top of page

Believing

&Safe Returning

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

-  2 Timothy 1:7

Safety
Parquet

Safety Plan Highlights

-    2 Seating Options:

* Socially distanced: Dedicated space in the Balcony 

* General seating: For those vaccinated or at low risk 

-    Complete sanitization of building 

-    Extensive air purification 

-    The medically vulnerable encouraged to livestream

White Washed Wood

Updated Mask Policy 

Washington State is currently mandating that facemasks be worn in all indoor public spaces.

At SBC, our priority is to keep the church open and accessible to anyone that would like to attend.

 

  • If you are vulnerable and concerned about COVID spread, we encourage you to take advantage of our live-stream. If you give us your e-mail address, we’ll send you a weekly newsletter with a bulletin to print out for each Sunday’s service. If you reach out to us, we’d love to schedule a masked and socially distanced “porch visit” to meet and visit with you! We’d like to include you as much as you’re comfortable with!

  • If you’d like to attend services in-person, but still maintain a mask and social distance during your visit, we’re glad to accommodate you that way also. We’ve reserved the entire balcony section of our Sanctuary for those in masks and practicing socially distancing. All of our staff and volunteers will wear masks when interacting with you, and we’ve requested that all of our church members do the same. Please just keep your mask on so that everyone will know that this is important to you. If we see you in a mask, we’ll gladly put ours on, give you a friendly ‘elbow bump’ and respect your social distance.

  • If you’re vaccinated, already recovered from COVID, or object to the masks and vaccines for any reasons of conscience – you are welcome at SBC also. As Christians, we believe strongly in respecting each individual’s right to follow their conscience.

​

Thank you for helping us demonstrate kindness and mutual respect to everyone during these trying times. We are praying for you! Please let us know if there are any tangible ways we can be a help or a blessing to you or your family.   

Marble Surface

Making Church the Safest Place You Can Go

Obviously, going anywhere involves risks. Just riding in a car is a dangerous activity, and so we take safety precautions like wearing seat belts and driving a safe speed. We have a similar philosophy about church: while it can’t be made perfectly safe, we want to take reasonable and common sense steps to make church as safe as possible for as many people as possible. 

​

We have safety measures in place for lots of things – sprinkler systems for fire safety, security procedures for kids and general safety, AED (defibrillator) and first aid kits for medical emergencies, and more.

 

So what about infectious diseases like Covid-19? 

The key questions seem to be 1) How likely am I to catch a disease, and 2) how likely is that disease to cause a critical illness?  

​

Therefore, we are taking the following steps to address both questions:

​

1) Slowing the spread

Infectious diseases spread 3 ways: Person-to-person, from touching surfaces, and through the air. We’re working to reduce the risk of spread on all 3 fronts. 
Person-to-person: This is the most common way diseases spread. Fever is generally the earliest sign of illness (also true with Covid-19) so we’re emphasizing our efforts to make it easy for people to stay home and live-stream the service if you think you might be sick. Let us know if you need a meal or if we can run an errand for you!  
Touching surfaces: We are sanitizing every common surface in the church before each service. We’ve always done this in our children’s ministry, and now we’re doing an even more diligent job. 
Through the air: Our building has high ceilings and excellent ventilation (which medical experts say contributes to reducing airborne spread). We’ve also deployed HEPA + UV filters around the building to further help with ventilation and air filtering. Our ventilation system filters have a high MERV rating and are changed regularly.  

 

2) Protecting the Vulnerable 

Covid-19, like other infectious disease are most likely to result in a critical level of illness for those that have severe underlying conditions (especially conditions involving the lungs) and is more dangerous the older you get. 
In response to this, we are encouraging those that are especially vulnerable (or who are in close proximity to those that are very vulnerable) to live-stream our services rather than attend in person. For those that are live-streaming, the pastors (and many in our congregation) are making extra efforts to make socially distanced, outdoor “porch visits” and making extra phone calls to stay connected to those that are unable to attend a service. We also have teams of people who are helping to deliver meals or run errands for those that need help. 


We understand that people will come to different conclusions on what should be done in these difficult matters, and so we are putting extra effort into expressing and demonstrating respect for those with different views. Our love for one-another as Christians, and our love for our community is bigger than any differences we have over the best medical practices.

 

Whatever your personal convictions on these matters are, we want you to know that we’re praying for you and we’re eager to be a blessing and an encouragement to you in any way we can!  
 

​

Children's Ministry Plan

We’re excited to announce that we are currently offering children’s ministry (for ages 2-12) at 10:30am on Sundays.

 

While we have always put enormous effort into health and safety, we are implementing some new policies in accordance with many of the best practices from the CDC, WHO, and local health authorities.

 

Overview of Health Safety Policies

1) Pre-service screenings. No one with a temperature of 100+ or any cold symptoms can be admitted to church. We will have take-home bags for any kids we need to turn away.

 

2) Extra sanitization. In addition to our usual cleaning, we will be sanitizing after every class. Kids will be asked to sanitize their hands a few times during service.

 

3) Teacher protection. We are limiting our teachers and helpers to those who are under the age of 65, or who have been vaccinated, or who have recovered from Covid.

​

bottom of page