Mission impossible?

The current situation with the Covid regulations of the Federal Council is quite challenging for us as church leadership. How a mission impossible can become a mission possible.

At the moment, we have a certified service on Sunday in the centre. People appreciate the fact that they can sing and celebrate without further restrictions, such as the obligation to wear a mask. Via livestream we are connected to the lounge where people are invited to celebrate the service without a certificate but still in a community. Whenever possible, one of the pastors is in the lounge to greet people personally. A person from the prayer team is also on hand and enjoys praying for people. There are definitely special opportunities in this smaller and manageable community.

As a church leadership, we regularly think about how we can improve the situation. For example, we have made clarifications as to whether we could set up a test station on Sunday before the service. Unfortunately, this turned out to be very complicated and impractical. Would two services in a row without a certificate be a good solution? For us, this would be a good option. However, we were told by the staff that not all of them would be willing to do this. In addition, the capacity of two services would still be very small in relation to the size of the congregation. This is because the 50 people currently allowed also include the staff. Therefore, we could only welcome about 30 visitors per service. One suggestion to us was that we could put up a tent with heaters and have an outdoor event with more capacity. On closer examination we realised that this solution would also be very challenging for the staff and our budget. In addition, we would waste a lot of energy on the environment during the cold season.

But we are painfully aware that with the current solution, only the non-certified people have to make a sacrifice. We don't like that at all. The fact that so far there have never been more than 27 people in the lounge shows that it is not satisfactory for the potential participants either.

We are now working on making the two locations equally attractive. Therefore, a camera is also to be installed in the lounge, so that in future certain programme points such as welcoming, introducing people or preaching can be carried out in the lounge and the people in the centre can be present via livestream. We can implement this in a first step with modest means. However, the delivery times of certain components are slowing us down somewhat.

As church leadership, we realise that every time we make a decision, we disappoint people. So it is a mission impossible. Whether it can still become a mission possible is up to each individual. If you are willing to remain part of the community, even if it costs you a sacrifice, you will become part of the solution. We cordially invite you to do so!