Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – March 12th, 2020
Over the past 24 hours I’ve watched in amazement as Coronavirus/COVID-19 went from just a story on the news to something that’s shutting down much of our state. Whatever happens next, this isn’t the first time Christians have faced epidemics. Often, uncertain times have given Christians, as people who believe in resurrection, opportunities to comfort others. With all the information and disinformation swirling around, I want us followers of Christ to think Christianly about Coronavirus. Particularly, I think there are two areas where Scripture speaks to how we should respond: (1) We should seek to protect and preserve life (2) We should share the peace of Christ through word and deed. Before going into more details I want to outline the decisions our elders have made:
We will offer live-streaming of our 9:15 worship service. This will be provided on our Facebook page and saved for later viewing. We will email out a PDF version of our bulletin to help you worship with us from home.
We will continue to have our 9:15 and 11:00 services. These services will be under the 100 person threshold outlined by our governor and give people enough room to spread out. We recognize that in anxious times, gathering together for worship has been one of the ways God’s people have found hope. Our doors will be open for all seeking peace during anxious times.
We will stop our nursery & Stepping Stones programs during the service. While it appears children are less susceptible to this virus, they are excellent at spreading germs. We want to minimize that. As always, children are welcome in our worship service, and I look forward to hearing more of their “worship” during the service.
We will do our best to sanitize key areas (doors handles, etc.) between church services.
We’d encourage everyone to take personal responsibility for preventing the spread of the disease by following the recommendations from the CDC:
In particular, if anyone in your family is feeling sick, please stay home and worship with us online.
If you are in one of the more susceptible groups (those over 60 and those with weakened immune systems), please worship with us online.
Please ensure you wash your hands before and after the church service.
Please contact the church if you’d like someone to visit or pray with you.
At this time, other activities (small groups, bible studies) will continue at the discretion of group leaders.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes the duties required by the Sixth commandment by saying, “The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.” The recommendations from our government are intended to help preserve life, and thus we want to follow them. While the spread of coronavirus seems inevitable, slowing the spread provides relief to our healthcare system. A hospital can handle 1,000 additional patients over the course of a month much easier than 1,000 new patients over the course of a week. The above actions are in line with our government’s recommendations to preserve lives.
But we also feel a strong duty to have open doors at the church. We are thankful to live in a time when we can easily broadcast our services online, particularly for those who are most at risk can still worship. But we also believe that in a time when people are already isolated and fearful, locking the doors of the church sends the wrong message. We don’t believe that following Jesus will keep us from sickness; we do believe following Jesus keeps us from a fear of death. Writing in the fourth century, Eusebius gives us a description of the remarkable witness Christians provided during a plague that swept through Alexandria:
Most of our brother-Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of the danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbours and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.
We are thankful for modern medicine that treats disease much better than that of the early church; I’d encourage all of us to consider how you can share the peace of Christ to those around you as our Christian predecessors did. In the following week we will be sending out additional emails about ways we can serve and spread peace during these uncertain times. In the meantime, if you need assistance don’t hesitate to contact the church or any of our elders or deacons.
In Christ,
Pastor Jon