Hello Cedar Springs!
Today, President Trump issued statements at a press conference declaring his belief that churches are essential and apparently instructing federal agencies to begin revising federal guidelines to include churches within the list of essential organizations.
Many of you have already contacted us with questions about how these statements pertain to our church. As a team, the elders felt it was important to provide some preliminary responses and help give you insight into where our hearts are.
Immediately, our reaction is that a lot more information is needed before we make a decision or take any action as it pertains to our church.
At the time of this writing, the President’s statements are just statements. They are not legal ruling, executive orders, and like many of the federal guidelines, may not have the authority of law within our state. There are no details on how reopening a church safely in the midst of COVID19 will work.
Aside from that, we are working through the primary question of “What is God saying?” He is our King and ultimate authority. He is above the US Constitution, the President, our state governor, and any governmental agency. Therefore, the most important action we can take is to seek Him and His instruction for us.
We believe that God’s Word is the clearest articulation of what He may be saying to His children at any point in time. God’s Word does provide much clarity on this subject and we discussed it in our YouTube video titled Citizens of Heaven, Citizens of Earth. The Bible says we are called to obey the law and rulers of the land since they are appointed by God for our good. (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17). They are even called “servants of God” (Romans 13:4). We are to comply with those authorities regardless of whether we agree or not, for the sake of a clear conscience before God (Romans 13:5). Therefore, what are our governing authorities saying? Since constitutionally, our state’s governor has executive authority to put in place orders that are essentially laws for its citizens to follow, we are in the position of following those orders up to the point of commanding what God forbids, or forbidding what God commands. Since we have not heard an official position statement from our governor, we will wait until that position has been made clear.
Also, certainly important among our considerations is that when we do resume meeting face-to-face again, that we do so only after we have fully addressed the health and safety considerations:
- -Can we safely do kids ministry? If we can’t, what does a gathering look like? Do kids join the adults?
- -How do we lead a church in which people will want to wear masks and others will not want to wear masks? Unity is key! We cannot allow this to divide the church!
- -Should we spread out in the auditorium? If so, how many people can we safely fit in there? And, how can we graciously turn people away when we have reached capacity?
To walk through this maze, we are also currently taking input from other churches among our Confluence family of churches so that we can be more certain of looking at every facet of this situation from a Kingdom perspective.
To be sure, we are eager to gather with you all soon. But even more, we are desiring to hear the voice of God and act to honor and glorify Him in all we do in this season.
One thing we can definitely say, we are not prepared to gather this Sunday, so we hope you continue to join us online as we seek to understand the Kingdom of Heaven.
I know this has been very difficult for so many! We continue to pray for you all as you wait on the LORD for strength and wisdom. We would ask that you would pray wisdom and clarity for us as we seek His face.
Love you all,
The Eldership Team