Coming together as a Church during COVID-19

In the book, Seeking God Together, the author Fryling offers some profound insights to the importance of Christian fellowship and how God calls His people to gather to grow and mature together as a church.  Here is just one excerpt. 

“At the beginning of time, the first man lived with God in the Garden of Eden.  Adam’s relationship with God was meaningful and productive.  It may have seemed as if life couldn’t get any better.  But God looked at Adam and said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18)   This has tremendous implications for those of us who want to move forward on the journey of spiritual growth.  At the time God made this divine observation, Adam was perfect, created in his Maker’s image.  Sin had not yet tainted creation.  But it was not good enough for Adam to live alone with God.  He needed someone else.  The poet John Milton said, ‘Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named, not good.’ God knew that human beings needed human companionship.’ ” (Alice Fryling, Seeking God Together, 2009 pg. 15)

One of the defining characteristics of our faith in Christ is why and how we gather together as a community of faith.  In fact the force of the original language of the word “church” (ecclesia) in the New Testament is simply a public gathering of people.   It was used in the ancient Greco world for when governing authorities would call a town into a public assembly to hear a message.   Christ and the Apostle’s used the word “church” to describe an Assembly of God’s people.  It is within the context of the “church” that the many commands of God are fulfilled.  We cannot “love, encourage, worship, teach and pray for one another” without another.  It is not possible to follow Jesus and fulfill the many commands of Scripture without coming together as God’s people.

This of course raises a question during this crazy time of COVID-19 and the mandate of “social distancing.”    How are we as a church to fulfill God’s commands to continue worshipping, praying, loving, learning and coming together as God’s people?   The answer for this season is that we are gathering together through a few basic on-line technologies.  They will be Facebook Live, Zoom video conferencing, and through our church YouTube channel.   Here is a link to a page we developed to help you connect!