It’s Saturday evening, and I am feeling a nervous excitement and anticipation about church tomorrow.
I had a funeral earlier today for a woman in our church whom I used to see every Sunday—if you looked at her, it would seem as if she thought that getting to assemble with the people of God on the first day of the week to sing and pray and learn and listen was the greatest privilege of her life.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this time of pandemic is that Jan was right—the coming together of the Church on Sunday is the greatest gift and responsibility that the Lord has given us.
Now, I had assumed (and you know what they say about assumptions….) that the pandemic would be behind us when I returned from summer break, but even these past few days have shown me just how wrong that assumption was.
We met outside for worship, rain or shine, from October 2020 into June 2021, and so I’ve had a few folks ask me if we are going to move outside tomorrow.
As I mentioned, I only got back in the office a couple of days ago and had a funeral this morning on which I have been focused these past few days, so I personally have not been able to meet with our staff and leadership and consider if we need to change our Sunday plan going forward.
Consequently, for tomorrow (Sunday, 8/15) we will continue to follow the Sunday plan our staff and leadership had already developed; that is, this Sunday will be exactly the same as last Sunday—we will NOT be moving outside. (During the middle hour, our elementary Sunday school program will be held outside, however.)
In the week to come we will evaluate what happens tomorrow, and if I and our leaders think we need to adopt a different Sunday plan going forward, we will make that determination and I will let you know of any changes as soon as possible.
In the meantime, I understand there are some people in our congregation who may not feel comfortable gathering with other Mungarians inside our sanctuary on Sundays. It might be helpful to know that we post each Sunday’s worship service on our website by 7 PM on that Sunday. In addition, our Thursday evening service draws a much smaller number of people than do our Sunday services, and perhaps an almost-empty sanctuary might be a good option for folks who are desperate to come to church but who are uncomfortable being in our crowded sanctuary on Sunday mornings.
Finally—and I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow—it seems clear to me that this pandemic is being used by dark forces to divide us. We are of course aware that other people feel very strongly and quite differently than we do about this pandemic protocol or that pandemic protocol. You will certainly never hear me say that all beliefs or ideas or policies are equal—some beliefs or ideas or policies may be true and good and some may be false and bad. But, whether or not someone has adopted the correct views or not has absolutely nothing to do with how we are to think of that person; the command of Jesus to his Church is quite clear: we are to love even the people who are wrong.
Let it not be true at Munger that we let this pandemic cause us to hate other Mungarians. Let us make the decisions we need to make for our families, let us argue and listen and learn, let us show curiosity and empathy, but let us not give ourselves over to contempt and hatred for the people we believe are wrong.
So, here is what I’m asking you tonight:
That you would specifically pray for me, as I seek to faithfully lead our church through this pandemic;
That you would specifically pray by name for someone in our church whom you believe to be wrong about the pandemic, and ask that the Lord would give you love for that person;
And that you’d pray that the Lord would fill our church services with a fiery joy when we gather together.
In Christ,
Andrew Forrest
