Free to Free , Face to Face

Many businesses and churches are opening up and that brings a certain amount of apprehension and relief. There is much apprehension at the thought of a virus ruining ourselves, our friends, family, and communities. Relief that many are now starting to go back to work, family, play, and a measure of livelihood. We’re going from free-to-isolated-back to-free. Yippee! 

What about going back to church? 

Two friends of mine are revisiting the concept of the church with a building-centric model in light of the recent advent of numerous online services. (Full disclosure, I am technically proficient to develop websites, prepare and run pro-grade audiovisual presentations, and was for technological advances in ministry and missions long before they came into widespread use.) I’m all for revisiting our beliefs, revising them in closer union with scripture, and reminding ourselves what we believe. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas brought issues to the leadership in Jerusalem where they were rightly tested and good thought put to a letter shared with churches throughout the brotherhood. We know the Bereans were commended for studying the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. Inquisitiveness to answer measures of doubt is part of the process of maturing our faith in Christ. Even on bedrock issues like the church. 

What I would caution us on is giving up our freedom to know we have freedom in Christ to meet face-to-face again and replace our public meetings with fear or divisiveness about our public meetings.  We live as good community citizens by command of scripture and I believe the majority of us voluntarily obeyed government issuances on Coronavirus. From face-to-face to online service watching, hopefully back to, face-to-face. Do we revisit the biblical concept of the church simply for the sake of introducing unscriptural beliefs? Do we live in fear of the way we will die, by an unseen virus, and thus use that as excuse to miss face-to-face in-person worship? I, like many of you, read far too much news media in search of information, answers, and in short; hope.  The media seems bent to sensationalize in order to polarize. Polarization, division, will only create more chaos with the levels of anxiety and uncertainty many face at this present moment. Even with all of that stress and strain, we still have freedom in Christ! Freedom to meet together, again.

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 

—John 8:36 (NASB)

We can exercise our Constitutional freedoms. We have freedom to speak, assemble, believe, shop, dine, and visit family and friends. We can have confidence in examining and affirming our beliefs testing them against scripture. We can certainly have confidence in returning back to meeting together as a body; safely executed. We should use our freedom in Christ to live in confident assurance rather than fear and apprehension about assembling again. I would caution my brethren who are revisiting their beliefs on the church to not let what they may feel is their strong faith to re-examine becomes misperceived as a cudgel or bludgeon that misguides a weaker brother or sister into believing it is ok to give up the habit of meeting together; face-to-face. We need to meet. It is commanded to meet. Christians need fellowship and corporate worship as a unified body. 

I don’t know where my friends will end up on their journey to revisit their beliefs. I hope no one is misled to believe what cannot be found and rightly supported in scripture. We certainly can meet again as a corporate body, carefully and responsibly, and should. We need each other and we need to worship our God together.