supplies.
• We will be closing portions of our building to prevent contamination.  The kitchens, nursery, Sunday School classrooms, and gymnasium wing will remain closed until further notice.  The nursing mothers’ room will still be open for parents to feed or change their infants.
• We will be making changes to our order of worship.  There are some things we’ve done in the past that we won’t be doing, such as having a greeting time in our service.  There are other things we will do differently, like receiving the offering at drop off stations instead of passing the plates and serving the elements for communion in sealed, pre-packaged units.
• We will be making communications digital wherever possible. We will not be passing out bulletins or singing out of hymnals.  Instead, announcements and song lyrics will be projected on our screens and we will use Facebook and our website for church communications.
• We will be reducing seating capacity and spreading out the congregation to maintain safer distances.  When you arrive you will find the seating in our sanctuary has been clearly marked to ensure distance between households.

That’s what we will be doing to protect you.  Here is what you can do to help keep each other as safe as possible:

• When you arrive, sanitize your hands.  Hand sanitizer stations will be at all entrances to the building.  Immediately after opening the door, please sanitize your hands before picking up your communion elements for later in the service and heading to your seats in the sanctuary.  And don’t feel like you can only use those stations when you enter the building.  We have plenty of hand sanitizer; use the stations whenever you feel the need.
• Please wear a face mask.  Whether you bring your own or use one of the ones we will make available to you, we are requiring all attendees to wear face masks while at church.  Because the purpose of face masks is to protect others from getting any illness we may have, choosing to not wear a face mask is not risking your own safety; it is endangering others.  (We recognize that some medical conditions such as asthma or COPD may make wearing a face mask impractical or unsafe for a select few, but because those conditions place one at significantly greater risk from COVID-19, we would encourage any with those conditions to remain at home and worship with us online for their own safety.  Gathering for worship would pose a far greater danger to one with such a condition than wearing a face mask would.)
• Please use your face mask safely.  It is important that as much as possible you avoid touching your face mask while wearing it.  Put it on and take it off by the earloops only, and if you do touch your face mask, please be careful to sanitize your hands before touching anything else.
• Please practice no contact greetings.  Whether it is a warm hug or a hearty handshake, we are as eager to show our admiration and affection to each other as you are.  But the best way you can show your care and concern for others right now is by avoiding physical contact with those outside of your household.  For this season, a smile and a wave is the kindest greeting you could offer.
• Please avoid gathering in groups before and after service.  We recognize that for many of us, one of the things we miss is coming to church early and having a cup of coffee in the foyer as we talk with our friends.  But social groups such as these increase health risks.  Come for worship and move to your seats in the sanctuary.  There won’t be any coffee available in the foyer anyway.  And when services are dismissed, please proceed to the exits while maintaining safe social distance.
• Please sit with members of your household only.  There will be room for families to sit together for worship, but anyone not within your household should sit at least six feet away.
• After using the restrooms, please wash your hands.  This is a good practice for all times, not just this season of COVID-19.  But now more than ever, be sure to wash your hands after using the restroom and use the paper towel to open the door.  Waste baskets will be outside the restrooms so you can throw the towel away after you exit.
• Show each other grace.  Speaking of rules to live by at all times, this may be the most important.  And it’s more important now than ever.  Recognize that not everyone’s risk is the same, and wisdom dictates that some delay returning even though services may have resumed.  We want to encourage that wisdom, not to question it.  Likewise, while we may personally have different opinions about what precautions are necessary and which are unneeded, all of us have based those opinions on reports from someone else.  Please recognize that the leaders of our congregation are seeking to follow the guidance of state health officials to the very best of our ability, and extend to them the same grace you would like to receive.