Worship During the Pandemic

Hello, friends and members of Winnsboro Reformed Church. 

A lot has been happening over the last week to ten days and I wanted to keep you abreast of how the church is going to go forward in the next month or two in the wake of this unprecedented (in our lifetimes) event.

It has become more clear each day that normal activities, normal socializing, are just not a wise thing right now for anyone. Right now the people in the know, the people who are paid to think about and worry about and plan for things like this, are encouraging us to change our lives temporarily in order to put fewer lives in danger.

Several days ago they were recommending no gatherings of over fifty people. I joked at the time that they still hadn’t got small enough to affect us. But Monday the CDC was asking people not to gather in groups of even ten. So I think it would be wise to listen to the warnings, heed the advice, and for our neighbors’ sake, not do anything to irresponsibly spread this virus.

Thus it is with great sorrow that I’m announcing a temporary suspension of our Sunday morning gathering for worship. I don’t want to do it. I hate to do it. It goes against every conviction I have to shut down worship on the Lord’s day. It’s a terrible thing to do, but I think this time it is called for. 

Sometimes there are things that happen beyond our control, acts of God, that limit our normal ability to serve and worship and I think this is one of those times. I would be horrified to think that by our gathering together we had harmed someone unnecessarily. We are living through extraordinary events that call for extraordinary measures.

Now, while I say that we live in extraordinary times, I mean that in more than one way. Yes, a global pandemic will limit us temporarily from gathering together, but it cannot stop us from gathering together electronically. Have you ever thought about how amazing that is?

Live-streaming worship through social media can never replace the actual gathering of God’s people in accordance with the commands of Scripture to worship our triune God, but it can give us something while we wait out this pandemic. It’s not as good as the real deal but it is far better than nothing at all. 

Starting this week we will no longer be gathering, but we can still gather in our homes around our computers, laptops, tablets, or televisions and we can still participate in the worship from our various locations. It won’t be the same, but it can almost be the same if we will buy in.

We now have a church YouTube page and this is where you will find our livestream each Sunday at 11:00 am CDT. I will turn on the video a few minutes early and we will try to commence at 11:00 am sharp. You might think it’s going to be awkward praying the prayers, singing the hymns, reading the liturgy all in front of a computer screen, and trust me, I’m going to feel awkward leading it in front of a camera phone. But we’ll manage. And we’ll have some kind of worship, as a church, on the Lord’s day. That is vital. It’s a great time to be alive and be a servant of Christ.

Here is the link for the church YouTube page:

https://youtu.be/2ZBkR3N9-Dw

I put a welcome video up so that you’ll know you’re at the right place. Save the link so that you can find it quickly and easily and we will see you on Sunday. Also, feel free to share the link with others who may be looking for some good gospel/Christ-centered worship about now.

If you have any questions on how to make it all work feel free to contact me at:

WinnsboroReformedChurch@gmail.com

Grace,

Bro. James