Open Your Churches

I have been reading and responding to so many emails sent the the church in support of Pastor James (and his family and the church). There has been so much love in these emails; there are so many people praying; and there are so many who desire to help in some way. It has been a great blessing to me to read them.

There has also been one other common theme: People are hurting because they can't gather as the body of Christ to worship together. Some churches only allow a few people in; others haven't been open in almost a year now. They have spoken to their pastors and been told that no, they can't open their churches. And now they are feeling alone, sometimes abandoned, and always so sad. 

Listen: maybe there are reasons to keep a church closed, or to only allow a handful of people. Maybe you think you're caring more for the people by trying to protect them from illness, or maybe you genuinely think that it's better to follow the guidelines when they tell you not to gather, or maybe you just haven't taken the time to think (and pray) about the best response to things. Maybe you don't want to pay the price of opening your church (after all, they put my pastor in jail). I don't know.

This is what I do know: The sheep are hurting, and as their shepherds, it's your job to care for them no matter what the government tells you. I know the sheep are hurting because they have told me over and over. I know it's your job to care for them because that's what the Bible teaches (1 Peter 5:2), and you cannot shepherd a flock if you are not with them. You can try (I know you're trying), and you can partly care for them (livestreaming can only do so much), but they need to be together, to worship together, to fellowship with one another. They need to do everything the Bible calls us to do.

I have prayed for some many hurting people over the past few days as I've read the emails. I have hurt for them and cried for them because they cannot have the fellowship they seek, because they cannot worship with God's family. This should not be.

Please, pastors, open your churches.

Sermon Notes

 I am a note-taker, especially during sermons (I'm a doodler during staff meetings). Part of the reason is that having something to do helps me focus and writing things down helps me remember. Part of the reason is that I like to review the notes again before the following week's sermon (our pastors generally preach expositional sermons through a book; right now we are in John), and sometimes I like to go back and check something.

Pastor James is an excellent speaker and has an amazing way with words, and I love listening to him preach. Sometimes, though, there are sentences that really stick out for me, things that I want to ponder later, and I write them down on a separate page. 

Here are some of those lines:

No one comes to Jesus through a side door.

The fear and praise of men are compelling motivations for the flesh.

God is God. He determines reality. He is truth.

Hell will be filled with procrastinators.

God's discipline is both loving and redemptive.

Unbelief gets in the way of self-evaluation and objectivity.

There are going to be no missing sheep on the last day.

The practicality of theology amplifies in difficulty.

They Put My Pastor in Jail

Of all the things I thought I should write about over the past month or so when I've thought, "I should be writing", this was never on the list, but here we are: They put my pastor in jail.

Let me be clear: my pastor is not a criminal. He is one of the kindest, gentlest, most patient and loving people I know. He loves his people, the flock that God has given him. He is a true pastor: he preaches God's word faithfully; he preaches the gospel weekly; he prays for his people; listens to us when we are happy or sad or hurting, and he rejoices or weeps with us; he counsels us with God's word; he knows his sheep and loves every one of us. He is a man of God, a man of integrity, a man who loves God and His word and His people. I thank God for him regularly because I have been so blessed through his ministry; I have learned and grown so much in the years he has been my pastor.

Why, then, would they put someone like him in jail? He opened the church and he refused to close it. He believes that Christ is the head of the church, not the government, and he refuses to tell most of his people that they can't worship together on any given Sunday. He believes that we are commanded by God to gather as a body, to worship and fellowship together, and to serve one another.

To be clear, the current restrictions mean:

1. We can only meet with 15% capacity (about 20-ish% of our congregation).
2. Households need to be at least 2 meters apart.
3. We are not allowed to sing.
4. We need to leave as soon as the service ends.
5. We need to be careful to social distance even as we leave.

Beyond that, we can't have people over, we can't meet members of other households in restaurants, and we can only have gatherings outdoors, with 10 people, masked, and 2 meters apart (and it's winter in Alberta).

How can a pastor shepherd his flock if he's not allowed to be with them? He can preach to us in a multitude of ways: he can have livestream services, he can make us take turns attending each week, or he can hold 5-6 services each Sunday to allow everyone to attend, but he cannot shepherd his flock. 

So he (and the other elders at the church, who are in complete agreement) opened the doors wide and told us that we can come to worship and fellowship together. He did it knowing that he might be fined (he was), and we came knowing that we could all be fined (we weren't), and he kept pastoring every Sunday, even when he knew that he might be arrested and jailed.

Last week, they put my pastor in jail because he opened the church. They would let him go home until his trial if he would agree to follow all the restrictions, or not preach at all, and he refused; he could not in good conscience close the church to anyone.

I am grieved that he is in jail. I pray for him, for his family, for our elders, for our church many times each day. At the same time, I am so thankful for a him and for his willingness to stand for what he believes is true, to stand for God's word no matter the cost.

Please, pray for my pastor, for his family, for my elders, for my church. And pray for the other pastors who are allowing the government to dictate how they worship. And if you are a pastor, open your church, shepherd your flock, be the pastor God has called you to be.

To understand more of why we are open, you can go to the GraceLife website and read the statement; I would also encourage you to follow the links in the second paragraph in the statement and listen to Pastor James's sermons.