How do you handle it if your church seems to just stick its head in the sand with rising numbers? Masks and social distancing were required at one point, and now are not. No one wears a mask at services with hundreds of people. We attend online because we are not comfortable gathering in a large, singing crowd of unmasked people. We also know many people at the church do not believe in the vaccine. There are currently 3 people from the congregation in the hospital in serious shape with COVID. We live in Michigan and all the hospitals are a huge mess right now. My husband is a healthcare worker, and he can't believe the lack of regard for safety. There has not been a single peep from the leadership about changing the guidelines and bringing back masks. I just can't wrap my head around it and I am so discouraged. How is this the Christian way? When we talked to a friend last week who is a deacon, he just said, well it's about a 50/50 split on masks among the congregation. So....we just default to the 50% who are against it? Instead of following the recommendations of scientists and epidemiologists? That doesn't make any sense. Thank you so much for your posts, they have encouraged me and reminded me that my family is not crazy or fearful, that there are other Christians like us who are following the same protocols.
I too have felt lost and homeless. Actually, I've felt crazy because I've put trust in this community, and yet I desire to trust myself as well, so there is an alienation, a dissociation, a splitting. Through this I have realized that God calls us to trust Him and to trust His story. I've seen how I've put my trust in my pastor and my leaders and the evangelical church as a whole in the same way I am to put my trust in God. And so, of course I have been let down because only trust in God sustains and is a solid Rock. Not that I shouldn't trust others, but this total reliance on God should not be transferred anywhere but God. Yes, I believe there are leadership failures and blindness and idolatry and much ickiness, but I'm learning to look inward. Taking my eyes off what is distracting and turning them onto Christ. It's not painless, but it's fruitful. Praying peace over you all.
"Through this I have realized that God calls us to trust Him and to trust His story." This is so true - I am learning this as well. It does feel alienating at times. The place we called home for many years is acting in a way that does not feel safe or responsible at all. I feel we can't trust them, but we can still trust God with this.
Some days, it really feels like the shroud of the pandemic will never lift from our lives. It's hard to keep walking this path when many have abandoned it.
I hope our church universal will heed your guidance. Blessings.
TY for this post. Question about sharing Eucharist. When in lockdown, we had drive-in pickup of prepackaged blessed wafer/juice for monthly Eucharist. Reopened in-person worship, 1 service/Sunday in May 2021, 2 services in Sept 2021 (and we livestream), everyone masked, every other pew blocked off, windows open, HEPA filtration units added. Pastor, liturgist, any other speaker remove masks when speaking. Choir and congregation sing while masked. Pastor recently requested/received permission from our COVID response team (on which I sit) to return to eucharist practice of folks coming forward to receive a piece of bread, followed by a small cup of juice. They pull down masks to partake. I am not engaging in this as I believe it's unsafe for nearly everyone to remove their masks, given that our congregation has both many vulnerable (even if vaccinated) elderly and young families with young children. Any thoughts/guidance? Our team has said no to Xmas Eve practice of individual candles that people would blow out. I'd prefer no candles at all, but we've agreed to have ushers use candle snuffers. Context: Our County and multi-county region have very high COVID numbers ~80+/100k/day. National Guard recently called in to assist our hospitals. Elective surgeries being delayed.
I think a definite "no" to the candles. Good call! For the eucharist, the time pulling down the mask is really small. Do congregants get the bread by the pastor giving it to them? Or do they get it themselves? If they get it themselves, that's a high risk of transmission since multiple hands go into one plate. Many churches have gone to doing eucharist with the individual serve size bread/juice that they get as they enter the church. That might be an option too. With the high case counts in your area, I would certainly go on the cautious side - especially with Omicron about to slam the US.
I think that there are general best practices that all churches can employ, and then there are individual risk comfort levels that vary from person to person. Some congregations have fallen into ignoring best practices all together for one reason or another, and some congregations are applying best practices as best they can, but since we are communities with individuals who have varying levels of accepted risk, these things are not a one size fits all. I think it's important to remember that the point is not to remove all risk, but to protect our communities from unnecessary illness and burden. It sounds like your congregation has been thoughtful and careful and are applying a wide variety of measures to keep things as safe as possible but they are moving to an accepted risk they find more sustainable but perhaps is a risk you are uncomfortable with. I hope you are able to speak freely to your leadership at least so someone else might bear your burden.
As a family, we celebrate the Eucharist at home. It's very special and intimate. And many dollar stores have the battery operated candles. My church adopted using these long before the pandemic - it's fun and very easy - far less chance of fire, which makes us Northern Californians VERY wearisome.
Thank you for this guidance Dr. Emily Smith. Again I am left feeling distraught about how to engage church. My older kids are vaccinated. My high risk 3 year old isn't. No one masks at our church anymore. They did when our state mandated it, but not anymore.
My pastor is a reasonable man, do you have any recommendations about how to bring these concerns up to him?
I'm so sorry! I posted several links in this blog post about masking that might be helpful. Look towards the end where I talk about reframing masks and vaccines. I sure hope it's helpful.
How do you handle it if your church seems to just stick its head in the sand with rising numbers? Masks and social distancing were required at one point, and now are not. No one wears a mask at services with hundreds of people. We attend online because we are not comfortable gathering in a large, singing crowd of unmasked people. We also know many people at the church do not believe in the vaccine. There are currently 3 people from the congregation in the hospital in serious shape with COVID. We live in Michigan and all the hospitals are a huge mess right now. My husband is a healthcare worker, and he can't believe the lack of regard for safety. There has not been a single peep from the leadership about changing the guidelines and bringing back masks. I just can't wrap my head around it and I am so discouraged. How is this the Christian way? When we talked to a friend last week who is a deacon, he just said, well it's about a 50/50 split on masks among the congregation. So....we just default to the 50% who are against it? Instead of following the recommendations of scientists and epidemiologists? That doesn't make any sense. Thank you so much for your posts, they have encouraged me and reminded me that my family is not crazy or fearful, that there are other Christians like us who are following the same protocols.
I too have felt lost and homeless. Actually, I've felt crazy because I've put trust in this community, and yet I desire to trust myself as well, so there is an alienation, a dissociation, a splitting. Through this I have realized that God calls us to trust Him and to trust His story. I've seen how I've put my trust in my pastor and my leaders and the evangelical church as a whole in the same way I am to put my trust in God. And so, of course I have been let down because only trust in God sustains and is a solid Rock. Not that I shouldn't trust others, but this total reliance on God should not be transferred anywhere but God. Yes, I believe there are leadership failures and blindness and idolatry and much ickiness, but I'm learning to look inward. Taking my eyes off what is distracting and turning them onto Christ. It's not painless, but it's fruitful. Praying peace over you all.
"Through this I have realized that God calls us to trust Him and to trust His story." This is so true - I am learning this as well. It does feel alienating at times. The place we called home for many years is acting in a way that does not feel safe or responsible at all. I feel we can't trust them, but we can still trust God with this.
We've had three people from my church pass away and COUNTLESS others get gravely ill. Weeping in Northern California.
Kelly your experience is my experience here in NE Oregon.
Some days, it really feels like the shroud of the pandemic will never lift from our lives. It's hard to keep walking this path when many have abandoned it.
I hope our church universal will heed your guidance. Blessings.
TY for this post. Question about sharing Eucharist. When in lockdown, we had drive-in pickup of prepackaged blessed wafer/juice for monthly Eucharist. Reopened in-person worship, 1 service/Sunday in May 2021, 2 services in Sept 2021 (and we livestream), everyone masked, every other pew blocked off, windows open, HEPA filtration units added. Pastor, liturgist, any other speaker remove masks when speaking. Choir and congregation sing while masked. Pastor recently requested/received permission from our COVID response team (on which I sit) to return to eucharist practice of folks coming forward to receive a piece of bread, followed by a small cup of juice. They pull down masks to partake. I am not engaging in this as I believe it's unsafe for nearly everyone to remove their masks, given that our congregation has both many vulnerable (even if vaccinated) elderly and young families with young children. Any thoughts/guidance? Our team has said no to Xmas Eve practice of individual candles that people would blow out. I'd prefer no candles at all, but we've agreed to have ushers use candle snuffers. Context: Our County and multi-county region have very high COVID numbers ~80+/100k/day. National Guard recently called in to assist our hospitals. Elective surgeries being delayed.
I think a definite "no" to the candles. Good call! For the eucharist, the time pulling down the mask is really small. Do congregants get the bread by the pastor giving it to them? Or do they get it themselves? If they get it themselves, that's a high risk of transmission since multiple hands go into one plate. Many churches have gone to doing eucharist with the individual serve size bread/juice that they get as they enter the church. That might be an option too. With the high case counts in your area, I would certainly go on the cautious side - especially with Omicron about to slam the US.
I think that there are general best practices that all churches can employ, and then there are individual risk comfort levels that vary from person to person. Some congregations have fallen into ignoring best practices all together for one reason or another, and some congregations are applying best practices as best they can, but since we are communities with individuals who have varying levels of accepted risk, these things are not a one size fits all. I think it's important to remember that the point is not to remove all risk, but to protect our communities from unnecessary illness and burden. It sounds like your congregation has been thoughtful and careful and are applying a wide variety of measures to keep things as safe as possible but they are moving to an accepted risk they find more sustainable but perhaps is a risk you are uncomfortable with. I hope you are able to speak freely to your leadership at least so someone else might bear your burden.
As a family, we celebrate the Eucharist at home. It's very special and intimate. And many dollar stores have the battery operated candles. My church adopted using these long before the pandemic - it's fun and very easy - far less chance of fire, which makes us Northern Californians VERY wearisome.
Thank you for this guidance Dr. Emily Smith. Again I am left feeling distraught about how to engage church. My older kids are vaccinated. My high risk 3 year old isn't. No one masks at our church anymore. They did when our state mandated it, but not anymore.
My pastor is a reasonable man, do you have any recommendations about how to bring these concerns up to him?
I'm so sorry! I posted several links in this blog post about masking that might be helpful. Look towards the end where I talk about reframing masks and vaccines. I sure hope it's helpful.