Image Credit: CFJC Today / Jill Sperling

By Jill Sperling

Take Me To Church

Local churches equip their buildings for in-person services

Jun 5, 2020 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Churches have been allowed to hold in-person services for the past two Sundays, however few jumped at the opportunity to re-open their sanctuaries.

First Baptist Church of Kamloops was among the first to open in the city on May 24, having prepared the church building with physically-distant seating, hand sanitizer and masks.

This Sunday (June 7), more Kamloops churches will welcome members of their congregations back with similar safety protocols.

Senior Pastor Joshua Claycamp of First Baptist Church says planning for re-opening started the moment churches were told to close their doors.

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“We had anticipated and thought through a number of different scenarios in terms of even the way we established our worship services, putting our seniors in a different room, we had kind of pre-thought all of those different scenarios and ordered in the personal protective equipment,” Claycamp said. “We really, to be perfectly honest, we didn’t have really any major issues when we resumed.”

Claycamp has been preaching in front of a physical congregation for two weekends now.

The chairs have been distanced and set up in groupings according to households.

“Even though we are socially distanced at six feet, there’s just something about that human contact where when you’re experiencing something together, not merely experiencing at the same time, but experiencing it together you benefit from it,” Claycamp said.

Walking into the building, there are lines on the ground depicting safe physical distance.

Once the church building reaches its 50-person capacity limit, there is an option for participation in worship outside the church.

“We’ve actually installed a small radio transmitter here at the church so that folks can listen in their car outside if we’ve already got our max gathering here,” Claycamp said. “That radio transmitter will reach pretty well everywhere from Ponderosa Lodge down to Battle Street.”

Bible Truth Church is among several local churches that chose to hold off on in-person gatherings until this weekend, despite permission from the Provincial Health Officer.

“We weren’t prepared,” said Lead Pastor Jonny Strutt. “It kind of came out of the blue when she said churches could reassemble again and we’ve been working hard to make sure we could get that ready for people.”

Like most churches in Kamloops, Bible Truth will continue to provide online church services, as seating in the sanctuary is limited to 50 people.

“We’ve had to do a ticketing system, so if you want to come in person, you have to get a ticket so we know exactly how many are coming,” Strutt said. “There’s sanitizing protocol, there’s safety protocol with physical distancing, hand sanitizing stations at the entrances.”

As people head back to church on Sunday, some for the first time in months, pastors are looking forward to seeing actual people in the church seats.

“It’s really nice for me to see them and to know that hey, everybody’s okay,” Strutt said. “Obviously we have other ways of communicating and keeping in touch, but it is just a delight for people to actually see each other again.”