If you watched our sermon video from this last Sunday (May 10th), Pastor James announced that this upcoming Sunday we would be gathering together in our parking lot to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Under the current phase of Governor Inslee’s plan to reopen our state church’s are able to gather for “drive-in spiritual service with one household per vehicle.” However, last week Inslee provided an updated guidance on “drive-in” services that actually prohibits taking communion together. It also provides such strict parameters that it looks like gathering in our parking lot like we intended will not be feasible for our church (for example, you cannot roll your windows down unless your car is over six feet away from other cars). The prime reason we were wanting to gather was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, which now appears to no longer be possible.
So, we will continue to do what we have been doing for the time being. This may be frustrating for you (as it is in many ways for us). We long to gather together again because God has designed the Christian life to be one of regularly assembling for corporate worship (Heb 10:24-25). We, however are trusting the Lord’s good and sovereign plan in this all as we strive to love our neighbor as ourselves and submit to the governing authorities that God has placed over us (Rom 13). If the governing authorities were to alter their directives so that they required us to sin or to discriminate against churches and Christians exclusively, we would reconsider our position. However, we still believe that the governing authorities have a reasonable justification for requiring the quarantine restrictions and are not coercing us to sin or unjustly singling out Christians for their restrictions, thus we will continue to abide by their directives.
But this does not mean your elders have not been thinking about a plan for us to gather together again! Jay Inslee has laid out a four-phased plan of reopening our state that provides us guidance for when we can gather together again as a church. We are currently in phase one right now. Inslee has not given concrete dates on when the next phases will be implemented, but has said that there will be a minimum of three weeks between each phase. So, as long as the cases of infections continue to decline and the necessary requirements for testing and contact tracing are available, we should be able to gather together sometime this Summer.
Of course, this plan represents our best estimation at what reopening will look like but will be subject to change as new information is released.
Quinault’s reopening plan:
Phase 1 (current phase):
- Small groups meet via Zoom (or some other video conference software)
- Video recordings of Sunday service for family worship at home
Phase 2:
- If you are not an “at-risk”* population, practice hospitality with social distancing
o Having up to 5 people from outside of your household over now permissible (meeting outdoors, if possible, is encouraged).
- Continue to meet in small groups via Zoom
- Continue to release video recordings of Sunday service for family worship at home
Phase 3:
- Gatherings up to 50 people now permitted with social distancing practiced
o At-risk* populations still required to stay home
- Continue to practice hospitality by having families over, but now with no “5 person” cap.
- Small groups now safe to gather again, but social distancing must still be practiced.
o For at-risk* individuals unable to gather with their small groups, pursue how to still creatively stay in-touch with the group either through Zoom or phone calls.
- Corporate worship can resume, but…
o No childcare will be offered till we can do so safely
o Social distancing measures will still be in place, which will require alterations to how we gather. More specific information on what those alterations will look like will be released later.
- We will still record these services and offer the recordings on Facebook Live so those unable to gather can still participate.
Phase 4:
- Resume all normal meetings
- Will explore continuing to offer services online for those at-risk* individuals who still feel unsafe gathering together
Ultimately, we trust our God’s inscrutable wisdom as He works out His sovereign plan. We know He is ultimately committed to us (Rom 8:32) and working for our good (Rom 8:28), even in the midst of frustrations and trials (1 Pet 4:19). If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us at info@qbc.org.
“But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,” – 1 Thess 2:17
Thank you and God Bless,
On behalf of the elders,
- Marc
*High-risk populations are currently defined by CDC as: persons 65 years of age and older; people of all ages with underlying medical conditions (particularly not well controlled), including people with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, people who have serious heart conditions, people who are immunocompromised, people with severe obesity, people with diabetes, people with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis, and people with liver disease; people who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility.
Important COVID-19 Announcement
Hello brothers and sisters,
If you watched our sermon video from this last Sunday (May 10th), Pastor James announced that this upcoming Sunday we would be gathering together in our parking lot to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Under the current phase of Governor Inslee’s plan to reopen our state church’s are able to gather for “drive-in spiritual service with one household per vehicle.” However, last week Inslee provided an updated guidance on “drive-in” services that actually prohibits taking communion together. It also provides such strict parameters that it looks like gathering in our parking lot like we intended will not be feasible for our church (for example, you cannot roll your windows down unless your car is over six feet away from other cars). The prime reason we were wanting to gather was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, which now appears to no longer be possible.
So, we will continue to do what we have been doing for the time being. This may be frustrating for you (as it is in many ways for us). We long to gather together again because God has designed the Christian life to be one of regularly assembling for corporate worship (Heb 10:24-25). We, however are trusting the Lord’s good and sovereign plan in this all as we strive to love our neighbor as ourselves and submit to the governing authorities that God has placed over us (Rom 13). If the governing authorities were to alter their directives so that they required us to sin or to discriminate against churches and Christians exclusively, we would reconsider our position. However, we still believe that the governing authorities have a reasonable justification for requiring the quarantine restrictions and are not coercing us to sin or unjustly singling out Christians for their restrictions, thus we will continue to abide by their directives.
But this does not mean your elders have not been thinking about a plan for us to gather together again! Jay Inslee has laid out a four-phased plan of reopening our state that provides us guidance for when we can gather together again as a church. We are currently in phase one right now. Inslee has not given concrete dates on when the next phases will be implemented, but has said that there will be a minimum of three weeks between each phase. So, as long as the cases of infections continue to decline and the necessary requirements for testing and contact tracing are available, we should be able to gather together sometime this Summer.
Of course, this plan represents our best estimation at what reopening will look like but will be subject to change as new information is released.
Quinault’s reopening plan:
Phase 1 (current phase):
- Small groups meet via Zoom (or some other video conference software)
- Video recordings of Sunday service for family worship at home
Phase 2:
- If you are not an “at-risk”* population, practice hospitality with social distancing
o Having up to 5 people from outside of your household over now permissible (meeting outdoors, if possible, is encouraged).
- Continue to meet in small groups via Zoom
- Continue to release video recordings of Sunday service for family worship at home
Phase 3:
- Gatherings up to 50 people now permitted with social distancing practiced
o At-risk* populations still required to stay home
- Continue to practice hospitality by having families over, but now with no “5 person” cap.
- Small groups now safe to gather again, but social distancing must still be practiced.
o For at-risk* individuals unable to gather with their small groups, pursue how to still creatively stay in-touch with the group either through Zoom or phone calls.
- Corporate worship can resume, but…
o No childcare will be offered till we can do so safely
o Social distancing measures will still be in place, which will require alterations to how we gather. More specific information on what those alterations will look like will be released later.
- We will still record these services and offer the recordings on Facebook Live so those unable to gather can still participate.
Phase 4:
- Resume all normal meetings
- Will explore continuing to offer services online for those at-risk* individuals who still feel unsafe gathering together
Ultimately, we trust our God’s inscrutable wisdom as He works out His sovereign plan. We know He is ultimately committed to us (Rom 8:32) and working for our good (Rom 8:28), even in the midst of frustrations and trials (1 Pet 4:19). If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us at info@qbc.org.
“But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,” – 1 Thess 2:17
Thank you and God Bless,
On behalf of the elders,
- Marc
*High-risk populations are currently defined by CDC as: persons 65 years of age and older; people of all ages with underlying medical conditions (particularly not well controlled), including people with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, people who have serious heart conditions, people who are immunocompromised, people with severe obesity, people with diabetes, people with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis, and people with liver disease; people who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility.