Trump says, Go Back To Church -- POLL

Are you ready to reopen for Church services?

  • yes

    Votes: 6 24.0%
  • No

    Votes: 11 44.0%
  • Each Church should be able to decide on their own

    Votes: 8 32.0%

  • Total voters
    25

dogs4thewin

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My pastor can open church but everyone would be required to wear masks. He is waiting for this restriction to be lifted before services are opened up. Singing in particular will bring out virus particles, if one has an active case. Many are asymptomatic, so it seems unlikely that services will be fully normal until there is a vaccine. Sorry, but I will only attend online. I suppose if i were a pastor, I would limit attendance at this time to 1/10th of normal. Have 3 services a week rotating your congregation and you would have everyone in church about every 3 weeks. I might consider too having singing outside if weather permits, unmasked, and then coming in the church for the sermon/communion/giving.
Way our church is currently doing it is offering an in person service ( masks not required), having it on the radio at the same time, but you have to be in the church parking lot to pick it up AND offering it online with a week delay so for example tomorrow the message for 5-17 will be posted online.
 
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Paidiske

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I think the bigger issue would be profitability, that is if a service has too few people in it would the cost of having a service vs the donations that are picked up during the service don't balance out a more poor church may not be able to afford to have churches that severely limit participants due to distancing guidelines vs size of building.

I don't think it really works that way, though, because most of a church's costs are fixed. What I mean is, for example, my church is paying me to be their priest through this time, even though we're not having services; the only costs we're saving are not turning on the lights and heaters in the church building (which is small).

So for us it's more a question of whether we can afford not to open, if that makes sense?
 
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Sophrosyne

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I don't think it really works that way, though, because most of a church's costs are fixed. What I mean is, for example, my church is paying me to be their priest through this time, even though we're not having services; the only costs we're saving are not turning on the lights and heaters in the church building (which is small).

So for us it's more a question of whether we can afford not to open, if that makes sense?
For a smaller church it probably isn't a big issue as you probably run mostly on volunteers with almost no paid employees but a larger church has to have employees on the payroll if it is open and that requires money from offerings to pay for the employees and that is spread out over those giving offerings plus with a lot larger sanctuary it that hold 7000 like my church has operating it is more expensive than one holding a few hundred plus with that large of a flock they hire police/sheriff officers for security and have to pay them.
If the cost is spread out over thousands it is easily absorbed but over hundreds it may be too tight of a budget to open up. trying to social distance people in a place designed to pack them in probably means half the rows are empty and half the remaining seats are empty between groups so we are talking 1/4 of capacity if you put people in the farthest seats away from the stage. I think movie theaters may have similar issues with social distancing reducing audiences to unsustainable profit margins and stadiums also.
 
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Paidiske

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Oh, well, if you're paying security staff by the hour or something then yes, that would change the sums.

Most church staff are still working through this time, though. Doing pastoral care and spiritual nurture through the internet, phone and printed material is actually more work than usual for many of us, as we're having to learn a whole host of new skills and relate in new ways!
 
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Mountainmanbob

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For a smaller church it probably isn't a big issue



as you probably run mostly on volunteers with almost no paid employees but a larger church has to have employees on the payroll if it is open and that requires money from offerings to pay for the employees and that is spread out over those giving offerings plus with a lot larger sanctuary it that hold 7000 like my church has operating it is more expensive than one holding a few hundred plus with that large of a flock they hire police/sheriff officers for security and have to pay them.
If the cost is spread out over thousands it is easily absorbed but over hundreds it may be too tight of a budget to open up. trying to social distance people in a place designed to pack them in probably means half the rows are empty and half the remaining seats are empty between groups so we are talking 1/4 of capacity if you put people in the farthest seats away from the stage. I think movie theaters may have similar issues with social distancing reducing audiences to unsustainable profit margins and stadiums also.

We attend a very small Church but, the monthly bills still total over a few thousand dollars a month whether open or closed.
M
 
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Sophrosyne

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We attend a very small Church but, the monthly bills still total over a few thousand dollars a month whether open or closed.
M
If it is closed bills should be less plus with all the greatly increased cleaning and isolating and social distancing equipment that has to be paid for. Having to purchase masks for employees and for members that don't have any plus sanitizer and plastic screens and distancing posters. A large sanctuary that is closed you can turn the climate controls to temperatures that are fine for maintaining if it isn't being used but when it opens you use climate control to keep it from getting too hot this time of year. It is said each adult produces the heat equivalent to a 100 watt incandescent bulb and 1000 people require 100,000 bulbs worth of heat to be removed plus the building opening/closing to let people in/out and keeping it at a comfortable temp costs money. On top of this you have lighting and sound systems and tv monitors adding heat and taking power.
 
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Mountainmanbob

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If it is closed bills should be less plus with all the greatly increased cleaning and isolating and social distancing equipment that has to be paid for. Having to purchase masks for employees and for members that don't have any plus sanitizer and plastic screens and distancing posters. A large sanctuary that is closed you can turn the climate controls to temperatures that are fine for maintaining if it isn't being used but when it opens you use climate control to keep it from getting too hot this time of year. It is said each adult produces the heat equivalent to a 100 watt incandescent bulb and 1000 people require 100,000 bulbs worth of heat to be removed plus the building opening/closing to let people in/out and keeping it at a comfortable temp costs money. On top of this you have lighting and sound systems and tv monitors adding heat and taking power.

I just looked at and approved a Church budget a few weeks back.

Most all of those expenses are still running.

Have you ever seen one?
Or sat on a Church Board?
M
 
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Paidiske

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Some of this also depends where in the world you are. Today, where I am, our top temperature will be 14 Celsius (57 Fahrenheit), and we're heading into winter. Cooling is not an issue!

Our bills really are not much less when not having services. But our big difficulty is that all the community groups who hire our hall aren't using it, so we've lost about a third of our income from that.
 
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Sophrosyne

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I've attended large (mega) churches in the past. There's no way I would go. I'd expect infections in that setting.

~Bella
I think the distancing could be done in them just the same as smaller churches or even better if they have more extra room to spare.
 
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Sophrosyne

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I just looked at and approved a Church budget a few weeks back.

Most all of those expenses are still running.

Have you ever seen one?
Or sat on a Church Board?
M
Nope and I don't know how much it costs to operate a church service either in heating/cooling/electric/water and employee expenses and with the addition of cleaning and sanitizing a smaller church area would be a lot cheaper to operate than a larger one.
 
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seeking.IAM

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I sit on my church's Finance Committee. We are running a wee bit behind during the shutdown, but not as bad as I feared and nothing dreadful. Parishioners are giving through our online portal or the mail instead of dropping it in the plate. Their commitment to the church is reassuring.
 
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bèlla

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I think the distancing could be done in them just the same as smaller churches or even better if they have more extra room to spare.

Not happening. Our governor said no.

Governor Pritzker confirms churches will not be allowed to have services with more than 50 people until there is a vaccine, highly effective treatment, or elimination of any new cases over a sustained period.

~Bella
 
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Mountainmanbob

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Insisting people go to church during a major pandemic seems like extreme legalism to me.

No one is being forced to Church.
Many if not all high risk will not attend.

We practice religious freedom.

M
 
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Sophrosyne

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Not happening. Our governor said no.

Governor Pritzker confirms churches will not be allowed to have services with more than 50 people until there is a vaccine, highly effective treatment, or elimination of any new cases over a sustained period.

~Bella
I'm not sure what we will be doing I suspect they if they keep social distancing in the protocol churches may just be put on the list of businesses that can open as we have nearly everything but entertainment and sports venues open here
 
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