Often churches wonder what other churches are doing-- here's a sampling.
On March 6, I tweeted: “If you are a pastor or church leader, what are you saying/doing regarding Coronavirus this weekend during worship? Have you sent out any emails? How are you encouraging your church? Etc.”
Over 100 people responded. Most provided general, prudent, pastoral wisdom. Some provided links to local or national healthcare sites. Some, however, believe this to be some level of much-ado-about-nothing. Some of the more interesting responses came from the areas closest to the outbreaks, or from overseas. I’ve put representative examples from several categories here:
First, I heard from several pastors and leaders closest to the areas of outbreak like Seattle.
Many churches canceled public services opting for online instead:
@salt_house425 said: “We are located a couple miles from the epicenter of outbreak in Kirkland, WA. We do a livestream of our services (sermons) every week on FB. We cancelled public gatherings and going online only. Decision fatigue is settling in.”
Tyson Supasatit is a lay pastor in Washington. He said: “Here in Bellevue, WA, our eldership just decided to cancel in-person services and have everyone watch the livestream. I’m preaching on Sunday (in lieu of our Sr. Pastor who is traveling) and would appreciate your prayers.”
A pastor’s wife from Seattle gave helpful advice: “I think it depends on where you live, we are in the center of Seattle and have many elderly in our congregation, my husband chose to cancel services, as have many in our area.”
However, one pastor and his young church were still meeting as of the past Sunday. He posted a letter to his congregation exhorting them not to be ruled by fear. He noted the importance ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/2Q0oY2Z
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