ReCAST Church Response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

March 12, 2020

ReCAST’s most recent response to the Coronavirus HERE

Psalm 46:1-2 says “God is our refuge and strength a very present help in times of trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea.”

ReCAST Church is a gathering of people who trust that these words are true and God is present with us even in times of uncertainty.

As of now, ReCAST Church intends to meet on Sunday mornings as usual.  We are taking some steps to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19 in our Sunday gathering.

First, the following changes will take place:

• Our greeters will hold the doors open for you so you don’t have to touch them and will be encouraging us to avoid handshakes, hugs, and high-fives.
• Worship folders will be on the chairs for you to grab when you sit down.
• We will not serve coffee, juice, or donuts.
• We will modify how we offer communion. We will have an increased number of stations and crackers will be individually placed in cups prepared by volunteers with gloves.  Feel free to bring your own crackers and/or juice if you want.
• We will not have connection time in the middle of our service.
• The service will be shorter.  Closer to 75 minutes instead of 90 minutes.
• ReCAST Kids and ReCAST 180 will offer modified programming for healthy kids.  All kids, infant through middle school will spend the whole service in their classrooms.  (We will not dismiss them during the service.)
• We will encourage everyone to sit with plenty of space between you and other families/people.

Second, we will modify these plans if:

• federal, state, or local authorities require us to change plans
• Mattawan schools cancel before Sunday

Third, we are paying to have all the hard surfaces at church sanitized on Saturday to kill any viruses that might be present.

Fourth, for those of you in the high risk group as identified by the CDC, or those of you who are just uncomfortable being around a group of people at this time, we encourage you to stay home in effort to avoid coming in contact with the COVID-19 virus. We fully support anyone’s decision to stay home at this time.

Fifth, if you are feeling sick at all, please stay home!  Share love, not germs.  🙂

Finally, we are working on getting the technology ready to live stream services at ReCAST.  This may or may not be ready by this Sunday but hope to definitely have it ready for future Sundays.

The decision to continue to meet while implementing measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 was made based on our conviction that the church should gather as often as we can.  But also that the church should love our immediate community by doing our part to try to keep this virus from spreading.   Please continue to love one another, to reach out to one another, and to pray for one another.  God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

With love in Christ,

Pastor Don (on behalf of the elders)