11/17/2020
 
Dear FCC family,
As you know, our aim is to glorify God in all things, and that means that we are committed to believing and obeying the Word of God. This has been the motivation behind every decision we have made for our church body during this pandemic. Regardless of our personal feelings on these issues, we must always return to the foundation of our commitment: What does God’s Word say? Romans 13 is very clear when it instructs us to submit to the governing authorities. This was written in the midst of an oppressive government during persecution of Christians. Even so, the call for Christians is to submit in a manner that brings glory to God. We take this very seriously. Christians are called to be the best citizens of the land. We are to be known by our love and our gentleness, and we are to keep the peace as much as it depends upon us. This honors and glorifies the Lord whom we love. Ultimately, we understand that we will give an account to God for how we lead the church during this time.
 
There is an exception to this command, however, and as we have seen in Acts, there are indeed times when Christians must take a respectful stand against the governing authorities in order to uphold the righteousness of God. As Peter said in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” So the exception is this: when obedience to the government would clearly require disobedience to God’s Word. Up to this point we have done our best to comply with what the government has mandated throughout this pandemic. While it has been inconvenient at times, we have complied because we want to obey the Word of God.
 
For a while now, the elders have been studying the word and in prayer about what we would do if the government said we could no longer meet inside in the middle of winter. We finalized our prayerful decision on Monday, right before we found out that our government said we could no longer meet inside as a church. Our decision is this: we will respectfully continue to meet inside and worship the Lord corporately as a church body, following the same guidelines that we have been following the past couple of months. We have made this decision because we believe that complying with the government’s mandate would cause us to disobey the Word of God by removing our ability to meet corporately as a church body.
 
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Winter is now upon us, and going back outside with the cold temperatures and the possible rain is no longer a viable option. So in good conscience and based on God’s Word, we do not believe it is in the best interest of our church to go the next three or four months without consistently meeting together and worshiping our Lord corporately. Corporate worship is the lifeblood of the church, and to knowingly forsake that would go against the Word of God.
 
You might be asking: “But Jon, earlier this year we went for a number of months without physically gathering together as a church body, so why are you taking this stand now?” Based on the information we were given about the pandemic, we were committed to protecting our members and believed it was in our best interest to adhere to the government’s mandates. We previously thought that the lockdown would only last for a couple of weeks. We had no idea the restrictions would increase and be prolonged to this extent. We are trusting God to protect and guide our church physically and spiritually, and we feel convicted that Scripture is leading us to shepherd our church in this way.
 
So we will continue to meet as we have been. Note that we do this humbly and respectfully. This is not a rebellious act on our part, and even though we will continue to meet, we will also continue to obey our governing authorities as much as we possibly can. This means that we will continue to hold three services with signups for worship so as to not exceed 25% of our room capacity (74). We will continue to social distance and wear masks throughout the hour-long services.
 
If there are consequences for this, we are willing to face them. I don’t believe there will be any retaliation from our government since many churches are in the same boat. But there might be consequences, and we are willing to face them because we believe this is the Biblical and God-honoring decision for FCC at this time. If you feel uncomfortable with this stand, or if you can’t comply with social distancing or the mask rule and want to refrain from coming to corporate worship for a time, we understand. We will continue to offer our worship services online. We love you and will continue to do our best to minister to you as part of the FCC family. Please know how seriously we take all of this. Acts 20 has been especially heavy on my heart regarding the role of an elder/pastor/shepherd. We know that we will answer to God for these decisions, and we don’t make them lightly. We love you and we want to lead in a way that is God-honoring and Biblical. Please pray for us as we pray for you. We hope to see you on Sunday as we lift God high together.
 
In Christ,
Jon and the Elders