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SHOW NOTES

DISCLAIMER: The following conversation is provided for general informational purposes only. You should not rely or act on any information in this video without seeking counsel from a qualified professional authorized to provide specific advice in your area.

Mike Clear:

We’re going to have a conversation today about health and safety regulations in regards to churches opening back up. Before we dive into that, I want to talk about you for a second, Frank.

Because I know you’re not going to talk about yourself, so I’ll talk about you for you, okay? Since we have been friends, which has been a while, you have worn many hats. You were the NextGen Director at Elevation Church for how many years?

Frank Bealer:

Five or six years.

Mike Clear:

Five or six years. Then you came on the team at Orange and you headed up Orange Leaders. You were doing a variety of things. Now, you are the CEO of the Phase Family Learning Center, which is located in Alpharetta, Georgia. But that’s just one site. You are a man who gets things done. You guys are opening up how many sites?

Frank Bealer:

There are two more in play right now. The goal is 100 in the next 25 years.

Mike Clear:

Wow. You have to say this because you’re the boss, but I will say this for you on behalf of Phase Family Learning Centers. I feel like you guys are an industry leader in the space of early childhood education in offering a full-service daycare and an afterschool program, a shared workspace, and partnerships with churches. What you guys are doing there is truly amazing. So well done, man.

Frank Bealer:

Thank you.

Mike Clear:

I love it.

Frank Bealer:

It’s super-exciting to find this way to serve a community in a unique way.

Mike Clear:

For sure.

Frank Bealer:

And now, in the midst of everything going on, we are serving the community even more differently than we expected, right?

Mike Clear:

Right? Because, everything’s changed. The world has changed since COVID-19 and it’s changed at a rapid pace.

Frank Bealer:

Radically.

Mike Clear:

Everything’s shifted and pivoted. So, I want to talk with you today because you recently had to lead your team through a process of reopening the Phase Family Learning Center—under new safety protocols in accordance with CDC guidelines. Everything changed for you guys.

All of us watching want to learn. So what did you guys experience? What are some takeaways and some of your learning experiences from that? Let’s start there. You guys have been open for how long now?

Frank Bealer:

Two weeks.

Mike Clear:

Two weeks. There are churches that are watching this, and some of them may be opening up in a couple of weeks, or a couple of months. They’re still trying to figure out what their plan is going to be. How has the reopening of Phase been for you guys in the last two weeks? How are families responding to your reopening plan?

Frank Bealer:

That’s a great question. One of the hard things has been the round table meetings we’ve had—days and nights of wrestling with how this affects Phase, what we’re going to do, how it affects the families, the teachers, and everybody involved. We know everybody around the country is having the same meetings, right? That’s part of it—we’re all taking the information and trying to apply it as best we know how. Rules by state or whatever we see on the news that day— how does it affect reopening? It can feel overwhelming.

I’ll take us back. We had to decide at some point to close, right? So, we were at the front end of closing, with the initial call to, “Let’s slow this virus down.” We closed our doors, sent all our teachers home, took care of them along the way, and told all the families, “We’ll see you when we see you.” One of the critical things we learned and we’re really thankful for, is that we actually ended up over-communicating.

We had documents that went over all the safety protocols, and we were going to implement them to an insane level of detail. I think what parents wanted to know from us and hear from us was that we were thinking about it. Of course, we’re wrestling with it like anybody else, we’re living in it. But, I think they just wanted to know we’re still wrestling with it. We’ve heard the new information that’s coming out.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So, that was reassuring to the parents that we’ve got all the pieces and we’re trying to figure it out. Everybody’s got their insider who knows more than everybody else, right?

Mike Clear:

My great uncle.

Frank Bealer:

My great uncle is connected on the inside somehow. So, everybody wants to make sure that—especially as a school or as a church—that you have all the information to make a decision. So, reassuring them that we’re watching and seeing the same things seemed obvious, but it actually ended up being very helpful.

Then when we started to get more nuanced and more detailed with the opening, it was welcomed. The channel of communication was already open—it seemed really clear and helpful. So, then we went to open and what we chose to do was say, “Parents, you can either start on this day, or start on this day. Or in the preschool world, you can withdraw and get on a wait list, and come back whenever you’re ready so you don’t get billed for it.”

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So the families could come back as they needed. It was a fun test to say, “You can come back on the 11th, the 25th—there are a couple of different options.” We had about 35% of families take us up on the 11th. They were essential workers, high need. They were ready, maybe a little more comfortable. They had felt like they had made the adjustments as a family. They were comfortable with our protocols. And then, just over 40% more came back two weeks later. So not much has changed in the last two weeks.

When families saw other people go first, they were more willing to do the same. So I think there’s a practice for the church there to benefit from. The question was: “How do we let people who are comfortable come back and not let other families feel guilty? Because they’re not quite ready or maybe they just want somebody else to experiment first?” Right? So, we opened on the 11th with a lot of protocols. We can go into that a little.

Mike Clear:

Sure.

Frank Bealer:

All the little things, there were a lot of details. Some of it we just thought was wise, right? But, then it was fascinating of the people who said they were going to come back a couple weeks later—almost all of them did. There was none who said, “Oh, something else changed in their lives, so now they’re waiting.” So about 70%, a little more, were back at Phase. For a church, these people would represent the great attending families, the well-connected ones. These are your quintessential regular church-goers.

Mike Clear:

Yep.

Frank Bealer:

They’re back, ready to go.

Mike Clear:

I think it’s important for churches to remember that whatever their plan is going to be, you’re going to have to think through the levels of people. Of those who are comfortable and are itching to get back in the building. Then there are those who are going to wait for others to go first. And then there are going to be those who just aren’t going to be ready until there’s a vaccine or whatever it may be. So it’s just important to keep that in mind, as they’re putting together their plans, right?

Frank Bealer:

And affirm that. I see as we’re putting together these plans, it’s a bit of a “choose your own adventure.” I think that we’re missing that step in communication to parents.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

To go, “It’s this, or this, or this. Here’s some ways you can handle this.” It’s options. Not, “Here’s the church plan. We’ll see you on Sunday.”

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

Like, there’s only one option. Because, then, just like we’ve learned in volunteering, when you give people an ultimatum—they’ve got to choose this or this—there’s no margin for them to watch and see. So just giving them that breathing room—even in our messaging—I think it’d be helpful. It was more critical and more helpful than I realized at the time. I thought it was a logical decision.

Mike Clear:

Right.

Frank Bealer:

But, it warmed things up and made people more comfortable.

Mike Clear:

That’s great. So, take me back to when you and your team, you closed, you made a decision. Then, as you look towards a reopening day, what did you guys feel like? We have to make sure we have this one thing or this two things or three things. We have to have these in place, this has to be solid, this has to be concrete. Before we are going to go public with reopening our Phase Family Center to do that. What are some of those things for you guys and your team?

Frank Bealer:

So the first step was, “Who are our people groups?”

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

So some of our staff—including teachers, including a few staff members—are auto-immune compromised. So, how does that play out? Parents, kids, preschoolers, they’re not going to social distance—there’s a whole thing, right? So, you had these different people groups that we had to acknowledge and go, “How does this plan play out?” We can’t just pick a plan and say, “It works perfectly for everyone.” We needed to wrestle through the different filters. So that was part one.

Part two was: Are there clear requirements? We don’t have a choice—in our case there’s a governing body, a licensing body. In a state that’s going to say, “You’ve got to do these bare minimum things.” We had pre-decided that whatever the minimum was, we wanted to exceed those things.

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

It took a while to get that information. But, we just knew that we were going to have to be ready to make some adjustments on the fly. We started to realize that as we decided to open, giving people permission to ask questions and open dialogue in a safe way, not via Twitter necessarily. But, in a way that they can process out loud how they were feeling or how the messaging made them feel. What they felt like the circumstances were, if maybe as a family they weren’t ready. But their teenager is bouncing off the walls ready to get back, how do you navigate that?

Mike Clear:

Yep.

Frank Bealer:

That was one. Two was, “Can we develop messaging in a way that we could reassure that in this scenario?” This is a weird statement, I don’t know if it’s even right, but it’s what we were thinking.

Mike Clear:

Okay.

Frank Bealer:

How can every parent feel like they’re right in the decision they choose to make? If they choose not to come, that’s okay, and that’s a great decision for their family. If they choose to come, that’s okay, that’s great too. Or if you choose to come with a mask, that’s okay. So, it felt like as we first were writing the message, we wanted to be so clear that suddenly we eliminated those things. It was like, “This is the plan. This is the only way it can work.”

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So, going back to that idea of reaffirming parents. If we’re going to partner with parents, we’re going to let them know that they’re doing the best they can with the information they have.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So, let’s reassure them. That was a filter for us. So before we open, can we open with that posture? To where at check-in, we have a specific protocol. At check-in, we don’t allow any parents to come into the building.

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

They drop off at the door after a temperature scan with a teacher with a mask—no kids with masks—the kids go back. Some parents walk up and they’ve got a mask on.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

Some parents walk up like it’s a normal day and are ready to give me a hug. One mom just came straight in for the hug and I’m like, “It’s day one of opening, I don’t know how to respond.” I’m actually okay with this, but I don’t know what to do—”

Mike Clear:

Fist bump, elbow.

Frank Bealer:

I didn’t know. So, there’s going to be people of all different levels of comfort. And the parents just missed us, that’s what it was. Suddenly, for a moment COVID went away and they were just happy to have their kid back at Phase. Their kid was just ready to get back to school and loved their teacher and all that.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So, giving that permission and making room, and reaffirming that their choice is a good choice. Because, wherever they look on social media or whatever they see in the news, somebody is telling them that whatever they’re doing is wrong and somebody is telling them it’s right. They’re constantly getting mad—

Mike Clear:

Constantly.

Frank Bealer:

We already feel that way as parents, right? We already feel like we’re getting it wrong most of the time anyway. So, I know that’s a funny, unique filter, but I think it’s really critical for the church to—

Mike Clear:

I think it’s great, because we can get caught up in this reopening process. To go through all the checks and the balances and make sure we got to have this, we got to have this, and this is the plan. I love that you guys approached it more as we’re going to have a plan, but more than that, we’re going to have a posture towards this whole thing. When you’re ready, we’re going to be ready for you. However you want to come back to us or do this. So, that was great. Let me ask you this: So you guys have been doing great. Parents have been responding as far as your plan that you’ve rolled out.

Frank Bealer:

Yeah.

Mike Clear:

These were the things that we had to have in place on opening day. Take me back to opening day. First day has ended and whether you debrief with your team that evening, or maybe early next morning. Was there anything that you guys maybe missed or you maybe didn’t like, “Oh, we forgot about that and now we’ve got to think about that too.” Is there anything that stood out to you guys?

Frank Bealer:

Yes, there’s one specific thing. We’re very fortunate that it worked out okay. We decided during this time of being closed, we were closed almost exactly two months as a center. Now, remember as a learning center, we didn’t have to close ever.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

We could have stayed open. We’re considered essential. Yeah. So essential, all the workers, we didn’t think that was best, right? So we had to make that decision. So, two months exactly, we were closed.

Mike Clear:

Okay.

Frank Bealer:

When we went to open, our state was starting to rumble and open again. So there was starting to be some activity, right?

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

Good, bad, and different, it was starting to happen. But, in the middle of being closed those two months, we did some things to improve systems. We completely overhauled our billing system. We switched our parent communication system.

We changed our database and all that. Very logical thing to do, doesn’t affect anybody, no bumps, bruises. We brought in all of our leadership team and support team, even outside the learning center, to make sure parents didn’t have a problem checking in. So, that seems like a smart thing to do, since you’re rolling out a new system.

Mike Clear:

Sure.

Frank Bealer:

What we didn’t intend, but it worked out great, was that parents were fine with the new system. The check-in process needed a little more love and attention in the interactions. Some kids were having a harder time transitioning back. Some kids saw teachers with masks and it made them nervous—even though we sent home videos and primed the pump. We can talk about how we tried to prepare kids for that. We did all these things, but some kids were more nervous. Honestly, some parents were walking up to the door and you could tell they still weren’t sure if they were making the right decision.

Mike Clear:

Sure.

Frank Bealer:

So, we were overstaffed in that area for a systems thing. But it ended up being a blessing, because we were there for when they just needed to talk. They needed to ask that one question that their family members said last night. That got that bug in the back of their mind of going, “Oh, maybe I’m not making the right decision. Or I don’t know what to do. My employer says I have to come back. I’ve got to have somebody to watch my kid.” They fell in this middle area. So, we would have been in trouble. If we hadn’t changed systems, we wouldn’t have been staffed properly to navigate all those conversations. It was like, “Oh, we have a sanitary check-in system, that’s all you need.” We had that covered, “Scan a QR code. Don’t touch the screen.” All those things were good.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

But, that’s not what people needed. We got fortunate, very lucky. Because, we were overstaffed for the conversation.

Mike Clear:

For churches is that again, checks and balances. Make sure we do this, this, this, and this. But, what people really need when they start reentering back is just a personal touch.

Frank Bealer:

Right.

Mike Clear:

Personal assurance. Just someone to say, “Are you okay?”

Frank Bealer:

Right.

Mike Clear:

That this is okay and if you’re still not comfortable, it’s okay. I love that you guys accidentally stumbled upon that. You were prepared to be able to meet that need for those people who were coming back.

Frank Bealer:

So then on the 25th, when we opened with the next round of parents, we had all those same staff come back. But for different reason, because we got it. So, I would say that, that would have been the miss. We just happened to change systems, so it ended up working out great. That would have been a massive miss on our end at 7:30 AM when we opened those doors. If all those support staff just didn’t happen to be around for all those side conversations, because it was fascinating. So normal drop-off even with a little one, he’s got a buggy in a bag and diapers and all this stuff. Usually, check-in is a three-minute process—parents are in and out and they know the teachers. They drop their kid off,  high five or fist pump with the kid, and they’re out.

Mike Clear:

Yep.

Frank Bealer:

But now it was averaging 32 minutes for drop off.

Mike Clear:

Wow.

Frank Bealer:

The parents were lingering. So, the kids would go in and parents just stayed out. They were talking to each other. This was their first time actually talking to people, real-life people for some of them, so there were all kinds of questions. So, when I think church world I’m sitting there going, “Okay, as we’re letting kids in, are we opening up extra early for check in? Are we giving time for the long drop offs? Then, are we prepared as ushers in the auditorium?” So now, people are going to getting seated after the fourth worship song—

Mike Clear:

Late into the service, all that stuff. It’s all going to go late, just be ready for it. I want to ask you some specific questions that we’re getting from church leaders in regards to, “Hey, we again are putting together our own plan.” Based upon what you guys have experienced. I would love to get your insights into these questions to do that.

So, we know as a church that there are other voices that we need to lean into to help us put together our plan—we talked about the CDC. But, what other voices should we be looking to, to help guide our decisions? This could be our local health department, this could be maybe the church insurance company, or the church attorney, or our governor’s office. Who are some people we should be talking to? Who are some people that maybe you guys consulted as you were putting together your plan?

Frank Bealer:

You know, the one thing I like is that. Because, we have this licensing body in the childcare world, they are translating as best they know how.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

CDC, WHO, Governor’s office, national regulations, whatever, and trying to do it for the best interest of kids and teachers. So I think that body, while it doesn’t have any authority over the church, is a great resource for us. Because, they’re sending out resources and videos on teaching kids to wash hands as part of curriculum or whatever it may be. What are those things that we can do that are best practices for people who are with kids all day, every day? At the end of the day, they’re less worried about the legalease and they’re more worried about what’s the experience for kids? How do we practically implement this? So, oftentimes the CDC will roll out best practices or three phases. But, they’re not running through the filter of application. They’re looking at it from a “How do we keep from spreading this disease,” perspective right?

Mike Clear:

For sure.

Frank Bealer:

So, it still has to be translated. So, I found that to be a really great resource for families in general. We’re getting ready to open up in D.C and we’re working on that process. That licensing body authority up there and the one in Georgia, both had this wonderful posture of, “We just want to take care of families. We’ve got to take care of teachers. Here’s how we see this playing out.” So, those steps were a little more nuanced, a little more practical.

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

There was a specific call to action, where sometimes it feels like some of the larger bodies are more broad and you still have to interpret it. So, it’s nice to have somebody interpreting it for you and giving you a little clarity. Much like a pastor does on Sunday, right? Takes God’s Word and says, “Hey, I want to translate it, make it practical.” It feels like they’re doing that for us. So in the past, I don’t know that as a church leader I would have ever leaned in on that.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

But, it makes complete sense in this scenario for sure.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So, I think that’s one. I have a little bit of caution with the whole, “Do we have our attorney and insurance and etc.?” Because it’s a big, global conversation all right. Certainly in the U.S, around firms opening back up and businesses: Can employees sue? What does that look like? I think at the end of the day, we need to do our due diligence to communicate the efforts and measures we’re taking to the congregation. So, they’re not surprised on Sunday morning.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

To me, that’s where our insurance agent is going to lean in on the same resources. They may have something, so it’s worth calling to say, “Hey, have you released any best practices documents? Or anything that we can look over?” That’s great. As far as changing the policy, I’m an ex-insurance guy, I don’t know that we’re changing or modifying anything there. As much as it is, “Hey, everybody’s trying to research, everybody’s trying to learn best practices. Do you have any resources to offer me?” The liability form already says, “Hey, you entrust them in our care, but it’s your liability not ours essentially.”

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

So based on conversations I’ve had, there’s not language that needs to be added for COVID, the flu, or anything else. It’s all the same.

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

I think if we don’t follow the protocol we commit to, then I think that could expose us to some liability. So we’ve got to be cautious with our commitments and make sure they’re realistic commitments. We don’t want to say we’re creating “the safest place,” or we don’t want to make commitments that we can’t do. We’re going to do our due diligence and here’s how we’re trying—

Mike Clear:

Doing all we can to create a safe environment.

Frank Bealer:

Make sure we get that to parents in every way. Sometimes, we just don’t want to send that email because it feels long, and people don’t read half the emails that come from the church anyway.

Mike Clear:

For sure.

Frank Bealer:

So it needs to be, here’s a blurb. If you want to drill down here, you can. It’s a thorough overview of the practices we’re taking. If you want to come, here’s what they are.

Mike Clear:

Got it.

Frank Bealer:

I think it’s when we leave it gray, then people may project those standards on us or be frustrated with us.

Mike Clear:

That makes sense.

Frank Bealer:

From that standpoint.

Mike Clear:

It’s easy to get into the legalese off stuff and be like, “We’ve got to do this. We’ve got to change this and we’ve got to change this.” I think those are some great insights. So let me ask you about some specific safety protocols that you guys initiated and in regards to cleaning. You mentioned this already as far as temperature screenings at check-in, or even masks. What are some additional safety protocols that you guys put in place to be able to provide as safe of an environment—not the safest, but as safe of an environment—as possible?

Frank Bealer:

I think part of the decision of reopening the church is, “How normal do we want it to feel?” Right? There’s this whole idea of new normal and what’s it going to be? I don’t think we’ll wear a mask forever. I don’t think that’s going to be a thing in our country. But for seasons, some will. Depending on the speed you open, I think that’s going to determine how extreme you have to go and some of the protocols. So for us, we said, all teachers will wear masks and we committed to do that for one month and we’ll see. Kids wearing masks, even the CDC has said, “Well, they’re going to be touching their face even more so than an adult, it’s probably not a good thing.” So overall, that tends to be the lane there. If you’re going to wear a mask, it’s your choice. We’re going to have masks available.

Mike Clear:

Okay.

Frank Bealer:

You can do it or not do it, based on what you feel like protects you and protects other people. Then we’ve got to send out some messaging and even a video saying, “Hey kids, when you show up, this is what it’s going to look like. This person may have a mask on, but it’s not a scary mask. It’s the same person.” They can pull down their mask and show their face. There’s got to be those reassurances.

Mike Clear:

For sure.

Frank Bealer:

There’s some great resources online where other organizations have already built those type of resources to do that. So, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t take temperature scans of volunteers and staff. That doesn’t affect our guests in any way—it’s a wise thing to do. It sends a great message, “Hey, we’re going to be cautious here.” Taking temperatures of every child on the way in. I think if you can do it in an efficient way, that’s actually sanitary. So touch less, make sure we’re wiping it off, not just handing it around from volunteer to volunteer. So we’re just passing the germs a different way.

Mike Clear:

That’s right, yeah.

Frank Bealer:

You’ve got to think through those extra steps.

Mike Clear:

Yeah.

Frank Bealer:

I think that certainly if you’re opening sooner than later, that’s a practice that is expected. So that wouldn’t be strange. So we’ve got to make sure we don’t villainize that or make that weird or awkward. So it’s even in some photos, we’re excited to open. If you choose to have five people greeting you or saying hello in a picture, if one doesn’t have a mask, we probably missed it. Because, we need to go ahead and communicate that some may still choose to do so, and it may be a very wise thing based on all the standards. So for me, volunteers, once again, it’s timing of opening with the mask thing. I really think that’s the case.

Frank Bealer:

I do think hand-sanitizing stations on the way in are a no-brainer. I think sanitizing before, between, and after services is an absolute no-brainer. And there are also the same pump sprayers that are good for sanitizing surfaces. They’re not expensive. They’re like this big multi-gallon backpack thing that you pump up with the handle—it has a sprayer wand. It’s the same thing that kills weeds or whatever. You’re going to also get those and put Odoban, or something like that from Lowe’s, or Home Depot, or whatever. If you mix the right portion, it will do sanitizing of fabrics and everything. You can just spray it all. The  problem is it takes a little extra time to dry. So you’ve got to look at the time of your services, so that’s a factor. There are also electrostatic sprayers that essentially do the same thing, but the drying is way faster.

Now, those are on waitlist right now. You have to order those. Some of those are expensive, some not so much, it depends how much liquid. But, I’m talking about the auditorium, the chairs—there’s just no reason for us not to do that. I think that sends a good message.

We happen to have a machine and I think some churches should consider investing in it, called a ZONO machine. There are probably other ones, but it’s a sanitizing machine. It’s manufactured by the same people who make the Subway bread machine. The oven where you get your color of bread.

You open it up, and you put these racks in there. I don’t know how it works. I just uses water—it costs 3 cents to run the machine. You can put toys, electronics, fabric, anything in there. It disinfects everything fully.

Mike Clear:

Clean your stuff, right?

Frank Bealer:

It will take 30 minutes and it’s awesome. So sanitizing, I think that messaging. Part of this is what the church is saying, “We’re going above and beyond.” Some parents may be like, “I assumed you’re doing that already?” I was like, “Oh, we are, we’re just taking it up a level.”

I think that’s just good stewardship and wise that we’re saying, “Here’s what we’re doing extra. We’ve shifted our service times, we’ve done this.” We may not say every single thing that we do. But by saying those things that we’re changing in order to create a better, safer experience creates some reassurances for that second round of families we talked about.

So early adopters, they’re ready, they feel like they’re doing the things. They’ve taught their kid or whatever it may be. Then, you have that second tier. We’ve got to do those reassurances and so some of the things we can debate, “Oh, do they really make a difference? Or how much is that going to change? I thought the germs didn’t live on the countertop for however long.” Depending on what you read. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. We’ve set aside a team that sanitizes and wipes everything down. You don’t have to worry about armrests, or groups, or carpets not ever getting cleaned. So if somebody spills, and it smells bad, it’s like, “Oh, we’ve got a plan for those things.”

Mike Clear:

Yeah. That’s good. The big question I want to ask you because as churches are reopening, some of them are starting off with not offering children’s ministry and having a family service. Then, they’re working their way in phases to opening back up their children’s ministry. But, I would probably say the number-one question that we see from children’s ministry leaders is social distancing with kids.

What does that look like? Because, when you say social distancing with kids—especially preschoolers—it seems impossible to do that. How are you guys managing that and controlling that at Phase?

Frank Bealer:

Social distancing—in my understanding—isn’t just one-on-one, six feet apart. It’s also the volume of the group.

So for us at Phase, we’ve shortened our hours. We’ve committed to two adults per eight children. That meets the best possible ratios of the state and exceeds most of the ratios. But, we’ve got a group of 10 and they’re never going to interact with any other kids.

So for us, we’ve kept them combined in a room. They eat lunch together in that room. When they go to another room, like the art studio or the culinary kitchen, it’s all been sanitized before they’ve gotten there.

It’s the thing that we have to keep in perspective that, our children’s ministries are different than an elementary school. Where you have massive shared bathrooms, massive eating spaces—there’s lots of common areas. So we may have a large group environment, but if we can do what we can to keep our kids separate, we do it. We get to test this, right? So, we can spread out further and say, “We’re still keeping in groups of 10.” So we’re six or ten feet apart from the other group of ten.

So we’ve still narrowed it down—it’s not just a free for all where we’re cramming kids and adults together. So we’re not exposing your child to every single person who comes through the doors. We’re trying to mitigate that exposure. So we’re going to keep the same kids together, and the same teachers with those kids. That’s a lot of administration, a lot of figuring out and planning, but I think that is at least a step in the right direction. Because, if we don’t explain how that works, the assumption has to be whatever the size of your church is, they assume their kid is exposed to that many people.

So for us to say, “Well, not that many. We’ve made an adjustment.” Now, we’re really fortunate with our facility at Phase. We can spread out—we have 17 classrooms. So, we can spread everybody out and not have a problem complying with that. Everyone has their own classroom, bathroom, all that stuff. Some churches, depending on the way your environments are set up, spreading out may be more difficult.

But social distancing for preschool and elementary age: To me, it’s not just one-on-one. It’s in smaller groups. That’s what we’ve heard all in the news. No more than ten gathering together, try to practice social distancing. Well, we at least have narrowed down the germ pool, and that’s reassuring.

Especially if you don’t say how you’re going to handle that. Every parent is just going to assume once again, it’s a free for all. But that’s not the environment we’re creating.

Mike Clear:

No, for sure. I want to wrap with one more question, okay? Because again, every church is unique, every situation is different. Every state is handling this whole reopening thing in different phases. No matter what our plan is, no matter what our safety protocols are, the thing that I want churches to remember—and you’ve hit on this throughout our conversation here—is communication. Can you tell us again, just one more time? What is the, you must do, must have, when it comes to communicating whatever your plan is? What would you say to that?

Frank Bealer:

So our church, the church that I’m actively involved in, we have a plan. It’s a three-month plan: family services and then we’re shifting, and we’re doing all this stuff. If we haven’t released a plan, we’re about to, right? So we’ve got our plan and it’s of course subject to change, right? Of course.

But, that’s the beginning of the communication. That plan lets people know dates, that’s all it does, right? And a little bit of the flow. But we want to update very frequently—for the 70%. 30% jumped in really early, they were ready.

70% of families either haven’t come back yet or came back later. So, we need the ongoing communication to speak to those 70%. So we tell them, “Here’s how we’re implementing this, these just came in.” So on your social media, when the new sprayers come in, take a picture of that. Then, that’s out of sight out of mind, right? So we want to keep reinforcing, “Here are the things we’re doing. Here’s the stories we’re hearing as we’re starting to get back together.” There’s good coming out of this, those of you who are still online. I think that for those churches that are doing something online.

They’ve got to keep that conversation going and acknowledging that group of people for a very long time. Right? Maybe forever when you have that. But I think that communication is asking, “How can we let them inside, and be transparent and say, ‘Here’s another thing.’” Or for your children’s director to say, “Here’s what I was wrestling with. Here’s how I’ve been navigating with my kids.” That conversation. For me, I’ve been trying a lot of conversations around student ministry, because all my kids are students. We’ve got a senior who graduated in this weird circumstance.

So, if that’s not part of the narrative, that we’re wrestling with this too, and we’re figuring out, and this is where we’ve gotten comfortable. So, we’ve prayed about it a lot, wrestled with it a lot, here’s where we’re at.

For us, we actually ended up making a web page. The latest update was above it and we kept all the old updates. It was just a way to show, “Oh, they made another pivot. They made another change.” You could read the narrative all the way through. Then now that we reopened, when you click on the COVID banner, it talks about our current protocols and it shows a video of just a B roll, nothing fancy. Just a little video of some of the faces they know with masks on, one picture of somebody scanning a forehead for temperature. Just those things that we’ve implemented in protocol to smaller groups of kids. Most children and student ministries do this, “We’re going to highlight the masses of kids in their epic environments.”

Well, right now our messaging needs to be smaller, smaller, smaller.  So, how are we doing that? How are we interviewing a small group leader? How they’re making the adjustments for this even smaller group or this setting? Or how they’re ready to get back with their smaller group of kids?

Whatever those changes are. How are we over-communicating that? This is the time when I’m always the guy who was like, “We send too many emails.”

This is the time when you’ll have a hard time convincing me we haven’t sent enough, right? So, just keep them going through social media. Because, it’s not enough to announce the plan and then just follow the plan.

Mike Clear:

Yeah, over communicate. Communicate in waves. Then get through those people groups to do that, so that’s awesome.

Frank, thank you. This has been amazing. I love all the insight and wisdom that you have shared and I appreciate your time.

Frank Bealer:

Yeah, of course.

Mike Clear:

Thanks so much. Thank you for checking out this conversation with Frank. I want you to know that this isn’t the only conversation we’re having in regards to reopening. We’re going to keep the conversations going around volunteers, around planning your year, around budgets, and all sorts of other topics as well. You can follow along with these conversations at orangekidmin.com. Thanks again for hanging out with us. Take care.