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Media coverage of the H1N1 virus—better known as the swine flu—is picking up again, especially with a vaccine now available. There's also increasing concern about how the flu might spread during this school year, and how a pandemic would affect U.S. organizations forced to close due to the spread.

Ministry leaders may be wondering what to do to keep their congregations healthy and their organizations running. There are some important steps to take to reduce its spread within your own faith community.

1. Make adjustments to your typical Sunday morning activities at church. To decrease the risk of the virus spreading through handshakes and other routine touch, your pastors and lay leaders may want to make an announcement that they are suspending physical contact and ask that the congregants respect those who wish to do the same.

2. If your church traditionally uses one cup during communion for participants, you may want to switch to individual cups for as long as the threat continues. One common loaf of bread could also pose a problem and an alternative—such as individual wafers—may be a modification.

3. Place hand sanitizers throughout your building, and encourage your congregation to use them.

4. During any flu season, pay closer attention to your nursery and children's rooms, bathrooms, and kitchen and coffee areas:

• Clean toys thoroughly after every use. Nursery workers should try to keep toys from passing from child to child. The nursery should also be completely disinfected after each service or event.
  
• Signs should be placed in bathrooms and kitchens encouraging congregants to thoroughly wash their hands before they leave.
  
• You may also want to hire a janitor to come in and disinfect the bathrooms every Sunday, or immediately after an event, in addition to their normal duties.
  
• If you have food out in your kitchen area on Sunday mornings remind people to "take what they touch" and to throw away all garbage as soon as they're finished.
  

If you don't already have them, create job handbooks for each of the pastoral and administrative positions in your church. This will continue to give your staff and church direction if a staff member is out of commission for a long period of time due to illness. The Salvation Army also suggests you establish the following alternative rules to your current employee handbook in the case of staff infection during a pandemic:

• Establish mandatory staff leave for ill employees (or those caring for ill family members). This will reduce the possibility of spreading the infection among healthy co-workers.
  
• Adopt "leave" policies that do not penalize workers for absenteeism during a pandemic when it is related to personal illness or care for sick family members.
  
• Be prepared for heavy absenteeism in jobs that interact with "at-risk" populations, such as children, the elderly, or homeless. Workers may fear that working with these groups places them at a higher risk for exposure to infection.
  

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