Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. | 1 Thessalonians 4:9–12
When I became a pastor, I never imagined that I would be writing a blog post on masks; thanks 2020. This is in response to a few members asking for clarification on how the elders are making decisions around the issues of COVID-19, government regulations, and masks in particular. Masks have become the symbol of something larger than themselves, the last thing I want to do is wade into a loaded political discussion. I am also not a biologist, an epidemiologist, or a doctor of any sort, so I will not be using my expertise to try to make an argument for the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of masks, transmission rates of viruses, or arguments over death rates (or how hospitals are counting COVID cases). Instead, my role is to lead the people of God based on a worldview drawn from Scripture. I am going to map out how the elders are weighing the issues as we come to decisions on mask wearing and the church.
Early in the pandemic, I wrote a blog about the conflicting values we face as we seek to both honor God and be good citizens. I have also written about the balance between the common good and the freedom of the individual and how both are necessary for a healthy, functioning community. I am going to avoid those topics and the rabbit trails that go with them. I am going to focus this specifically on the options that we have as a church and what they say about what we believe. The options (I honestly may have missed an option, but I can not think of any other way for us to proceed) when it comes to mask-wearing as a church are:
- Declare mask-wearing unnecessary.
- Let everyone make up their own mind based on conscience.
- The elders make up rules based on our understanding of the virus.
- Follow the restrictions from the health department.
DECLARE MASK-WEARING UNNECESSARY
The first option the elders have is to boldly declare mask-wearing to be unhelpful and to encourage our people not to believe the lie. In order to make this decision, the elders would have to have definitive proof that all of the leading scientists, along with the CDC, WHO and the governments of most countries in the world are all involved in a conspiracy; that for some reason they are all recommending or requiring people to wear masks. This evidence would have to be beyond a reasonable doubt and verifiable (that is how science works). At this point, this evidence does not exist.
This is not to say that the process of setting regulations and reporting evidence has been smooth, far from it. One of the things that happens when you have a novel virus is that the investigation is being done on the fly. Early on, the concepts of disease transmission were based on previous coronaviruses, which tend to spread by touch. It wasn’t until we were already into the spread of the virus that they began to find evidence of moisture droplets in the air being a major source of spread (with a case study in Mount Vernon being a major case study). Most of us are not used to watching the scientific method unfold in front of our eyes and it can be quite disconcerting to watch the regulations change as new information comes out.
As Christians, human discovery (and limitations) should neither surprise or scare us. We should be patient and careful to not fall into the sins of suspicion, gossip, and slander. There may be a time when evidence comes out that everyone was wrong, but that evidence is not here yet. This is the time to follow Paul’s exhortation above: to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
LET EVERYONE MAKE UP THEIR OWN MIND BASED ON CONSCIENCE
The second option that we have is to allow each person to weigh the facts and to make the best decision for themselves. We do this in many situations, including: having your kids in service or CommunionKIDS, the 9a or 11a service, even membership (which is highly recommended) is not required. In many things, encouraging people to do what we believe is right and allowing them to choose how they will respond is the right course of action.
Virus spread is different than most things. While all of our decisions affect others, the spread of infectious diseases requires a special level of community cooperation. Every decision that we make that ups our chances of getting COVID is passed on to all other people we come into contact with. The people who would choose not to wear a mask to church, are also (most likely) the same people who would make this decision in others situations, increasing their chances of getting the virus. When that person comes into a church service without a mask (which is worn primarily to limit the spreader not the recipient of airborne moisture) it increases everyone’s chances of getting sick. The choices we make about wearing a mask have less to do with how we feel about the virus and more about what responsibility we have towards others.
In Romans 14, Paul elaborates on the idea of the stronger and weaker brother and the responsibility of the stronger brother to abstain from freedoms for the sake of the weaker brother. While this is about mature faith and causing another to stumble, the same principles apply to how we imagine our role in the church family. We are not invited into the family of God to stress our freedoms and exercise our personal agendas, but to serve one another (especially the weakest and most vulnerable among us). Our hope would be that we would not have to require masks, but that each person would make the choice to wear one based on their desire to set aside their own personal preferences for the good of others (and wearing a mask is not an especially difficult way to deny yourself and take up your cross).
Due to the polarizing nature of this issue, we have decided to remove the potential infighting and arguments among members of the church about who is the stronger and weaker brother and who owes who what; it is better to simply ask that everyone serve one another through the wearing of a mask.
THE ELDERS MAKE UP RULES BASED ON OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE VIRUS
The third option would be for the elders, who are the shepherds of this flock, to tune out all other noise and set up restrictions and rules that we believe both give us the all the ability to worship and keep people safe. We know our people better than any government agency and understand how the church functions and so we can best plan for our people.
This would require us to take seriously the threat of the virus and to acknowledge that church gatherings have seen outbreaks. We would need to acknowledge that as the spread of the virus has been linked more and more to moisture particles in the air, that singing presents a unique danger. We would need to acknowledge that while most people are not contagious, we can not know who is or isn’t a ‘super-spreader.’ And the more people we bring together, the greater the chance that someone who has it can come in. Due to all of this, along with the growing body of information that seems to point to masks being the most effective means of keeping this virus from spreading, we have come to the conclusion that mask wearing is a low-risk practice that seems to mitigate the majority of the primary concerns of COVID spreading.
Gathering together is always going to require some risk, but we need not add additional risk by acting recklessly. Early Christians met when Christianity was illegal, but they did it in secret, in hiding (the catacombs) so as to mitigate the chances of being caught. They were ready to face whatever came, but they also put precautions in place.
FOLLOW THE RESTRICTIONS OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT
The fourth option is to honor not only the government, but the skills and talents God has given to those working in the fields of research and health. To honor ‘common grace’ is to acknowledge that God has given special skills to people to serve His creation. As sovereign over creation, He has placed people as doctors, epidemiologists, and health department directors (and given them the talents to be able to do this work). These people are not just ‘doing their jobs,’ but carrying out God’s work of caring for His world through their exercise of the Imago Dei. When we look at people in these various spheres, we should see them as stewards of God’s work.
Human beings are also sinful, so they do not steward perfectly. We are aware of the many ways that people God has shown His grace to have used these skills for their own gain. In the end, we have to trust someone. Even if you feel like you can look at the data, understand it, and make an informed decision, you still have to trust the data that you are looking at and the people who compiled it. Whether it is a government agency, your aunt who works in a hospital, or a person on Youtube, you are going to have to rely on the work of others. The question becomes: whose expertise are you willing to trust?
The elders of Communion Church have chosen to work with the local health officials who we believe God has given common grace to and guided them to the position to help oversee the public in times like these. They are in agreement with state and national health professional in recommending the wearing of a mask. While I don’t particularly enjoy it, nor would I come to the conclusion of mask-wearing without input from the outside, I am thankful that God is caring for His creation through the people that He has specially equipped to care about pandemics, to develop plans in case of a novel virus, and all of the work that they are doing to try to get the community to work together toward a return to normal.
Our elders believe that working with the health department to help limit the spread of this virus is a responsibility of each of us as citizens, but also of the church as a part of this community. Hopefully, you understand how difficult this time and these decisions are, because all of us would rather be doing things differently. I pray that we use this time to learn dependence on God and humility rather than using all of our energy to bicker and complain. We are the people of God and our hope and confidence is in Him, no matter what life brings.