When the Church Can’t Meet

A Video Message from the Pastors of FCBC

Click Here for our Family Worship Guide

When the Church Can’t Gather

Your pastors have had many different things planned.  Pat’s daughters Holly and Hana were expecting to spend the rest of the Spring in Uganda and Michigan, and now they are on the way back to New Hampshire.  Josh had a vacation scheduled.  Schools and colleges have been cancelled.  Mission Trips have been cancelled.  And our church is cancelled for at least the next two weeks.  We’re learning a new set of rules, a new set of habits, even a new vocabulary—like “social distancing.”  Perhaps Christians should pull out some biblical vocabulary from the vault, like “Lord Willing.”  Now, more than ever it really isn’t Christianese “nice-ities” to say, “Lord willing.”

That phrase, “Lord willing,” is found in Scripture in James 4:15.  “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills we will live and do this or that.’”  The theology is right there.  It might be under the surface, but it is always there.  After all, we are talking about matters of life and death

What are some theological truths that our faith family would do well to remember in light of the uncertainty?

First, God is sovereign.  Through our prayer time in the elders’ meeting, men consistently returned to trusting in God’s fatherly hand.  We sang last Sunday the lyrics “Stayed Upon Jehovah.”

As we reflect on the theological truth that God is sovereign and faithful through the ages it helps us put our situation in perspective.  Though in one way, this emergency is new.  Disruptions to life have happened before.  Life has been disrupted by war, conflict, and other plagues like the Swine Flu, SARS, and Ebola.  So, it is a real loss to no be able to do what you would normally do; it is a real loss to not be able to go, where you would normally go.  It’s a real loss to have a wedding cancelled.  It’s a real loss to not be able to walk across the stage at graduation and celebrate with friends.

As strange and disorienting it even is for this church to be closed for at least two weeks, we would do well to remember that Peter’s counsel – “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet. 4:12).  And Paul tells us, “There is no temptation overtaken you but that is common to man, God is faithful” (1 Cor. 10:13a).

What conversations have you had with other pastors about how churches have responded?

We are blessed to have a cohort of pastors in the Capitol region who gather regularly for prayer and counsel, and in fact we met as scheduled this week – though via videoconference – not just to pray for the world, our nation, our communities, our churches, and each other, but also to discuss what we are doing to maintain the “gathering” or our people for worship when gathering together in person is not wise.  Some of the churches already had been videoing their services and are continuing that practice – others are just starting that up.  Some are video-streaming just the sermons.  Others have sought out ways to make those broadcasts more interactive.  Like the congregations themselves, there has been a lot of variety.

Is it a violation of Heb. 10:25-27?  Is it a sin to stop gathering for at least the next two Sundays?

The command not to neglect meeting together is in the midst of a call for us to stir up one another to love and good works and to encourage one another.  “Forsaking the assembly,” as it is put in the KJV, would be Christians cutting themselves off from the Church and trying to go it alone, which is wrong.  In this case, we are looking at a short intermission of sorts, in the spirit of loving our neighbors and each other, being obedient to authority, and presenting a Gospel witness to the world.  Consider this – is it a sin for the Christians confined to prisons or hospitals not to attend church services when they are unable to do so?  Does the soldier sin while deployed to the field?

We are not forsaking the assembly in this case by deciding not to go to services, to voluntarily separate ourselves from the assembly.  Our disability to gather comes not from a preference or a cold heart, but from obedience to the government and a desire to love our neighbor.  Our elders are unanimous in not having our weekly gathering in-person.

So what are we going to do?  Are we going to stream a service or send out a sermon?  What is our Faith Family going to do? 

Truth can be communicated through a screen.  It is important to note that this issue falls in the category of prudence or wisdom.  It is a not sin for churches to live stream a service.  We made a unanimous decision to not live stream based on the principle of what is a church.  Church means assembly; and you can’t have an unassembled assembly and call it church.  We don’t want to give the impression that watching a sermon or even doing family worship is CHURCH.  Church is a covenant community gathered.  Therefore, we arrived at our decision as an elder board not leaning on pragmatics (we have the technology—therefore, let’s do it), but on a principle of what is a church.

We believe this helps shape our view of church.  In our culture, there are many who have been hurt by a church and think, “I can have church in my house by listening to a David Platt sermon series.  I’ve had others say that a walk in the woods or a skiing in the mountain is “their church.”  So by not calling a live-stream service broadcasted to your home “church “we are staying away from people thinking, even in this time of uncertainty, that churchless Christianity is a viable possibility.

Instead we want to look at this as God’s providence in this for our Faith Family to grow in making disciples, love your neighbor, worship as a family, and rest.
So we are encouraging each individual and family to have a personal time of worship.  We want to equip each person with the tools necessary to lead yourself or others in worship.  Therefore, we are providing a Family Worship Guide (click here to download this week’s).  It is not a heavy yoke we want to burden you with.  You don’t have a duty to do this like you have a duty to go to church.  If it feels like a fetter, cast it off and graze on God’s Word through some other means.  There is liberty.  We don’t want to bind anyone conscience.

What do we hope to accomplish through the Family Worship Guide?

We hope it will be a time to reflect.  We have so many things cancelled.  So what will fill that void?  Nature abhors a vacuum.  Reflect on our life, our church, and our community.  We want each believer to reflect prayerfully.  Don’t waste this tough moment that God in His providence has given you to reflect.

We hope people will practice moving from consuming to partnering.  Like we said two weeks ago, every Christian is called to gospel partnership.  Future leaders, future disciples, future disciple-makers, future church planters will see this as some of their roots being established.

Finally, we hope to create a longing.  I know I will be longing for when we get together.  Like many regretting the closing of sporting events or entertainment, though I’m not sure there are any children who regret schools being shut down, we regret to see FCBC closed.  And when we see it taken away from us, we see how much it meant to us.  Ps. 122:1 – “I was glad when they said, I was glad let us go to the house of the Lord.”  I think there will be a keen sense of appreciation when we gather back together.

How will we help equip people to lead worship in their households?

In some sense, we have been endeavoring to do just that over the past years – to equip the saints in the Church for service.  Yet, it is very understandable that some will feel intimidated and inadequate.  We want to help you to succeed!

• Wednesdays:  We will publish the family worship guide, distribute on email, and make available through the website.  We will also supply printed copies outside the church building for you to pick up.  If you need one delivered, please tell us!
• Thursdays and Fridays: We will be leveraging technology by holding sessions with the pastors to help prepare you to lead worship in your home context.  These sessions will be videoconferences, and will also be available as audio-only by using any phone to call in to the meeting.  We will be sending out further information on how this will work.
• Sundays:  At 11am, we will hold another video/audio conference to share with each other how your home worship went.  What went well?  What was more difficult?  Did you come up with creative ways to worship you would like to share?  How can we help?

What further communication can we expect over these next weeks?
We miss you!  It grieves us not to see you face-to-face, and it is right for us to feel this way about you because we hold you in our hearts!  Though we can’t be with you, praise God that we can still communicate.  Some of the ways we expect to do so:

• Weekly personal, individual communication with every household in the FCBC family.  This will be through small group leaders, deacons, and elders.  We entreat every individual in our family to reach out to others as well!
• Letters, emails, and videos to help teach and equip us for these times.  Subjects we envision covering in the coming days and weeks include:
  • How are Christians to live in this time?
  • How can we care for our communities?
  • How we partner with the Deacon Caring Board in supporting those in hardship?
  • How can we continue to support the local church and our missionaries?
• And of course, we need to hear from you!  We are working on ways to enable both routine and emergency communication during these difficult times.  Please, tell us about needs in our congregation and community as well as your ideas to serve!

Some final words:

Pray this will help sharpen your appreciation what we get to have normally—Church.  Pray you to relish it, to delight in it, and restore it soon.

In Christ’s Healing Grace,
Pastors Josh and Pat, with the Elders