Forest Lake Talks

Corona Virus Update

March 13, 2020

The Apostle Paul writes, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19, NRSV).

The church staff continues to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak, and we encourage each of you to do the same in the days ahead. For this Sunday, we want you to know that we are planning to hold all of our regular scheduled Sunday worship services, classes, and events, with whomever comes. And we will continue to monitor the evolving situation. 

Your church staff have taken the following steps to safeguard our health.

1. Your staff and our church sextons have taken extra precautions to clean door handles, and surfaces that we all touch. All classrooms, and upstairs and downstairs lobbies have cleaning wipes and hand sanitizer in them, and we encourage everyone to use them.
2. All church staff have been asked to stay home if they do not feel well.
3. Our nursery workers observe strict protocols for cleaning both surfaces and toys.
4. We will place offering plates in the church Narthex and Connecting Point Lobby this Sunday, but will not pass the offering plates during worship. And we will not pass the friendship sheets either. If you see a visitor, do encourage them to fill out a visitor card and put that in the offering plates in the Narthex and Connecting Point Lobby.
5. The staff have been asked not to shake hands or hug all of you – as hard as that may be for us!!

The following are suggested precautions that all of us can observe:

1. Please refrain from shaking hands, hugging (no kissing!), or other forms of physical contact. This will be hard, but is prudent for now. 
2. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for longer than 20 seconds. Sing “Jesus Loves Me” while you’re washing your hands and follow all CDC instructions to minimize germ and virus transmission.
3. Place some alcohol-based hand sanitizer in your car and pocket/purse and use it both before and after church.
4. If you are currently sick, or if you feel uncomfortable going to church due to recent or underlying illness, please do not come to worship. We will miss you, but don’t forget you can listen to all sermons on our website: https://flpc.org/sundays/sermons/.  We are working on the capacity to livestream our worship services, but do not yet have that ability.  Stay tuned!

As always, let’s take care of each other, and please pray for all impacted and affected by the coronavirus, including the sick, doctors, nurses, and all first responders. As things change, we will send out congregational emails, texts and post notices on our website under “News and Events”. We will work to be both prudent and faithful, wise but not afraid.

Peace!

Ellen