The question keeps popping up: When are we going to start gathering together as a church?  Great question. Here’s where we are.

Throughout the pandemic and shutdown, we’ve attempted to abide by state and local guidelines regarding gatherings, etc.  Safeguarding the health of our church family is a top priority!  As of today, our county guidelines are as follows:

• We can conduct remote services (a.k.a. live-stream)
• We can hold services in our parking lot
• We can gather in our building with no more than one person/household per 200 square feet.

In light of these guidelines, here’s what we ARE NOT doing:

• We are NOT changing our live-stream. It will continue every week. Yes, even after the shutdown.
• We are NOT going to have parking lot services. We don’t really have a parking lot that would accommodate anything meaningful for gathering.
• We are NOT going to start in-person gatherings at this time. Our auditorium would accommodate about 22 individuals or households at 200 square feet per.  Since our bare-bones QuaranTeam takes at least ten people, that means we could add up to 12 people or households.  We would have to have at least 25 gatherings every week just to fit everyone in.  You can see the problem. ☹

What we ARE going to do is this:

• We are going to continue to serve the most vulnerable and needy in our community, thru neighborhood food drives, thru the Gaithersburg HUB, thru our Grace Fund, and thru the “Thank a Healthcare Worker” project.
• We are going to monitor the guidelines from the county. When they move to the next phase of reopening, it might make sense to start some small gatherings for those who are interested.  We’ll keep you posted with all the updates as they’re available.
• We are going to continue to gather online every week on Facebook and YouTube. We’re taking this opportunity to build up our Sunday live-stream team.  That means more worship team members.  It also means more tech team members for our new live-stream ministry.  If you’d like to find out more about these opportunities, we’d love to talk with you.  Just click here and fill in the online form.

In the meantime, thank you for your amazing participation and support in every area of our ongoing ministry.  We miss seeing you all face to face, and look forward to being able to resume that very soon!

-Pastor Mark

P.S. Parents, don’t forget to check out the resources for you and your kids on the Church At Home web page!