Thoughts on Reopening
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, we're talking about reopening as the conversation continues and we navigate through this pandemic. There are some Sovereign Grace churches that have begun to gather again. Why don't you tell us about that?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I'm only aware of a couple, but I think that number is going to grow, obviously, in the coming months. So Emmaus Road Church in Bozeman, Montana. The restrictions in that state are a little bit different, obviously. Joel Carlson has begun to gather his church and then I'm aware that Cornerstone Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, held some services on Sunday where they limited it to 100 members that they had by invite, partly to give them a bit of a trial run for what it could like look like as they expand that number.
Benjamin Kreps:
And what did it look like when they gathered? There were some sort of precautions that they were taking? Correct? Masks and some things like that.
Mark Prater:
Right. I was aware of precautions that Tommy Hill was sharing with me. I haven't talked to anyone from Cornerstone since Sunday, so I don't know exactly what they did, but they were obviously going to have disinfecting stations with hand sanitizer. The building had been sanitized. They were going to use social distancing, allowing family units to sit together since families are quarantined together. That makes a whole lot of sense.
Limiting the service to 100. I believe they were talking about folks wearing masks but not during the preaching, at least these were ideas they were kicking around. And I just mention all of that because I think that this is one of the ways, again, that we benefit from our partnership with Sovereign Grace. As churches go before us, some churches go before us and reopen, we can really learn from them.
And I like that because all of these thoughts about reopening don't have to come from the Leadership Team. They can come from our pastors and what they’re actually learning. So we'll try to keep you updated on who's reopening first.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Wonderful. So in the middle of all this, while we're making plans, many of us without any certain plan from the authorities, but attempting to make plans as much as we can, how do you view the way we should be communicating to our churches throughout all of this?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, it's a great question and it's one of the questions we plan to discuss on Thursday. This podcast will drop into the guys boxes on Monday the 11th, and on Thursday May 14th at 2:30 Eastern, we're going to have another quarterly zoom meeting that all of our Sovereign Grace pastors can voluntarily participate in. Mickey and I will be leading that. So please join us for that and you'll be getting information soon and Zoom information in particular.
But one of the questions we're going to kick around is how do you communicate effectively to your church about reopening, knowing that you've got members who are going to have different levels of comfort about gathering together again.
Benjamin Kreps:
And any thoughts about how to navigate around the expectations of folks in the church, the way that they are processing? It's a mixed bag. I know it is in my church. We have people who are talking about how they would like to begin civil disobedience. We have others who have informed us they will not be leaving their home for a long time. So any thoughts about managing expectations and actually encouraging people as we communicate about whatever our plan will be connected to the guidelines and the regulations?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, my thoughts. I've got some thoughts, but any pastor knows his church best. So my thoughts may not be helpful. You're going to have to really communicate in a way that you think will best serve your church. But I would guess most churches are going to have a mixed response to this.
So I think I'd be really upfront. I would just be saying things like, we're going to have members who have different levels of comfort about gathering together again. And those who may be reluctant to gather sooner. We don't want to make judgements about their maturity. We don't want to use that as a litmus test for their maturity. Rather, we just want to relate to them in charity and in love. And it's just a great time for the church to be patient with one another as God's patient with us.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, here where we are, we have just regularly been telling the church even as we begin to gather again, and we're a long ways off, I think, in Pennsylvania, but we'll see. We don't have actual guidance about when things are going to be opening up. But just regularly communicating that we understand if you need to stay home, if you want to stay home, if it's wise to stay home, even as we gather, even if we can all be together again on a Sunday morning. No condemnation, extending grace, totally understand. We're keeping the live stream going so people can participate that way. So I think that's really important.
Mark Prater:
I think the other, you know, communication issue that guys have to think through is how do you set, how do you communicate, the right expectations for that first Sunday or first Sundays when you gather together? Because I think it's going to feel a little bit different. And how do you do that without diminishing joy or the enthusiasm about gathering and yet setting expectations right? I’ve still got think through that question a bit more, but we hope to discuss that on our Zoom meeting next week.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent. Any other thoughts about reopening?
Mark Prater:
I think the other thing I've been thinking about, and this would depend on your state and the restrictions, but as the weather gets warmer, small groups could meet outside. You know, if you've got somebody who's got a yard that's big enough, you could bring lawn chairs and spread out and keep social distancing and still have great fellowship together. So I think the warmer weather will actually help us begin to enjoy fellowship actually being together rather than over Zoom.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. I like that letter that you sent to me from the president of Purdue University where there was a line in there that said something like: this is a serious and sobering challenge, but this calls for leaders to think courageously and creatively about the way forward. And so I think that certainly applies to the pastors as well. We’ve got to get creative, I think, even as we're being faithful and I'm being careful. Well, thanks for your thoughts, Mark. I guess we'll see you on the Zoom call Thursday afternoon.
Mark Prater:
Great.
Benjamin Kreps:
And thank you everyone else for watching and we'll see you next time. Right here. Bye for now.
