Worship gatherings will continue after new restrictions on Saturday (10/31)

An update on our worship gatherings in light of the tighter restrictions for McHenry County starting October 31st

Greetings in Christ,

Since tighter coronavirus-related restrictions have been discussed or have gone into effect for much of IL and are going into effect for McHenry County on Saturday, you might be wondering what that means for our worship gatherings. The short answer is that we are going to continue to meet for worship gatherings. If you want the rationale, you can continue reading.

The restrictions target bars and restaurants specifically then meetings, social events, and gatherings generally. They call for a "Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity" for meetings, social events, and gatherings.

Whenever these restrictions come out, it's important to remember that there are separate guidelines for churches. This is because in late May, the governor backed off on the mandatory restrictions he was putting on places of worship and instead has given us "guidelines and recommendations" we can choose to use or not. There was a case filed by a church that went to the Supreme Court which led to this decision by the governor.

With that being said, we still want to listen to any warnings the health department is giving us. The guidelines for places of worship actually recommend that at all times we limit the number of guests to 25% of overall room capacity. The room we are using at Dorr Township has a capacity of around 300 people if you look at the signs posted on the walls. We couldn't seat that many people in chairs, but we have had 60 chairs set up on just one side so we could probably seat somewhere around 125-175 people using both sides. On a Sunday, we have between 20 and 35 people present so we are well within the 25% capacity of that room.

Because we are able to safely gather at Dorr Township, we will continue to hold worship gatherings. We have spaced the chairs with plenty of social distancing and are wearing masks the whole time we are indoors. In addition, we are currently the only group using those rooms for meetings except for the Dorr Township board.

Please reach out with any questions you have.

In Christ,

Pastor Mitch