How We Decide to Gather
A few people have asked about how we make these decisions on a weekly basis, to meet indoors, outside, or online, and the short answer is: not easily. This is not an easy time for pastors and church leaders; we feel the weight and tension all the time as we seek creative and missional and spiritual solutions to a problem the world over continues to wrestle with (keep praying for us!). Below is our framework for going about this. FAIR WARNING: it's long, but worth the read!
STEP 1: LOVING, LAWFUL, WISE
First, we try to ask three questions from a biblical perspective:
Is it Loving?
Is it Lawful?
Is it Wise?
Is the decision loving one another? The community? Our Creator? Does it seek the best interests of others? Does it consider their needs, their health, their safety, and their spiritual, emotional, physical well being?
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.... Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. - 1 John 4:7-11 (CSB)
Is the decision respecting the law of God and of human authorities? Does it obey the commands of God and honor the author state statutes and governing orders? To the degree that we are able to meet both, we ought. In every case, the law of God supersedes the law of man, but to the degree that both are able to be met, we should seek to fear God AND honor authority.
Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor. - 1 Peter 2:13-17
Finally, is the decision wise? Does it take into account the spiritual direction of God? Does it consider the council of experience and good leadership? Many things can be permissible but not beneficial (1 Cor. 6:12); I may have freedoms and "rights" I wish to exercise that can still be destructive and foolish.
Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.... The wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace. - James 3:13-18
As often as we can, we try to get three "yes" answers from these questions; it's not always possible (last week, for instance, our meeting indoors was not quite "lawful" by human standards, but we felt it was ultimately loving and wise—and lawful in God's eyes), but it’s worth pursuing.
STEP 2: MISSIONAL VALUES
Second, we seek to meet three missional values:
Serve the Body: we want to care for the needs of our community, our partners in mission, our brothers and sisters. That means meeting together to worship, building relationships, learning about needs, and praying and counseling one another.
Witness to the World: Our actions speak volumes. To the degree that we can live peacefully, gently, compassionately, and humbly before the greater community, we should. How we live and speak before others speaks to the inner transformation we have, which allows us the supernatural ability to lay down our lives for the sake of the world.
Honor Authorities: Our ultimate goal is not to demonize or deify human leaders (which we are all prone to do) but respect them as they are placed there by God. Our submission to (Greek: "living under") human authorities not only honors God, but allows us the favor to keep proclaiming the gospel, to keep meeting faithfully, and to keep sharing the good news of Jesus with as many as will hear.
Ideally, we seek solutions that meet all three values, right in the center of it all, in fulfillment of the Great Commission. Sometimes, conditions beyond our control mean we have to make a choice; last week, for instance, we chose to value serving the body by meeting indoors (where staying home and doing church online may have been a better witness and more honoring to authority). This Sunday, the options that meets all three missional values—while not the most comfortable or convenient—is to meet outdoors as we have throughout the latter part of this year.
I know that was a lot, but I hope you read it and consider these in your own decision making process as you follow Jesus and seek to make more followers of Jesus, even during a pandemic.
Love you all,
JACOB PARODI
Lead Pastor
