Today, the President stated, “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now, this weekend.”

If you’ve walked with City Church for any length of time, you’re likely to guess my thoughts on such a sweeping pronouncement as this. As I’ve shared, the pressure and tension related to COVID-19 (the coronavirus) impacts can, has and will reveal our real character.

Are “places of faith” essential?

This post is not place for a full-throated discussion (e.g., what’s “the right thing” and who decides, and combining “places” and “faith” in the same sentence). Suffice it to say the gathering of Christ-followers was a central (essential) aspect of both who and whose we are long before COVID-19 or any related civic pronouncement (Hebrews 10:25). It’s dangerously easy to fall prey to a binary choice or wooden interpretation of biblical text. As the adage goes, all that glitters is not gold. I’m reminded of God’s admonishment to His chosen,

If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. (Jeremiah 7:5-8)

What’s in-order is a thoughtful, prayerful and spirit-led consideration concerning God’s pronouncement on the desired place for our adoration and worship of Him. Hint: it’s not a building. As the Apostle Paul admonished the Corinthian church, certain things are to be discussed and pondered within (not outside of) the Body of Christ.

Will we physically gather? If God spares us and wills, absolutely! 

When? Hopefully, very soon.

May 31st? No.

Simply because something is legal does not make it prudent. There’s a difference between choosing things that are good versus things that are best. Choosing well requires wisdom. As my dear friend Wes Ehrhart put it, “Wisdom is not found in the law of the land but the law written on our hearts.”

Well, when will we gather? Very soon.

Plans and work are underway to better accommodate our gathering. In the interim, I invite everyone to continue worshipping with us every Sunday morning at 10 on Facebook LIVE @citychcurchsac, and participating in our small group and mid-week Bible studies on the Zoom meeting platform.

I solicit your prayers. Gloria Dei!

Categories: Acts17seventeen

Pastor Mark

A p-k (preacher’s kid), Mark is the eighth of nine children born to Reuben and Henrietta Meeks, prolific planters of nearly 30 churches throughout the Central Valley of California. After four decades of teaching, discipling, and ministering, including to the hospitalized and imprisoned, Mark responded to God’s call to pastoral ministry. In addition to degrees in civil engineering and public administration, Mark received his Masters in Theology from Fuller Seminary.