Our Plans for Regathering as a Church Family
As you know, we have willingly canceled all in person ministry gatherings for our church for the past two months. We gladly did this out of a heart of love for our community, a concern for the health of our church family, and out of respect for our government leaders. We are grateful for the unique doors of ministry that God has opened during this crisis, but we long to meet together again.
Initially, we were told that it might be two weeks to “flatten the curve.” Then, that was increased to thirty days, with the stay-at-home order eventually extended through May 1st. Two weeks ago, as the May 1st date arrived, our governor revealed additional details regarding his four-phase plan to reopen the state. While daycare centers and schools could have an option to open up as part of Phase Two, in-person church services were categorized with businesses like gyms and salons, which he stated would be “months, not weeks” away from opening as part of Phase Three. It was suggested that it could be toward the end of summer or into Fall before he would allow churches to gather again.
As I see the spiritual and emotional needs of our congregation and our community, and consider my God-given calling as a pastor, I do not believe that continuing with online-only services for months is an acceptable option for our church. Simply put, as the pastor of CrosspointLA, I cannot, in good conscience before God, see us doing a months-long continued shutdown of our church gatherings. Understanding the biblical mandate for the local church to assemble, and understanding our Constitutional rights in America to assemble, the leadership of our ministry has prayerfully met and carefully prepared for a thoughtful, well prepared, social distanced gathering.
Here is our plan for regathering on Sunday mornings beginning June 14
NOTE: All of this is subject to change as things progress
Sunday, June 14: On this date we will begin gathering at the conference rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Pasadena. We will be hosting 2 church gatherings each Sunday. All in-person services will follow social distancing and sanitization guidelines outlined for stores, restaurants, and businesses that are open during this time. Although people are welcome to come to either service if needed, we’d like to ask that you follow the schedule below to ensure that we are able to have room for anyone who would like to attend.
- 10:30am gathering will be for families with children. A nursery will be provided, only for children ages 4 and under, for those parents who wish to use it. We will adhere to safety guidelines for childcare policies in our county including teacher to child ratios.
*Childcare for ages 5 yrs - 5th grade will resume when our local school district reopens. - 12:30 pm service will be for anyone who does not have young children
- Please note our new meeting location:
3500 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91107
(This facility has heat and air conditioning, and it is clean, well cared for, and available for use. It also has ample/easy access parking.) - Our plan is that we will continue to offer our Sunday morning services online for those who are not comfortable gathering at this point.
- If you are in a high-risk category, are sick, or have any other health concerns related to this virus, we encourage you to stay home and watch our online services.
We recognize that there will be changes to how church services are conducted. They will likely feel quite different with the social distancing policies and separate services. We experience those differences as well. I know change is difficult, but we have the strength from the Holy Spirit to help the people of God set the example for how and when to return to public worship.
Video Q&A Coming Soon
We plan to release a series of videos over the next couple of weeks explaining our return plan as well as answering many of the questions we receive. I encourage you to watch these to become familiar with the plan. I will also be sending out a pdf document that more thoroughly details our policies and procedures as it relates to our return. This will also be posted on our website.
I understand many are excited to get back to gathering as a church. Others may believe we should stay closed indefinitely. No matter where you stand on these issues, let’s treat one another with Christian love, respect, and unity. We will respect your individual decision as to when you are comfortable regathering, and we will rejoice when the time comes that we will see each of you again! My prayer is that this entire situation draw us closer together as a church body, not divide us.
We love you. We miss you. We have prayed for you, and we have sought to lead through this in a way that is pleasing to Christ. As we see beaches, grocery stores, restaurants, sporting goods stores, florists, and other businesses opening back up in our state, we are excited to see many Bible-believing churches doing the same as the month progresses!
We can’t wait to see you all again soon! Please pray for us, and let me know if you have any questions or if you have a need of any kind.
Also, please take a moment to check out the online schedule below for this coming week.
Your friend,
Pastor Phillip