Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here.

Rev. Jen Crow writes:

At every meeting with staff and congregants this fall, our architects asked the same question: “Where is your front door?” – and at every meeting, the answer was different. People enter our building from many points, and all of these entrances are a distance from our front desk. The truth is that right now we have no way of knowing who is in our building at any given time. This is not safe for the preschool that lives with us or for the many people who gather in our church during the week.

Changes in how we welcome people into our building during the week are long overdue, and those changes are underway already. If you arrive at the church during the week, you will now be asked to share who you are there to see or what you are there to do before entering the building. Once you enter the building, you will be asked to go to the front office to sign in. With our many staff and volunteers, it is not possible to know and recognize everyone – even our “regulars” and long-time church members – all of the time, so we will be asking everyone to share their name and reason for being in the building. Please be kind to our front desk volunteers and staff as you are asked to do these things.

Also, in the very near future, we will be directing everyone entering the church to use one entrance, our front door in the atrium on Dupont Avenue, during the week. Our parking lot entrance will become the primary entrance and exit for Southside Child Development Center and they will be responsible for monitoring the entry and exit of their parents, staff, and children. All other visitors to the church will be directed to enter through the Dupont Avenue atrium doors.

At that entrance, we will have a greeter to welcome congregants and guests during the hours when the church is open during the week.

In order to do this, we will need to significantly grow our number of front desk volunteers, and we need your help. Do you have some time to share during the day or the evening when you could serve as a volunteer greeter at church? You’d be helping to keep our community safe, while welcoming folks as they arrive, and reading, watching videos, or doing homework when times are quiet. We need many of you to make this work. Please volunteer now by contacting Chelsea (chelsea@firstuniv.org) in the office.

In faith,

Rev. Jen