Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church September 19, 2020

 

Dear friends,

It’s been a month since my last letter and we’re a few weeks into our new sermon series on “Misused Stories of the Bible.” We’ve looked at Cain, Rahab, and Gideon (tomorrow) with Samson, David, Naaman, and Daniel still to come. I hope it’s helped you to see what the real main point of these stories actually are.  We’ve also begun our combined teen/college/adult class on “The Story of the Bible: Origins and Objections.” We’ll be looking at such topics as Inspiration, Inerrancy, Authority, Sufficiency, and Jesus’ View of Scripture. Starting in November we’ll take on some of the more common objections people have to believing the Bible. I hope this series will build your trust in the Scriptures.

Neither of which is why I’m writing today. I wanted to write on a topic I’ve been thinking about all summer, but have put off until now. Over the last six weeks, we’ve been averaging about 106 people at worship in-person and another 15 households on the livestream. No matter how many times I run the numbers, it seems that we have 20-30 people who aren’t showing up or tuning in. And as I’ve been thinking about this, and I realize that there’s numerous possible causes for this, but in the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are too many people at Potomac Hills who don’t place a very high value on corporate worship.

We’re six months into this pandemic, and I think we’re all in desperate need of a half-time pep- talk. I know I’m not alone in feeling like this year has beat the tar out of me.  Where to begin? Before we stepped into this strange time, we already lived in a weird age — the social media age, the outrage age, the cancel-culture age, and the entrenched politicization age.  And right in the middle of all that, the duel pandemics of COVID-19 and fear swept through our world.

But now the time has come to think about regathering with the local church, and it’s easy to wonder if it’s worth it.  You haven’t been deprived of content or community in this season, and sitting in your living room is certainly more convenient than wrangling children out the door to church. Also, I haven’t forgotten that the local church gathering is often unremarkable and ordinary — the same people doing the same things with little visible fruit, week after week.

When I can easily listen to an outstanding sermon, or sing hymns with concert musicians, or receive immediate encouragement from likeminded friends, why bother to leave the house? When I can get (almost) all the goods of worship in my living room, why show up on Sunday? What’s so special about church?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of the local church.  Think about it. After the four gospels, almost all of the New Testament is about the local church or directed to the local church. Throughout the New Testament, different local congregations met together and worshipped together.  It is simply what believers do.

Right now, there are any number of reasons for refraining from coming back to church. You may not want to return because our church has suddenly become even more family-friendly, and the thought of trying to keep your kids quiet during the sermon sounds terrible (though we have restarted Sunday School, Children’s Church, and Nursery). You may not want to return because doing so would put you in close proximity with members you just had it out with on social media. You may not want to return because you’re afraid of exposure to COVID-19. You may not want to return because our church is complying with Virginia regulations that call for masks, and you object to wearing masks out of principle.  You may not want to return because you can’t imagine how wearing a mask all service can be anything but irredeemably awkward and uncomfortable. Or, perhaps, you may not want to return because, frankly, it’s easier to stay home. Perhaps because we now livestream our services, you’ve grown accustomed to “doing church” at home. Maybe the gravitational pull to stay home is simply convenience.

My dear fellow follower of Christ, please come back to church.  Do it for your own sake and the sake of your fellow church members. The awkwardness of public-gatherings, COVID edition, may make those gatherings feel less meaningful, but they aren’t.  Regardless of how it feels, if you are gathering with the body of Christ to sing and pray and read and listen and observe the sacraments, you’re experiencing the ordinary means of grace.  There’s little else that is more meaningful or significant — and you don’t make it meaningful or significant, it just is. We grow in Christ when we have a committed prayer life.  We grow when we’re committed to read Scripture daily. We grow when we share our faith regularly.  We grow when we serve in ministry. And we grow when we commit to attend worship services faithfully.  That attendance is a spiritual discipline. It is a vital and necessary act toward greater spiritual maturity.

You who think it’s not worth it to come to church and hear a fraction of the sermon because your kids have collectively decided that this hour and a half will be the apex of their demonstration of depravity, please come back to church. You are teaching your kids the priority of gathering with God’s people for corporate worship whether it feels that way or not. This is in part what it means to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Not only are you still feeding your soul and the souls of your children in the spiritual discipline of congregational worship by fighting against comfort to get there, you are also reassuring your fellow parents who are doing the same.  Come back to church, and remind them (and be reminded by them) that you’re not in this alone.

When we gather together, we encourage each other.  I am a classic ambivert (extrovert in large groups, introvert in small groups). Admittedly, I adjusted well to livestreaming our services and Zoom community groups (though I’m a little burned out on Zoom). But I readily admit I did not get or give the same level of encouragement as those times when we’re physically present with each other.  The act of gathering is an act of encouragement.

You who are tempted to avoid close proximity to your fellow members because of recent online scrimmages that have yet to be resolved, please come back to church. You must resolve those scrimmages eventually (Colossians 3:13), why not do it in person (which is more real than the synthetic reality of social media anyway)?  Our Lord Jesus told us that the world will know we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35). Presumably, this is because our love is an otherworldly kind of love that contrasts sharply with the mere mutual affection likeminded people have.  It’s easy to love people who are like you.  It’s Christian to love people who aren’t. So, as our culture becomes more and more divisive and entrenched — as it is increasingly “anti” the “other,” and deprived of civility and respect — let us take the words of Christ seriously and thereby be a spectacle for the world.  Let us blow their minds by being a community that can disagree about important issues — real disagreements that the world would find intolerable — and still demonstrate an other-worldly kind of love for one another in person.

You who are tempted stay home because you think that wearing masks is stupid and you object to wearing one, please come back to church. Bear in mind, it may be the case at our church that this kind of practice is the middle-way between you who don’t want to come out of principle and you who don’t want to come out of fear. As they step toward you in love, you ought to do the same. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

You who are tempted to stay home because you are afraid of exposure, as difficult as it may be to hear this, please come back to church. Consider the possibility that your fear in this instance extends beyond good stewardship of your body and your family’s health and has crossed the line into sinful fear. Consider the possibility that what you’re dealing with is actually a refusal to trust in the Lord’s sovereign providence.  He is God, you are not. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Of course, if you are legitimately at higher risk than the general population as a result of pre- existing conditions, take your special circumstance into account. “Stewardship” and “safety” are certainly still a category in this decision, and it may indeed be wise to stay home for you.  But you are still required to search out, confess, and kill the sinful fear in your heart just the same.

Finally, you who are tempted to stay home out of convenience, I urge you to repent and come back to church.  Why do I use such strong language here?  By telling you to “repent” I’m assuming that your reason for staying home is sinful, whereas with others there may or may not be sinful reasons for staying home.  Am I being presumptuous here?  I don’t think so.  You see, as unique as our times are right now, the practice of abstaining from the local gathering out of convenience is not unique to our circumstances.  That practice has been a temptation for Christians for as long as the church has existed, and Christians are explicitly commanded to resist it, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).  Gathering for worship is not an optional activity. It’s not an occasional activity.  It’s an ongoing and regular commitment

Convenience is not a valid reason to stay home, brothers and sisters. And don’t assume that you’re merely practicing wisdom by staying home (i.e., that you are staying home out of a justified concern for safety).  If you feel safe enough to shop or eat out or travel (as some of you regularly post on social media), then your absence on Sunday mornings is most likely not owing to a concern for safety, but rather personal convenience, which, to be honest, is just straightforward disobedience to Hebrews 10:24-25.

Christian, watching a service streamed online is not “doing church” at home.  You are not “gathering” online.  What you are doing is watching other Christians gather. And this is, at best, an inadequate substitute for gathering with them yourself.  Let us remember the words of Paul, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you — that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Romans 1:11-12). Don’t deprive your fellow members of the gift of your faithfulness, and don’t deprive yourself of the gift of theirs.  Please, come back to church.

Worship, ultimately, is not about us.  It’s about God.  We worship at His invitation, according to His command, and for His glory. And while we can worship God in our homes, public worship uniquely magnifies Him. “In a multitude of people is the glory of a king,” (Proverbs 14:28) and so it is with our God. We proclaim Him to be a King by assembling as His visible kingdom. We loudly declare Him to be worthy by gathering to sing His praises. We affirm the goodness of His rule by together submitting to His Word as it’s read and preached.  In public worship, we testify to these truths before the Lord, and we testify to them before the world.  We may sing hymns daily in every room of our house, but that worship will always be secret and hidden. On the other hand, an overflowing church on Sunday morning is not something our unbelieving neighbors can entirely ignore.  It stands as a testimony: Jesus is Lord. And it stands as an invitation: Come, and see.

So, let’s worship together, to glorify God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and to love our neighbors as a testimony of our faith and an invitation to explore that faith.  And hopefully, I’ll see you soon!

DV,

Dr. David V. Silvernail, Jr., Senior Pastor

Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church

P.S. – A great new book on this topic is A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church by Megan Hill.