A while back, I wrote a pretty hot take about how church, in terms of large, weekly gatherings, is not essential during a pandemic.
I haven’t changed my mind.
No, in fact, I’d like to double-down on my previous take by expanding it and redefining what we have wrongly assumed to be the main work of the church, namely, entertaining the saved.
Forsake Not
In my previous post, I used Hebrews 10:19-25 to explain my position because this passage is the passage used to convey the importance of gathering for corporate worship.
“19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25
I have made the clause that directly speaks to the issue of church attendance bold. Because on the surface, at face value, it offers the definitive word about church attendance: do it.
But as with anything we read, we must consider the context. In this case, we have to put that clause back into the context of the sentence surrounding it.
“24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.“
When the clause is put back into its proper context, we can see that the gathering together is not for the purpose of simply singing songs or hearing a sermon—though we know from Paul’s letters that these elements were present and important.
No, the central purpose of the Church was its good deeds. Understand, these were not goods deeds done for the purpose of saving the doer. These were done to prove, to live out, to demonstrate the salvation of the doer. (See James 2)
The Church wasn’t supposed to be simply a gathering place but a launching pad for an unending series of good works—even God’s works, according to Ephesians 2:8-10—performed by those who gathered.
And why did they gather? In order to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” and to “encourage one another,” so that the good deeds of God’s kingdom would continue to be performed, with increasing urgency as the the “Day” of the Lord was approaching.
This, friends, is the essential work of the Church.
The Work Is Essential
The good deeds performed by the Church are essential and cannot and should not be stopped. The Church, or rather, the people in it, should serve vital functions in their communities. They should be feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, visiting the prisoners, extending mercy to the broken, and showing love to all.
Doing good works—God’s works—will always be essential.
To those who complained about oppression, about the stifling of their freedom of religion: you have sorely missed the point of the Church. She does not exist for the mere maintenance of your faith, nor for the fulfilment of your religious duties, nor even for the purpose of evangelism.
The Church exists as an embassy of a foreign Kingdom. She is the beachhead in an invasion of this present world by the eternal one. We do not escape the world by going to church one Sunday. We are released from the church each Sunday to wage war against the powers of darkness that seeks to destroy life and innocence through injustice, exploitation, and hate.
Losing out on the ability to gather at the church building is not the same as your church being “shutdown.” If your church has been effectively shutdown by COVID-19, then you’re church exists only to serve those gathered in it. It adds nothing to your community, and it does little to nothing to advance the Kingdom, at least nothing outside its four walls.
However, when a church is doing the works that God has called it to do, when the people of the church are being encouraged and spurred on toward “love and good deeds,” then that church is doing essential work.
At the beginning of the school year, our local school district asked several churches for assistance. They were going to need additional locations for students, for staff members’ children, and so on. Now, I don’t know what happened with these other churches, so I won’t pass judgement, but several churches were asked to attend a meeting with the school district to plan a community response and only one church showed up. Mine.
I can’t tell you how proud I was/am of my church and how we’ve provided a space for kids to go during this time so that they’re parents could do their jobs. I know other churches have done similar things in other communities, and that’s what gives me hope for the Church.
On much larger scale, some churches have had to fill huge gaps left by our faltering economy. Saddleback Church, under Pastor Rick Warren, has become the largest food distributor in southern California and was feeding “about 2,000 families” a month. Here’s what Pastor Rick recently said about how his church is handling the pandemic and the loss of in-person gatherings:
Then we figured out, you don’t have to have a building. We invented a new way of doing food pantry we called pop-ups. We said, “We’ll come to your school. We’ll come to your neighborhood. We’ll come to your park.” We partnered with every school district in Orange County. According to the recent report I got, over 13,000 Saddleback volunteers have served over 3.5 million pounds of food to over 300,000 families. We’re the largest food distributor in Southern California.
We teach our people that every member of the church is a minister. Everybody’s a missionary too. You’re a witness. Those people already know how to share their faith. When people would pull up they’d talk to them about the Lord.
It sure sounds like Saddleback understands the real meaning of Hebrews 10:19-25.
Is Your Work Essential?
I want to close this post out with a simple test. It’s just one question: If the government tried to stop your church from doing its work, would your community—including the unchurched, the non-Christians, etc.—fight for you?
You see, if what you are doing is essential as an agent of God’s Kingdom, I’d have a hard time believing that your community wouldn’t see it as essential for their life and well-being. Don’t you think the people of southern California consider what Saddleback is doing as an essential work?
“Phil, there’s no way my church can do that.” Not on that scale, I’ll agree, but you can love, you can give, you can serve in some way that at least attempts to fill in the gaps that this pandemic has created because, believe me, those gaps are going to be there for a while.
If you want to be essential, make yourself indispensable to your local community. Be the hand and feet of Jesus and sacrifice your own comfort for the sake of the gospel.
Do I miss the normalcy that has been lost in the past year? Absolutely. Am I more excited about what new and beautiful things we can build as we pick up the pieces? More than you can know.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that we will give up fruitless quests and turn our eyes to the Lord as He turns our hearts to the local communities in which we live, the local communities that need to experience “love and good deeds.”
The work of the Church is essential.
(Pastor Rick’s quotes from “Rick Warren on the Year We Had” from RELEVANT)
Blessing Mpofu says
This is so good. Thought-provoking and inspiring. I like that despite using Saddleback church as an example you make the point that all of us, as the Church(es) have essential work to do and scale isn’t the issue.
Doing what we can and should where we are with what we have, is.
This and your previous post put a good perspective on gathering and our work.
Thanks Phil. 👊🏽
Phil Schneider says
Thank you, Blessing! Truly, thank you!