Preparing for a Safe Fall Launch

Dear Resurrection Family,

We’ve been preparing for a great fall launch at Resurrection. We’re also preparing for a safe fall launch at Resurrection.

As you likely know, after months of new COVID cases declining daily, the number of new cases in the Kansas City metro has increased 500% in the last four weeks, now tracking higher than this time last year in both Johnson and Jackson counties. Deaths are still far lower than throughout most of the last year, but have risen about 50% from their 15-month low earlier this month. Most new COVID cases are among unvaccinated people. But, there are a small but increasing number of “breakthrough cases” among the vaccinated.

The increasing numbers (you’ll find the latest charts from COVID Act Now for Jackson and Johnson Counties at the end of this email) should not move us to fear. If you are vaccinated, you are more likely to die from a lightning strike than to die from COVID. But, you may still contract the virus if you are vaccinated and spread it to others even though you have few if any symptoms. (The Pfizer vaccine is 94% effective against the Alpha variant of COVID, but that drops to 88% effective against the Delta variant. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine is 67% effective against Delta.) The data should lead us to ask what we can do to reduce the spread of COVID – as individuals, as a church and in our community.

This week, Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas announced a reinstatement of the mask mandate for indoor events in KCMO where people cannot maintain safe social distances. The mandate goes into effect on Monday, August 2. While religious institutions are exempt, our Downtown location will follow this mandate effective August 2 (with encouragement to wear masks this weekend).

The number of daily new cases in KCMO is currently much higher than in Kansas, which may be why as I write this, Johnson County is encouraging, but not yet requiring, all people, vaccinated and unvaccinated to wear masks indoors where safe social distancing cannot be maintained. Our Johnson County and Blue Springs locations will be encouraging indoor mask wearing, though not requiring them at this time. All of our staff will be asked to wear masks in worship and in programs where safe social distancing cannot be maintained. At our Leawood campus, the balcony is the best spot to maintain safe social distancing as there are few seated there, and there is room to spread out.

Regarding children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 4 million children have tested positive for COVID in the US since the pandemic began. The symptoms tend to be much less severe in children, with less than 2% of all children who test positive requiring hospitalization (ranging from .1% to 1.9% depending on the state). There have been some very serious cases in children, and a small number of deaths among children (approximately 500 children have died in the US in the last 17 months, about twice the number of children who die from the flu each year). The number of children testing positive for COVID is rising. Consequently, we are continuing to ask that children wear masks in worship and in our children’s programs when safe social distancing cannot be maintained, all those working with children will wear masks.

The single most important thing we can do to avoid the spread or contraction of COVID is to be vaccinated. I want to encourage you, once again, if you have not been vaccinated and you don’t have a health condition that prevents being vaccinated, to take the step and become vaccinated. I see this as an act of Christian discipleship, reducing the risk not only of contracting COVID, but of spreading it to others if you do contract it. This is one tangible expression of agape – of selfless love – as you seek not only to protect yourself from COVID, but to protect others who might contract it from you if you contract it. Wearing a mask when gathered with others for their protection is another expression of Christian love.

LaVon and I, and our kids, have all been vaccinated. The latest data is pointing towards the need for boosters, and if boosters are recommended, we’ll do that too in order to do our part to reduce the spread of COVID. I am grateful that a large percentage of you, our members and visitors, have been vaccinated.

Our recent survey of the congregation found that 95% of those who took the survey have been fully vaccinated! That makes you some of the safest people to be with, and our church one of the safest places to be with other people in terms of COVID. I’m really proud of you as a congregation. For this reason and others, at this time we don’t anticipate closing worship or programming again. In fact, we have an exciting fall planned for every area of ministry, and I’ll share more about those plans next week. But the recent rise in COVID cases means that we’ll work to do what we can as a church to minimize the chance of the virus being spread through our worship and programming.

I’m grateful for each of you and excited about our fall programming and worship. I’ll be back in the pulpit on August 15 to kick things off. More on that in my weekly enote!

In Christ’s Love,

Adam

Data from Covid Act Now Website

JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI

JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS