| Dear Church Family,
As you are all aware by now, Governor Inslee has issued a stay-at-home order that forbids any gathering for any purpose (you can read about the press conference here). This order eliminates our ability to meet in person as a church for at least the next two weeks. It is important that we realize that this order is not directed to churches only. Thus, it should not be interpreted as religious persecution. If the Governor had only ordered churches not to gather, we (the Session) believe that it would be our duty before God to obey God rather than man and meet as the Church has done through the centuries when persecuted. Notice also that it is a temporary order to combat something that is threatening our public health. Because of these two factors, we believe that it is important that we follow Governor Inslee's emergency orders. This belief has been a position all along: to be faithful to God and honor the civil magistrate to the best of our ability.
The practical implication of this order is that we have to suspend all in-person gatherings of our church. We had already suspended our Wednesday evening activities, Sunday school, afternoon service, and any other activity other than the Sunday morning worship service and the book study groups. Now we must suspend those activities as well, though book study groups may continue virtually at the discretion of each group leader. I am happy to help you set up virtual meetings if that works for you.
We will not attempt to replace the Sunday worship with some online version of it because it is impossible to do so. The corporate and public worship of God on the Lord's Day is not something that can be done virtually. We see in the Psalms that when the Psalmist was isolated from the people of God, he craved for the corporate gathering of God's people. His attitude was one of longing, not one of trying to replace it with something else (see Ps. 42, 62, and 63 for examples). So, we will not be streaming an online version of our service with preaching, praying, and singing. Let us mourn the our isolation, and let us crave the day we can gather again — "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast" (Ps. 42:1-2, 4).
Having said that, we do want to help all of us to keep the Lord's Day and to stay connected with one another. To that end, we will provide a Bible lesson that will become available to all of us at the same time in the church's YouTube channel (we will announce that time later in the week). We ask that all of our people watch or listen to that lesson at the same time. The lesson will be followed by a time of live interaction using a service called Microsoft Teams. We will use this time to hear how we are all doing and pray for each other. I will send you instructions on how to use it in a separate e-mail and am more than happy to help anyone set up their device with MS Teams. The links for the Bible lesson and the live interaction will be sent to you on Friday. We will also publish either via e-mail or on the church's site suggestions on how to sanctify the Lord's Day during this time of isolation.
In addition to that, we are scheduling a live MS Teams gathering for tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. You will receive the link to that meeting later today in the Praise/Prayer Requests e-mail. We will pray together and have a Bible lesson during that time.
We are living through a time of great uncertainty and rapid change. It is very tempting to become anxious. I know I have felt my fair share of anxiety. In my anxious moments I have been turning to three truths that I find extremely comforting: the Lord Jesus Christ remains the same through all this (Hebrews 13:8), the Father continues to love me and to work all things according to that love (Romans 8:28-29), and God remains faithful to all the promises he has made (2 Timothy 2:13).
Please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our elders with question or concerns, or just to talk. Above all else, pray! Pray that our good God would prosper his Church in and through this difficult situation here and around the world. Wouldn't it be awesome if the global Church of Jesus Christ came out of this crises stronger, more vibrant, and purified?
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-pastor-tito-on-behalf-of-session.html
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