The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. At StreamingChurch.tv, we’re keeping all infected individuals and affected communities in our prayers. We’re also striving to spread knowledge, not fear. Pastors, take these steps to make sure your church is prepared for the uncertain future:
1. Communicate well with your church when it comes to your commitment to keep your people as healthy as possible.
This includes reminding your people that if they have any type of symptoms of coughing, sneezing, fever, nausea, achiness, or any flu-like symptom, to stay home. Remind them that you love them, but that you can see them next week if they are experiencing anything that may be contagious.
2. Reeducate your church staff and volunteers regarding good hygiene for all.
Especially those working with older and younger populations need to enforce the importance of hand-washing and good health practices with all those in your programs. Remind them that we need to be especially cautious of those who may have suppressed immune systems.
3. Now might be a good time to (at least temporarily) modify routines that may threaten to spread disease.
For example, during the greeting time (if you have one), encourage people to simply say hello instead of shaking hands or hugging. (We used elbow bumps in our meeting this morning.) Already churches have been considering altering their practices, and it appears to be time to increase those measures just a bit.
4. Create ways for people to interact remotely, for everything from meetings to worship.
Prepare as much as you can for people to request remote access to meetings via video conference. If you have the tools, consider streaming your Sunday services for those who may need to stay home. Be prepared for your staff to work from home.
For now, let’s do all we can to run from fear and into good health practices that we should all be engaging in every day.
As always, StreamingChurch.tv is ready to help you with any technical questions from streaming video to audio streaming. Let us know if we can answer any questions. We work exclusively with churches and understand ministry. You can reach out to us by going to StreamingChurch.tv