Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen will be opening his doors to congregants on October 18th, The Christian Post reports.
After 7 long months of simply streaming the services online and on SiriusXM satellite radio, Osteen’s church has decided to open its doors again. But congregants must sign up online, as capacity is limited to 25% of the chapel and everyone is required to wear a mask.
The Lakewood, Texas, church’s website states they will be adhering to the CDC guidelines.
Osteen said in a statement that “For the past six months we have been consulting with medical experts here in Houston and adhering to the guidelines set by the Texas Governor and the Houston Mayor and feel that it is the appropriate time to begin reopening the church for in-person worship services.”
He continued, “We are moving forward carefully and will reopen in a steady, gradual manner. We have undertaken many effective safety precautions, as well, that are designed to create a safe environment for our members who wish to attend.”
Osteen’s church isn’t the only one to have begun reopening, but it is one of the more prominent ones.
Big House Church in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia Beach reopened its doors months ago making it one of the first megachurches around the country to reopen. Like Osteen, they have taken the proper precautions, urging people who have Coronavirus to stay home and recommending churchgoers wear a mask.
For many, churches reopening is a sign of things returning to normal, but it’s also a good sign for almost 40,000 families whose parents are pastors and rely on tithes to stay afloat.
As Christian Headlines recently reported, the first round of government-funded pandemic relief helped most churches though this difficult time by distributing between $6 and $10 billion in relief.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Bonnie Biess/Stringer
John Paluska has been a contributor for Christian Headlines since 2016 and is the founder of The Daily Fodder, a news outlet he relaunched in 2019 as a response to the constant distribution of fake news.
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