- First Baptist Church family and friends,
By now everyone has heard about the coronavirus and the extraordinary and unprecedented lengths that our society and government are taking to lessen the spread of this disease. It’s something that I’ve not seen in my lifetime.
It’s clear that people are afraid, and understandably so. Most of us are not infectious disease experts or health care professionals, and those who are have been warning us of potential consequences that could be severe if we make no adjustments to our daily lives and routines to slow its spread.
Mostly, it’s the unknown that is scary, and there are a lot of unknowns in our current situation. So, we feel afraid. I get it, I do. It’s natural!
However, those of us who follow Jesus have a responsibility to not allow our fear to conquer us or control our actions. Our God is the Lord of the World, and all of our lives and our times are in His hands. Nothing that will happen to us or our loved ones over the next weeks and months is unknown to Him, and we also have the promise of His continued presence, as well as the grace and strength and wisdom that we will need to meet those challenges head on, as long as we stay close to Him.
Our confidence in God’s sovereignty, though, doesn’t absolve us of the necessity to exercise biblical wisdom. We have a calling to be smart and thoughtful as we face various tests and trials, and to do the best we can to help the most people that we can who are put at risk by this virus outbreak, even if it means inconveniencing ourselves or restricting our freedoms a bit.
Why is that? I can think of at least three reasons…
- While all of us may not be equally susceptible to getting the virus and suffering from it, all of us have loved ones who are, and we want to spare them any unnecessary risk.
- As people who are unapologetically pro-life, we value everyone regardless of their health needs or their age, and want to do whatever we can to minimize the loss of life.
- As followers of Jesus, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. This means at the very least that we should be willing to inconvenience ourselves to protect those among us and around us who are the most vulnerable to catching this virus.
In light of these considerations, the leadership team at First Baptist has gathered to pray, think, and discuss how God would want us to respond to this crisis. I wanted to take a moment to fill you in on what we’ve decided, because it will affect our weekly schedule and your involvement with our programs.
At this time we have decided to continue with our plan to have Sunday School tomorrow at 9:30am and our regular worship service at 10:45am. If you are currently showing any cold or flu symptoms, we strongly encourage you to stay home and seek the appropriate medical care. Our Sunday worship service will be live-streamed on Facebook and our church’s website (www.fbchh.org) and you can enjoy it from home while you recover. Also, if you are NOT currently showing any symptoms, but are nervous at all that you or your loved ones might catch the virus here at church, we also encourage you not to come to the service tomorrow but watch the live-stream from the safety of your home. We totally understand your concerns and want nothing more than for you and your loved ones to be healthy and stay healthy through this difficult time.
If you do come, though, we will be doing things a little differently, and we want you to know about these changes ahead of time to help you make your decision about whether or not you will feel comfortable joining us.
- We will NOT have a formal greeting time during our service, and we also encourage everyone to refrain from normal greetings such as handshakes or hugs until this crisis has passed us by. (Medical experts are fairly sure that elbow bumps are an acceptable alternative. 😊)
- There will be no coffee or food served before or after our worship services for the foreseeable future to limit the spread of germs.
- We will NOT be passing offering plates during the service for the foreseeable future. We encourage all of you who have planned to give tithes, offerings, and gifts, to put them in one of a couple designated collection boxes places in the back of the auditorium. As always, you can give online through our website (fbchh.org).
- Larry Morgan, our custodian, will be doing extra cleaning before, during, and after the Sunday services to disinfect bathrooms and other surfaces as much as possible.
As of right now we have not made specific plans for how we will celebrate communion in the month of
April, but we will notify everyone once we’ve made that decision. Also, we have not determined what we will do with our midweek programs for children and youth. We will make that decision early in the day Monday and post that information on our Facebook page and on our website, so keep posted!
We believe that these common-sense measures will allow us to both fulfill our mission to make disciples while also showing love and deference to those among us and around us who are most vulnerable to this disease.
As we all move through the next few weeks, I’d like to ask you for a few things:
- Patience and understanding. It is very difficult to foresee how to make the best decisions possible to protect people from this virus. We may make some missteps along the way – please be patient with us as we strive to respond with wisdom and grace.
- Careful attention to updates – please check our church’s Facebook page and website regularly for the most up-to-the-minute updates on ministry programs and needs.
- Prayer! Our President has called for churches to have a day of prayer tomorrow that God would bring a swift end to this crisis and that human life will be preserved throughout our country. I would ask you to join us in prayer, whether in person or watching from home. We need God’s guidance, wisdom, and protection.
Would you also pray that the world would get a glimpse of our great God by looking at our lives through this crisis? We need to be the people who by our calm, our love, and our willingness to help and share with others through a crisis point to a God who can meet the deepest needs of the human heart.
May the Lord bless you and help you to honor Him in the days ahead!
Love in Christ, Pastor Toby