UPDATE:  Due to current trends and increasing case counts of Covid-19 in the Lincoln County area, it has been determined by the pastor and church leaders that we will continue with virtual worship for the foreseeable future.

Re-Opening Guidelines and Worship Reservation Instructions

Beginning October 4^th, First UMC will begin the initial phase for returning to indoor/in-person worship. We will have worship each Sunday at 9:00a.m. in the sanctuary and stream this live service to the fellowship hall so that we can double our accommodation for indoor/in-person worship. While we are excited to be able to offer this opportunity, we will have to observe some restrictions that have mandated by our Conference and closely following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control, Governor Roy Cooper, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Even beyond these, we have the biblical mandate to do no harm and to protect our neighbors from ourselves as we may be unwittingly carriers of the COVID-19 virus.

RESTRICTIONS

• Masks must be properly worn at all times while in any building.
• Reservations will be required to attend indoor worship. Procedure for reserving seats to follow in next section
• Seating Capacity for the sanctuary and fellowship hall will be limited to 25 persons in each venue (total of 50 for indoor worship)
• Social distance of at least six feet must be maintained.
• Health check and contact tracing forms must be completed
• Sit in designated seats as instructed by ushers
• No congregational singing, verbal/corporate prayer, responsive readings…
• Restroom usage permitted for dire situations only
• No socializing with others while in the buildings
• Dismissal from service will be orderly and by instruction

If you cannot abide by these restrictions, please worship with us online.

Failure to adhere to these restrictions will preclude you from reserving seats for future worship services while we are under limited indoor/in-person restrictions.

For those who, for whatever reason, choose not to try to return to indoor/corporate worship are encouraged to continue worshipping online or in small groups as these arise.

ONLINE WORSHIP THROUGH FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE

WILL CONTINUE INDEFINITELY

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESERVING SEATS

In order to offer each person/family an equal and fair opportunity to request to reserve seats for worship, we will offer a lottery system for reservations. You will be allowed to call or email your request by giving your name and how many seats you are requesting. At 1:00 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to the ensuing Sunday service, we will begin drawing entries (counting seat requests) until we reach 25. These will be those who will be allowed to attend the sanctuary service. We will then begin a second drawing until we are able to fill the 25 seats in the fellowship hall. If you want only to attend in a specific venue (sanctuary or fellowship hall), please indicate as such and we will only include you in that drawing. If you do not indicate a preference, we will include you in both drawings. If your name is drawn for the sanctuary venue, you will not be included in the fellowship hall drawing. You will be notified if your request for reservation is drawn. Please make every effort to attend.

Note: Making a request for reservation does not guarantee your seat request.

STEPS FOR RESERVING SEATS (must be done each week)

• Place your request for reservation from Sunday 1:00 p.m. until Wednesday 12:00 noon by:
  • Phone – Call the church office at 704-735-7489 (if no one answers, please leave a message)
  • Email – send email to: [email protected]
•  Please include the following in your request:
  • Your name
  • Number of seats you are requesting
  • Your contact information (phone number or email address)
  • Any specific venue request (sanctuary or fellowship hall). If no specific request is made, we will assume you are agreeable to either venue
•  If your request is drawn, we will notify you by Thursday morning.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

We know this is difficult and regrettable, but we want to be able to begin to bring back some sense of corporate worship while keeping you and others as safe as possible. If we see we cannot safely do so, we will return to virtual (online) worship only.

We hope to be able to phase in a second service at 11:00 a.m. in the near future, but we will do so only as we see that we can safely do so and we have worked through an assessment phase of the 9:00 service. We will let you know once we are ready to begin this phase of a second service.

Finally, we continue to navigate some strange and difficult times. Please be in prayer for our staff and leaders as they prayerfully and intently discern how to safely extend to you the invitation to God’s mercy and grace.