03.17.22 - COVID-19 UPDATE

As of next week, the province has rescinded its mask mandate for most indoor spaces.  In our context—besides the Southridge Shelter, which will continue to require masking—we’re able to start functioning in a mask-optional way as of Monday, March 21.

We know this shift elicits a variety of emotions and responses, from great relief to heightened anxiety.  So, in the spirit of orienting ourselves to the other, and loving our neighbour as ourselves, as a leadership we’re encouraging…

• Everyone to continue bringing a mask to indoor events, including our Sunday gatherings (which we’ll continue to provide at our entrances)
• Anyone who’d prefer to continue wearing a mask to feel free to continue wearing one
• Anyone who’d prefer not to continue wearing a mask to feel free to not wear one—but to be prepared to put one on temporarily when engaging closely with someone who’s chosen to wear one, out of consideration for them

We hope this approach is clear and straightforward—and, more importantly, captures the unity-in-diversity ideals of the “Love Beyond Belief” community we desire to be.

We also hope this new phase of reopening gives all of us a fresh opportunity to invite others into experiencing the difference Jesus can make in their lives through our community, especially as we track in this new series specifically designed to help people mend and restore from the pain of the pandemic.

As we continue navigating these complex seasons, we’re so grateful to continue doing it together as a church family.  We love you!

01.23.22 - COVID-19 UPDATE

This past week the provincial government put a timeline on the Modified Step 2 restrictions, ending this phase on January 31.

As a result, we will continue to support our society through the end of this phase, and will remain online-only through our January 30 service.  For those eager to experience the online service with others, we will continue to make the “watch party” option available at all three of our locations on January 30.

As the province reopens, though, so will we!  As of Sunday, February 6, we will resume our in-person gatherings in a similar manner to what we experienced throughout the fall.  While still employing safety protocols—including mask-wearing, physical distancing and the attestation of our “safety certificate” for all ministry personnel—we will enjoy the full experience of in-person worship bands, rotating live teaching, First Impressions Ministry, Kids’ Ministry, and R!OT programs.

In response to today’s message, appreciating the hope we’re intended to be and embody to one another in life-on-life ways, we hope that you’re excited to resume gathering in-person beginning in February with us.  You can register for next week’s final “watch party” here.  Registration for our February in-person services will be available starting next Sunday.

As always, please feel free to share any questions or concerns you have with any Location Pastor, Leadership Team member or member of our Board of Elders.  We’re grateful for your collective patience and willingness to make a sacrifice on behalf of our larger society.  And we’re eager to see you all again in-person very soon as we continue to get through this pandemic together.  We love you!

01.04.22 - COVID-19 UPDATE

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday our provincial government transitioned Ontario back to a “modified Step 2” in their reopening strategy, in response to the surge of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.  They’re looking to blunt the potentially overwhelming impact on our health care system, feeling like some temporary restrictions will protect our healthcare system from overwhelmingly exceeding capacity.

Throughout this pandemic, as a local church, we’ve sought to be contributors to our society’s navigating of the pandemic—laying down our privilege in order to help recover from the pandemic as safely and as quickly as possible.  So, in response to this current emerging need, we are going to transition to an online-only experience of our Sunday morning gatherings for the next three weeks, January 9, 16 and 23.

Appreciating the value of community in our in-person gatherings, though—and knowing at-home experiences of our online service can feel isolating—we will be hosting “watch party” events at each of our locations as well, at 10:00am on each of these three Sundays.  The watch parties (similar to what we experienced last July) will be fully masked and physically distanced, but allow those of us who would benefit from experiencing the online service with others to still connect and participate together in-person.

Other implications of the transition back to a modified Step 2 reality will be communicated through specific ministries (Life Groups, Student Ministry, Anchor Causes, etc.).  In addition to doing our part to support this current societal challenge, we also hope this two-week transition allows those who’ve caught Covid, or who are isolating as close contacts, to recover so that we have sufficient ministry personnel to run our in-person services when they resume.

Obviously, this is a difficult and frustrating transition to make—especially at the dawn of a brand-new year where we’d love to continue to experience the momentum of further reopening.  And we know that many of you are struggling with other implications of these new restrictions (whether in your business or workplace, kids in school, etc.), and would encourage you to reach out to your Life Group and/or Location Pastor to receive support during an undoubtedly trying time.

At the end of the day, we know that we’ll keep getting through this—and, more importantly, we’ll keep getting through this together.  And, most importantly, we follow a Jesus who (as we learned last week) is less interested in making this year new and more interested in making us new.  So, let’s lean into His love and transforming work like never before!

12.18.21 - COVID-19 UPDATE

In response to yesterday’s provincial government announcement regarding additional restrictions to navigate the Omicron variant of COVID-19, we want to update you on how services will look here at Southridge.

On the one hand, we will still offer in-person gatherings—10:00am at each of our three locations. In addition to our existing protocols, though (including cleaning and check-in screening procedures, as well as physical distancing and mask wearing), we will be implementing the following additional measures:

• Providing medical masks, to be used instead of personal/cloth masks, and encouraging people to consider double masking, to provide an extra layer of protection, especially during worship
• Cancelling of coffee service in our cafes and prohibiting all other food and beverage in our facilities, to ensure mask wearing at all times while in the building
• Transitioning our planned communion celebration to a practice that doesn’t require the removal of masks

Through a collective commitment to heightened attention around these protocols (cleaning, screening, distancing and mask wearing at all times)—as well as continuing to uphold the “safety certification” of all ministry personnel—we feel we can facilitate a reasonably safe in-person experience this Sunday.

At the same time, we know the recent emergence of this variant and resultant case increases and government announcements have stimulated a heightened degree of concern within our community. If you are feeling in any way anxious or uncomfortable about attending in-person, please take advantage of our online service which we’ve continued to offer throughout the fall.

In particular, if you are scheduled to serve as part of a ministry team (worship band, tech, First Impressions Ministry, Kid’s Ministry, etc.), and are at all uncomfortable about participating in an in-person gathering, please reach out to your ministry team leader as soon as possible and let them know you’d prefer not to serve this Sunday. As a leadership, we do not want our efforts to provide in-person worship gatherings to result in pressure that puts anyone in a situation where they feel uncomfortable. We hope you can hear our heart on this.

In the coming days, we’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide another communique of this nature in advance of our Christmas services. In the meantime, feel free to share any thoughts, perspectives or concerns with our leadership. We’d love to hear from you, because we’re all in this together.

10.07.21 - 'SAFETY CERTIFICATION' UPDATE

As we continue to navigate the pandemic together, the emerging conversation in much of our society involves the implementation of a “vaccine passport.” Many of you have reached out to us to ask where our leadership lands on this practice, so we wanted to update you on the discernment of our Board of Elders.

Because our posture throughout the pandemic has been to do everything we can to promote safety and support our society through the pandemic as safely and quickly as possible, we recognize the value of an added measure of “safety certification.” To our leadership, embracing the measures of safety available to us represents the privilege-relinquishing Way of Jesus that always orients itself to the other. These kinds of steps are practical ways we can live beyond ourselves.

At the same time, we know some in our community have been anxious, hesitant, or are medically unable to get vaccinated. As a church that seeks to live out a “Love Beyond Belief” attitude, where everyone is not expected to believe exactly the same things on non-salvation issues, we’d like to create respectful space for disagreement on these issues that are otherwise hotly polarizing in our world.

Add to that, we’re aspiring to foster a “come as you are” culture that loves and welcomes people unconditionally in attending weekend services, participating in a Life Group, and receiving ministry through one of our Anchor Causes.  And, in desiring to take proactive steps to promote safety through the pandemic, we’d like our church to continue to exude that message and culture.

So, as a result of these values:

• As of Tuesday, October 12, a “safety certification” will be required of all ministry personnel (i.e. staff and ministry team volunteers) as an additional measure of safety to help create safe environments for all participants.
  • This safety certification can either be proof of double vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of serving in a ministry role.
  • Southridge will provide rapid tests for ministry personnel to use whenever required, which will include instructions on how to self-administer and properly dispose of the tests and log the results.
  • The certification of safety will be required only once through an online attestation.
• This safety certification of ministry personnel will be required for all on-site programs of the church, and will apply consistently across the board (for Sunday services, Life Groups, Anchor Causes, Family Ministry, etc.).
• This safety certification of ministry personnel will not be required of participants(i.e. attenders on Sundays, residents of the Shelter, etc.—unless specifically mandated by Public Health), and the COVID-19 protocols of mask wearing and physical distancing will continue to be observed on-site while indoors.
  • If a Life Group meeting on-site at a Southridge location elects to all provide a safety certification, they may feel free to meet unmasked, once seated and physically distanced.
  • If a Life Group meeting on-site at a Southridge location elects to not all provide a safety certification, they must remain masked at all times, even though they are seated and physically distanced.

If you have any questions or comments, or require further clarity, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Ministry Team leader, your Location Pastor or any member of the Board of Elders.

We appreciate that this brief and specific summary won’t have fully addressed the individual feelings and the nuanced personal perspectives on what has become an extremely volatile and divisive issue in our world. However, our hope as a leadership is that you can hear our heart to promote a greater degree of safety, while continuing to foster Love Beyond Belief, in a come-as-you-are culture. And we trust that you’ll engage in this process with us in the spirit of Ephesians 4:3, “making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

We love you. We’re deeply grateful for your patience, support, and cooperation through all the ups and downs of this pandemic. We’re thrilled by how God is continuing to rebuild momentum across our community. And we’re delighted by the way we’re increasingly able to enjoy one another through our church’s in-person programs and activities as we continue to navigate this pandemic together.

06.11.21 - RE-OPENING UPDATE

In case you’ve missed the updates, the provincial government has bumped up the launch of Stage 1.  At the same time, it has shifted the restrictions and protocols for each Stage, allowing indoor worship gatherings to begin during this first stage instead of its originally-estimated Stage 2.

As we communicated in the previous update, Southridge is eager to capitalize on the opportunity to re-gather together on Sundays in larger groups.  At the same time, coming out of a season of stay-at-home order where our buildings have been inaccessible, we need some lead time in order for our facilities to be prepared to accommodate our return to in-person gatherings.

So, bottom line: Southridge’s Sunday services will continue to operate online only through Stage 1, but we will expect to bump up our in-person reopening to the start of Stage 2—which means we expect to begin gathering in-person again on Sunday, July 4.

It’s likely that, at this Stage, we’ll also be able to reopen at more than 15% occupancy, according to the modified provincial guidelines that can be found here.

We’re excited to be able to reopen earlier than originally anticipated, and hope you are too.  The July weekend will also launch our annual “It Takes A Village” summer series.  And to be able to kick this year’s series off with the launch of in-person gatherings will feel amazing!

If you have any further questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a shout.  Thanks again for rolling with the uncertainties of the season.  We’re excited to see all of you again in-person in the coming months!

06.03.21 - RE-OPENING PLAN

After fifteen months of navigating this pandemic together, we’re excited to finally be discussing the process of reopening our gatherings and events!

THE SHORT VERSION

If you’re not one for e-mails and would like us to get to the point, here it is: following Ontario’s reopening plan, where applicable, our group activities of 10 or fewer people will begin to meet outdoors at the launch of Stage 1 (currently scheduled to begin June 14), and large-group in-person Sunday gatherings will begin as “watch parties” (experiencing the online service together), including nursery and preschool childcare, at the launch of Stage 2, subject to the 15% capacity limits.

In short: Sunday gatherings can begin the process of reopening as soon as Sunday, July 11.  The summary outline of our reopening plan can be found here.  And if the provincial government modifies their timeline, ours will modify accordingly.

THE LONGER VERSION

To start the reopening process, we collected your feedback through a community survey.  As in previous surveys where we’ve solicited your voice, we received divergent perspectives.  Approximately 40% of you wanted to see the church reopen immediately—and around 34% of you said you’d be there right away.  But over 40% of you wanted us to continue to take a cautious approach, with another 20% of you desiring for us to not reopen at all until the majority of us were fully vaccinated (i.e.: two doses).  So, as a leadership, we heard that some are eager to reopen while others are desiring a cautious approach.  In response to that, our leadership will seek to reopen as we’re able but to also do so cautiously—not that we’re believing we can please all of the people, all of the time, but that we see a win-win to a staged approach to reopening.

It’s also important to appreciate why our leadership’s approach has shifted, even though our collective values haven’t.  Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been clear that our goal—consistent with how we understand the Way of Jesus—was to serve our community by doing everything we could to protect people (especially the most vulnerable) and promote getting through the pandemic as fast as possible.  We sacrificed what we could have done (in regathering at other times) in order to serve our surrounding community.  So, throughout the pandemic, our Sunday services have remained exclusively online.  As our government and health experts are confirming, though, the vaccination rates are becoming the game-changer to get us through the pandemic permanently.  Vaccines are now providing the protection (especially to the most vulnerable) that we sought to contribute to before vaccines were available.  Now that vaccination rates are meeting significant thresholds, we’re comfortable beginning the reopening process along the sequence of the provincial framework.  While our values haven’t changed, because of vaccines, we feel our approach can.

Some may wonder why we won’t seek to gather as a large group during Stage 1—though the provincial framework allows outdoor religious gatherings.  Aside from some of our church properties presenting safety issues, our ministries feel like we need to leverage this first stage for the necessary preparations for reopening in Stage 2.  Especially in recent months of stay-at-home order, we haven’t been allowed in our buildings for sufficient cleaning or preparation for ministry.  So, during this first 3-week reopening stage, we want to leverage this time to focus on the necessary preparations for our facilities and ministries in order to begin reopening safely and effectively at Stage 2.

As well, throughout these first three reopening stages, we will primarily be regathering around our online service.  Our Inspiration department is working to launch in the fall with more fully in-person service elements (worship bands, hosts, etc.), and we’ll be looking to transition some of those elements during Stage 3 in August.  For the most part, though, we want to allow our Inspiration department the time to prep for a fuller fall launch while also allowing them a much-needed summer break in July.  So, especially as we first reopen in Stage 2, our in-person gatherings will be “watch parties” of the online service together.  (In case you’re wondering, we do intend to continue a version of the online service into the fall after we’ve more fully reopened our in-person gatherings.)

You’ll notice a similar progression with Kid’s Ministry.  Stage 2 will deliver nursery and preschool supports, and basic M&S programming will launch in Stage 3.  This is intended to more slowly and steadily gain familiarity and confidence with our facility use and traffic flow on Sundays, as well as allow the necessary time to refresh the “Plan to Protect” certification for our hundreds of Family Ministry volunteers.

Our greatest excitement around reopening—which begins to launch right at the onset of Stage 1—is the capacity to meet as in-person groups outdoors.  For our Life Groups (including the small groups of our Student Ministries) and a number of programs and friendships in our Action Ministry across our Anchor Causes, we’re hoping that we’ll all maximize these opportunities to be the church to one another and others, knowing, around here, we understand the “church” to be less of an event you attend and more of a life of love we live together.

If you have any questions or require further clarification regarding our approach to reopening, please don’t hesitate to contact your ministry leader or myself directly.  As things evolve and update, expect further clarification and communication from our leadership.  We are beyond excited to finally start enjoying the gift of each other again—face-to-face—and are eager to see all you over the summer as we build towards a fuller ministry launch for the fall together!

04.21.21 - SUPPORT & CONNECTION

With tightened restrictions in the thick of the third wave, we pray that God is sustaining you each day as we persevere together. Let's continue supporting one another, striving to live as a "no need among us" community like the early church of Acts 4. If you have a practical need or could offer support to the needs of others, visit our Need Help-Give Help response page.