Gathering Together Again
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director, Mark Prater. We're now going into five or six weeks of church services being suspended for almost everyone. And we've talked before, here on the podcast, about that longing to gather once again and what a wonderful Sunday that will be. But the reality is that gathering again probably won't look like just turning the switch on and, all of a sudden, we're all together again, except maybe in a much smaller church. So how are you thinking about the kinds of questions we should be asking and thinking about when it comes to gathering together once again on a Sunday?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, we actually talked about that this week in a Leadership Team meeting that we had on Tuesday. And before we get to the question, Jeff Purswell had a really good thought that he stated in his typical Purswell-ian way. He said this: “Faithfulness sown now will prepare you and your church for fruitfulness in the future.” And, so, as we think about the future, keep your eye on just being faithful now. And I think for pastors, when we don't see all of the effect of our faithful labors, remaining faithful does position us for future fruitfulness. So that's the very first thought that we had, to encourage our guys that way.
Benjamin Kreps:
So, what kind of questions are you asking on your eldership or would you encourage us to be thinking about when it comes to what I call locally, Reunion Sunday, or when we can start actually gathering together physically again.
Mark Prater:
Reunion Sunday is a good term. I like that, by the way. What questions? I think there are just a few that most guys and elderships should really start wrestling through. And I don't think you have to have all the answers to those right now, but you are thinking about them and you're talking about them as elders. So when will you gather together again? How will you gather together again? And are there any policies you're going to have to put in place when you gather, especially to protect those who may be more vulnerable?
Benjamin Kreps:
Any suggestions as you've thought through this and actually talked with your team locally, the eldership that you're a part of?
Mark Prater:
We’ve started kicking it around just a little bit. When we gather again, obviously is going to be informed by state, federal, state and local government regulations and social distancing, policies that may remain in place. I don't think that the government wants to prolong it too long. Well, there's going to be debate on it, right? Hopefully not too long. There is going to be debate when it's safe and different people are going to have different perspectives. But I think the economy kind of drives things in this and reopening has that economic impact that I think will help churches reopened maybe sooner. So that's the first thought: “when.” I think the “how” question is multifaceted. So, for example, a government might say we're going to open up in phases, meaning that only groups of 100 can gather and then several weeks later it's 250 and then it's 500. So churches have to think through, at what point do you reach a critical mass that you feel like you can gather together depending on the size of your church. And if you're a church of 500 and only 250 can meet, would you do two services for example?
Benjamin Kreps:
And then even navigating through what that means because you would need to bring some direction so that not everybody comes to the first service and messes with how you're trying to organize that way. I mean, it could be that for smaller churches this, wonderfully, is one advantage of being in a smaller church under a hundred. It could be that it’s easier for those churches to be able to gather together again. So the ability to do that would be a blessing.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. How big is your church, Ben?
Benjamin Kreps:
We probably are about on a Sunday, we average around 330 or 340.
Mark Prater:
Okay. So, philosophically, if you thought about doing more than one service, what would you do if the Pennsylvania governor said only groups of a hundred can gather? What would you do next?
Benjamin Kreps:
Well it would be challenging to, uh, to just say, well then we're going to do four services because of the direction needed. We might, we haven't thought this through completely, we need to do this as well. But at the very least, I would anticipate we would start having our community groups gathered together again, potentially on a Sunday. And continue doing livestream as we already did before all of this and potentially having at least community groups start being together again, worshiping together, watching the livestream, singing together. And that sort of thing. But that's a great question that we're thinking through as well.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I think the other thing is when you are able to gather, how are you going to protect those who may be more vulnerable to infection? You know, they've got health risk related issues. They may be in the older category, right? So what procedures are you going to put in place to make them comfortable to come to church? That's I think a separate question, but one we have to wrestle through.
Benjamin Kreps:
Absolutely. And that's all, you know, everybody has different kinds of spaces and capacity where they gather and all those things. So really important questions, practical questions for us to be thinking about. Do you have anything else you wanted to add to that conversation?
Mark Prater:
A couple of thoughts would be that we've got to realize that the people in our churches are probably going to have different comfort levels about gathering together. Again, I think they're going to be excited. I think on that day, as we've talked about in a previous podcast, our churches are going to explode with joy. But there's still going to be some apprehension some may have. So we just to be aware of that and be pastoring people. I think the other thing is with these questions is that I don't think we have to have all the answers right now. What you want to communicate to your church, what I would recommend is that you're thinking about these questions exactly about them and ask them to pray for you. I think that will serve in the most.
Benjamin Kreps:
Simple but true and practical and helpful. I think where we are locally in light of the different people's comfort level, we're thinking in terms of we want to be completely releasing and full of grace for where people are as we begin to gather. Again, if they don't feel safe, we want to make sure they feel our love and affirmation and not any sense of condemnation because of their anxiety about gathering. So, good input. Good questions. Thank you Mark, and thank all of you who have watched this podcast and we look forward to seeing you here again very soon, right here.