“When can we reopen our church?” That is the question that keeps getting asked. I want to help you make an informed decision.
Pastor Judah Smith recently said that now is a great time to survey your congregation. We wholeheartedly agree. Our fear is that church leaders and pastors may be assuming things that their people aren’t thinking or on the same page with.
What if you have a church of 500 people but when you reopen the doors only 100 show up? What if all 500 show up, but your Governor has put social distancing guidelines and maximum occupancy numbers in place?
What if it takes 50 volunteers to pull off a Sunday, but only 10 return?
What are you going to do about children’s ministry? How will you keep them safe?
Who is going to completely sanitize the church? How will that be communicated to the congregation?
Will you be adding services? Will you be roping off seats and dividing up sections of the auditorium for seating?
What about the drive-in church? Many churches are talking about starting back outside (drive-in) first before going back inside the church building?
Will you continue to live stream and do all the online church stuff you’ve been doing the past month?
Will you continue to pass the offering plate? How will you handle giving? Are you adding giving boxes and continuing to encourage online giving?
How will you celebrate Mother’s Day?
These are things that must be thought through and discussed as church leaders.
Here are some sample questions for your congregational survey to get you thinking.
Use whatever works best in your context:
- When is the soonest you would consider coming back to the church building?
- Would you come if we had a drive-in service?
- Do you expect the church to provide you a mask?
- If you volunteer, are you planning to volunteer in the same spot if we reopen?
- If you have kids, will you be putting your kids in children’s ministry?
- Do you want the church to serve coffee and refreshments? (If you used to)
- When churches resume worship services in their facilities, will you be more likely to attend services in person, or online?
- In the last 6 weeks, how many times have you watched services online?
- How many times a month do you typically attend church?
- Have you ever given online to our church?
- Are you comfortable with us passing the offering plate?
- Are you comfortable with us serving Communion?
- Are you in favor of us rolling out house churches/small groups of 10 people to get back to meeting together physically until it is safe to do so at our full size?
Survey creation and sharing options:
Your church’s ChMS (Example: FaithTeams, Tithely, Rock, Planning Center, CCB, Fellowship One, etc.)
SO… When you do decide to open up, here are some great resources like hand sanitizer stations from my friends at Outreach.
Articles and resources for consideration as you make these decisions:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/
https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/church-after-quarantine-5-strategic-questions-help-your-ted-vaughn/
https://kenbraddy.com/2020/04/18/20-questions-your-church-should-answer-before-people-return/
https://www.tnbaptist.org/reopen
https://www.columbiametro.org/relaunching-your-congregation/
https://medium.com/@pastorbrandonweddle/how-to-re-open-your-church-after-covid-19-bd10ad5b2fd6
https://www.ministrytogether.com/what-to-do-now-as-we-enter-coronavirus-phase-2/
https://www.vanderbloemen.com/reopening-church
https://www.vanderbloemen.com/blog/reopening-the-church-after-covid19
https://malphursgroup.com/ready-to-reopen-church-checklist/
https://www.smartchurchsolutions.com/blog/church-facility-re-opening-checklist
https://stateofthechurch.com/churchpulseweekly
*** For a free downloadable PDF of this resource along with tons of other resources for the Church and Coronavirus (including free webinars), join the Weekend Worship and Guest Services Facebook group and join the discussion of 13,000 church leaders from around the world sharing resources. You can join for free HERE.
SO… When you do decide to open up, here are some great resources like hand sanitizer stations from my friends at Outreach.
*** If you’d like a downloadable copy of this resource of top questions to ask to pass out to your leadership team, click HERE.
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