Church, Where Do We Go From Here?

March 11, 2020 is a day I will never forget. The NBA canceled its season in the same 24 hours, Broadway went dark. It took only a few days for the President of the Free World to give an unusually somber speech announcing a state of emergency as COVID-19 went from an outbreak to a global pandemic. The days following brought more closures, cancellations, and the reality that staying home might be a “new normal” for a while. Unsure what might happen, I was already prepared to virtually attend church that Sunday. A decision that would have been made for me anyway as every church in my city announced they would only be live streaming their services.

​Things changed quickly and as a Christian, I just remember trying to make sense of things without losing hope. For the first six weeks of the pandemic and subsequent national shutdown, I was impressed with how people were adapting and choosing to self-isolate for the good of the whole. Whether it was Jimmy Fallon’s daily at home talk show or my favorite Christian podcast still producing weekly episodes from home, I felt a glimmer of hope for humanity. 

To be frank, I fear this selflessness was short lived.

(For the sake of this article, I am going to be solely focusing on the response by the American Church to COVID-19, though I am well aware there are plenty of other institutions and establishments falling short of the needed mitigation.)

By June, many churches were reopening. Some implemented mask mandates, though many were impassioned by Donald Trump’s declaration that churches are “essential,” ignoring CDC recommendations that worship services were a potential super spreader. I was trying to stay positive, despite my misgivings about the way some Christians were speaking on social media and, sadly, from the pulpit. 

“In terms of how I’ve seen Christians react to the pandemic, I’ve been mostly disappointed. I think the Christian community has some loud voices that overshadow how so many of us feel. They have turned our nation’s response to the pandemic into something political rather than something ethical.” - Franklin, TN

I have no idea how to say this except to say : Christians, it’s far too late to be flippant about this virus. The arguments are growing old and increasingly irrelevant. For awhile, I thought it was wise for me to keep my frustrations to myself, but am realizing on the contrary, it is my Biblical responsibility (Galatians 6:1) to call out those who have distanced themselves from the humble calling of Philippians 2. 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Let me pose it this way : 
-Is meeting in a church without a mask, acting in the interests of others?
-Are crowded outdoor worship “protests” considering others as more valuable than yourselves?
-Is mocking people and calling people “sheep” for following CDC guidelines selfless?
It seems coronavirus has become a litmus test for the American church. Christians have a duty to step up and ensure that this is not a test we fail.

The Church is not a Building
The fight to reopen is not one that has been lost on me. I was in the midst of church hunting when the world shut down and by about week four of quarantine, I was mourning over the loss of Christian community. That being said, my desire to meet inside a building to sing songs alongside like-minded believers is not the only thing that makes the Body of Christ a church. 
“The church is not a building.” I grew up on these words, and yet some of the people who used these words are the same people who rushed to reopen their buildings in the spring. There is power in congregating, but in a global pandemic, hundreds, if not thousands of people worshipping does put people at a great risk. 

“But what about Hebrews 10:25?” 

Let’s talk about Hebrews 10. These verses are powerful, we absolutely can learn from these verses. Without breaking down the context and wording in great detail (which I am happy to do in another article), using this as an excuse to meet carelessly is absurd. Watching church online is not “forsaking” the faith, choosing to space out seating and enforce masks in service does not prevent us from “exhorting one another.”

To further this, in any given year, I would have absolutely no problem with the size or denomination of a church, but I will say that claiming that meeting in our first-world church buildings is vital to the survival of the faith is purely not Biblical. 

“Where two or more are gathered..”

This means that every time I facetime my best friend to discuss Scripture, we are the church. This means that every time my parents and 18-year-old brother sit in their living room to watch church online, they are the church. This means that every time the Pastor of a church puts on a mask and leads his people on a socially distanced, mask mandated prayer walk around the Tennessee State Capitol, they are the church. 

The church is not a building, and this year, meeting inside a building WITHOUT masks or guidelines for how to safely congregate might just be the worst display of what Christ would do.

What Happened to “Loving Thy Neighbor”
In reference to the second greatest commandment, Jesus Christ said “...Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is the cornerstone of what Christian faith is, from the mouth of the Messiah himself. I cannot think of any Christian who would disagree that loving our neighbors is Biblical and necessary. It is because of this that I have been disappointed in the handling of the coronavirus by many churches that I know of. Upon interviewing many people, I found I was not alone in this disappointment.
“I just don’t understand how Christians can be anti-mask. The church should have been the FIRST to stay home. The FIRST to wear masks and social distance.”
I have to pose the question : What do we love more? Our neighbor or the ability to stand in crowds of thousands and worship?

A Quick Addition
If you are championing the phrase “faith over fear” in response to people who are taking COVID-19 more seriously than you think they should, please stop. As someone who has had that phrase thrown at me, I will defend every person like me by saying : we are not afraid, we are practicing wisdom.

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.” 
Proverbs 19:20

If fear was the motivator, it would only get us so far because as believers we are not meant to have a spirit of fear. After hearing the scientists and experts for months in this pandemic, it seems to me that the wise thing to do is to abide by guidelines and focus on mitigating coronavirus. Fear has not been a motivator in my walk specifically and I know for a fact that it has not been for many others as well

Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s a question I have had to ask myself every single morning this year. As I began to pose the question in the direction of faith, I realized there is a lot of work to be done, but there’s also a lot of people already doing the work. 

“I attended virtually from March-August and when they began to have outdoor services I began attending...They continue to record the services and have it online for anyone who is not able to attend which I’m grateful for.”
- Kansas City, MO

“My precious home church actually has done a wonderful job of following guidelines since they have been able to reopen. I know this because I was married in that church at the end of August. They were meticulous about every detail and precaution and made that very clear to us as we worked with them to hold our little ceremony. Everyone was masked, socially distanced as marked in the pews, it the number of people was small and under the CDC mandated number for gatherings in our state. I’m super thankful for that because otherwise we would have never been able to have a ceremony at all. ” - Phoenix, AZ

While there is a lot to be called out within the American Church, I know there are also a lot of believers who are fulfilling Philippians 2 beautifully. I personally started attending a church in person again in September after months of having church from my living room. The church I attend made me feel incredibly safe and therefore LOVED when they reopened. I’d like to quickly walk you through the mitigation guidelines they are taking :

• You must reserve a seat ahead of time. They have blocked off every other row and placed four seats between every person/family
• You must wear a mask the entire service.
• They take your temperature when they scan your registration code
• In addition to supplying hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE, they supply an option of wearing two stickers : a green one indicating you are comfortable being hugged, a red one indicating you are not.

If this list seems extensive, it’s because, as my Pastor has said, we are doing everything we can to meet (like Hebrews 10 says) but in wisdom.

Like my church and the other examples mentioned above, we can all do better. It’s not about politics or fear, it is about doing our part to prevent sickness and ultimately, lives being lost. As an evangelical, something that has shocked me about the evangelical response nationally has been the prideful attitude demanding churches be opened and refusing to listen to scientific reason. 

We are called to help SAVE the lost, not endanger them and their loved ones to a deadly virus. “Christians might think that they are carrying out the call of Jesus by still being in operation in person, but they are not. They are putting other people’s lives in danger. They are telling the world at large ‘we don’t care about your health or getting your life back to normal.’” -Franklin, TN.

The American Church is historically significant to believers, but also to non-believers. In my opinion, the survival and prosperity of the American Church is crucial to the survival and prosperity of our nation. Believe it or not, that is why I wrote this article. There is work to be done though. 
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If you read this entire article and are exhausted, I see you. I am you. I am praying for you. Join me in having the hard conversations with the believers in your life who might have harsh opinions on this pandemic. It has been a brutal year, as we head into possibly even more tough months ahead, we must not go weary of doing good.