With Covid-19 numbers increasing and school soon resuming, we want to make sure we are taking extra precautions to create the safest and most caring environment for our kids in our Sunday Grove Kids Ministry. Kids who attend school in-person will soon be used to teachers wearing masks, so we feel this is a baseline safety precaution we can take as well. Most masks do not prevent you from breathing in other people’s germs, but when you wear a mask you are reducing the spread of your germs to others. Our leadership team feels this is a simple step we can take to help protect our kids.
Beginning Sunday, August 16th, we are asking our Grove Kids volunteers to wear a mask on the Sunday they volunteer while they are interacting in close proximity to the kids. We will provide a mask for you if you do not have one or if you happen to forget yours. Kids are not required to wear a mask, so we are leaving that decision up to the parents. While we will do our best to keep kids socially distanced, please know this can be a very difficult task because kids love to move around and interact with each other during our Sunday environments.
We realize there are varying thoughts on wearing masks. Even within our church, opinions and perspectives vary. However, we want to air on the side of caution when it comes to our kids and the unknown circumstances of how Covid-19 may or may not increase in spread once school resumes. If you are a Grove Kids volunteer and you have concerns about wearing a mask on your scheduled Sunday when you are in close proximity to kids, then please reach out to your team leader (Jennifer or Heather) and share your concerns with them. Our prayer though is that you can exercise a spirit of grace and understanding with this decision. Again, by wearing a mask, you are preventing the spread of your germs to the kids.
In regards to masks for everyone else… Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” As Christians, we are to follow our governing authorities leadership unless we are being forced to sin and go against God’s will. Therefore, we are following the position of our governing authorities on how we respond to this issue of wearing masks in our church building. It is currently not a mandate for people to wear a mask inside church buildings for Sunday gatherings. While we encourage you to wear a mask, we have not and will not restrict your entrance into our building. We want to be unified in spirit and grace by encouraging you to do what you feel is best and giving others the space to do the same when it comes to our Sunday gatherings. As we’ve said since resuming our Sunday gatherings, if you feel the need to judge someone who is or isn’t wearing a mask, then please join us online for our Sunday gatherings.
Serving Him Together,
Josh Duncan
Lead Pastor