But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its [shalom] you will find your [shalom]. (Jer. 29:7)

Dear CGS Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you for humbly staying together in this extraordinary global moment. It is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Since a lot of you desire an update about future hopes and plans for re-opening corporate worship, that is the purpose of this communication.

To get straight to the bottom line status about our worship service, there is a strong consensus among the pastors, elders, and staff that our worship service remain limited to the present online format, at least through what the Governor has called "Phase 2" (which likely means at least through June). We are convening a Re-Opening Team, comprised of pastors, elders, staff, and medical professionals, to recommend options and plans for how to go forward beyond that.

Some of you, no doubt, are asking, "Why wait? If it's lawful to meet together, why wouldn't we?"

We desire nothing more than to be together again, in worship and community. We ache for that. None more than I. We believe ardently that the church is meant to enjoy embodied community at its fullest. And we humbly appreciate recent political and legal affirmations, from the President on down, about the freedom of religion and the "essential" nature of the Church.

But the Apostle Paul gives us great wisdom when he observes that even if all things are lawful, not all things are helpful (1 Cor. 6). Elsewhere he tells us to use our freedom, not to satisfy our own desires, but to serve one another through love (Gal. 5). Therefore, the big question as we see it is: what is the most helpful and loving thing we can do for church members and not-yet-believing community neighbors alike, while still being true to the life and mission of the church? We believe that staying the course with online worship is our best answer to this question in the present context.

From the beginning of this crisis in March, the church leadership has been trying to follow the best medical advice possible while sustaining the life and mission of our church. We don't want to be presumptuously ahead of the health experts. We don't want to be fearfully behind them. This is a guiding principle, even if we are not legally and politically required to do so. Obviously the health experts are having to learn as they go, like the rest of us. But we believe that we best love and serve our broader community, and seek her full-orbed shalom (Jer. 29:7, as cited above), by heeding their recommendations - unless there is a truly compelling reason to do otherwise.

We understand the pressure for businesses and the economy to re-open more quickly, even amid risk of higher rates of infections. In the way our economy is organized, it cannot sustain a shutdown for very long without deep, lasting damage to livelihoods and industries. So our civic and business leaders must agonize for balance along a spectrum of medical risk versus economic risk.

In the church, we must agonize along a different spectrum: medical risk versus spiritual risk. As long as we, the people of God, continue to give to Jesus our first fruits - of which He is more than worthy - the church's economic viability is tied to the larger economy ("in its shalom you will find your shalom"). Hence, while the economy likely needs to embark on this extraordinarily complex journey towards re-opening amidst much medical risk, we believe CGS is strong enough spiritually to worship together online, wait patiently for embodied worship together, and not introduce more "super-spreader" contagiousness into our already risky economic re-opening.

It is also a priority for the elders that our entire congregation stick together as long as we can: the stronger with the weaker, the healthier with the more vulnerable. To the greatest extent possible, we want our main corporate worship to hold as many of us together as we can. So there's something of a disposition among our leadership, not to go as fast as possible, but to go as slow as needful for our vulnerable members and families, let alone our broader society.

In the meantime, our Re-Opening Team will also be working to discern opportunities to assemble in small(er) gatherings, in a manner consistent with all the limitations this virus foists upon us. For example, under everything we've learned about COVID-19 and its contagiousness (so far!), what would our main worship service look like if it requires that we: sit extremely far apart; separate into several services/week; wear masks; cannot sing at all together; exit very separately and distantly; and keep the whole service very brief to avoid increasingly contaminated air? It would be a hollow shell of what we know and love.

However, we can imagine smaller gatherings that are edifying and meaningful, despite restrictions on music, spacing, length of gathering, and so forth. Please pray with us as we seek genuinely Spirit-anointed creativity and ingenuity in all of this.

For those of you who, for any number of reasons, sadly conclude that you cannot gather publicly in any way until you've been vaccinated, please know we love you, and we're with you. You're one of us, and we're committed to remaining connected to you. As one example, we're determined to videotape or live-stream our worship services indefinitely. Even when we finally get to gather again for corporate worship, whether sooner or later, we aim to stream it by video as long as God gives us the man-power and financial resources to do so.

A sad kind of hubris often manifests itself in the church, with a logic that goes like this: if you really believe in Jesus; if you really prioritize the worship of Him and His Word; and you're really committed to His mission; then you go to church, no matter the risk to us and others. Our pastors, elders, and staff are confident that CGS will not only endure but mature under online worship precisely because: we really do believe in Jesus, we really do prioritize the worship of Him and His Word, and we really are committed to His mission. We humbly believe we're strong enough to withstand the hardship of this present distance, especially in order to love our most vulnerable neighbors.

In an early fireside chat, I told you that God's church is tested by fire (1 Cor. 3). What kind of mettle are we made of: wood, hay and straw; or gold, silver and precious stones? Fire alone will answer the question. Among the trillion other things Jesus is doing these days, He is surely testing our mettle. As lead pastor, I am so very proud of and encouraged by you. I couldn't be prouder of the "sturdy faithfulness" I see and hear of you every week. Please stay ( and pray!) the course, brothers and sisters.

God bless,
Pastor Chuck