This week our county issued a stay-at-home order. A few days later our Governor made a similar declaration for our state. These restrictions place many constraints on what a pastor and his or her church is able to do to carry out the mission and ministry of the church. I have read the declarations carefully, studied the definitions of “Essential Business,” noted the exceptions, and have made plans for our church during this pandemic crisis. We will be offering online worship and Bible study. Ministers will be doing pastoral care by telephone. The administrative assistant will be in the office only to process bills and do payroll. The food pantry will continue its once a week ministry adapted to curbside pickup and compliant with guidelines as food needs are greatly heightened during this crisis. No one else will be at church building for any other reason.
These are our plans. But I want to explain why we are enacting these limitations and offer a critique of what some others are choosing to do. As a Baptist I treasure our tradition of upholding the separation of church and state. A mandate by the goverment about what a church should do is always to be questioned as a breach of that wall. There are pastors who are pushing back agains imposed restrictions for this reason.
But for me there is a higher consideration that leads me to make the changes we are enacting. I believe that now is a time when the church needs to make very real the willingness we have of making sacrifices out of loving concern for our communities. It is clear to me that staying at home, not gathering in groups, and social distancing saves lives. What more loving thing can a church do during this crisis than fully follow restrictive guidelines in an effort to lessen the impact of the pandemic on our community?
However, too many churches are not using this time to demonstrate sacrificial love. We have all seen news accounts of COVID-denying mega-church pastors giving Christianity a bad name. But browsing online services will also quickly yield evidence of groups of 10+ people recording at churches together. A local musician arrived for a service recording session at a neighboring church to find 40 people involved in the production. I received an invitation to listen in on a conference call with the governor and concerned pastors. The questions they wanted answered all amounted to, “Why do we have to do this? Aren’t we exceptions?”
Now is a time for churches to model a willingness to accept whatever restrictions are needed to slow the spread and lessen the impact of COVID-19. If everyone is an exception then no one need comply and more people will die. We all were aghast to see pictures of crowded beaches during spring break flood news and social media as if it never occurred to us that teenagers do stupid things. There are people drawing similar conclusions about what some churches are doing. As a pastor I am glad I am part of a church willing to use a higher wisdom and demonstrate love to all.
Quiet Faith 