May 14, 2020

Church Family,

In light of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday, we are planning on having our Worship service at our church building this Sunday. There will be no other ministries happening at the church building this Sunday, but the Worship service. For the Worship service, we will be limiting the size of the gathering and structuring the service in a way that provides a setting that allows for many within our church family to be comfortable attending. Because of limiting the size of each service we will be holding three identical services (9 am, 10:30 am, and noon) and leaving time between services for the building to be cleaned. To help us spread the congregation between the three services we are using an online sign-up platform. You can sign up by following the instructions at this link: Sunday Services for FBC West Bend. Like usual the 9 am service will still be streamed for those who are unable to attend the service.

Please help the leadership of the church by following these instructions:
  • Sign up for a service time to attend by clicking on the “Sunday Services for FBC West Bend” link and then clicking the “Select Time” icon and choosing what service you will be attending.
  • Arrive for the service no more than 10 minutes before your service time.
  • Hand sanitizer will be provided at the entrance to the auditorium.
  • Sit as a family or individually. Leave empty seats between groups. Every other row will be removed to ensure that there is space between different groups.
  • Parents, please keep your children with you at all times.
  • Although we will be happy to see each other, please love each other well by respecting that each person in our congregation is responding to this differently. We will be refraining from handshaking and other close contact.
  • In order to limit what is touched by multiple people, doors will be propped open, offering plates will not be passed, and bulletins will not be offered.
  • Each cry room will be reserved for families with small children and babies due to the fact that we will not be having any child care for these services.

These plans are made out of a desire to consider others as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4) and in light of a Scripture that repeatedly sets the command of loving our neighbor. We as pastors understand that some will think we could do less and some will desire us to do more in areas. Our thought on how we structure the service and implement some protections is motivated by the love that Romans 14-15 calls each of us to when the church has differences on wisdom issues, and we challenge each of us in the church to walk in the Spirit so that love can be part of the fruit in our life. I wish I could make each of you read this article on navigating potentially conflict in reopening church services. I can’t make you read it, but I do encourage you to, as there is real potential for danger ahead for every church.

Looking forward to seeing you Sunday.
Pastor Luke Love