Post by Mercy for All on Jul 16, 2020 19:23:03 GMT
I have appreciated Andy Stanley for quite a while for a lot of reasons. He's showing some good wisdom here...
www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2020/july/decision-not-to-gather-physically-on-sundays-until-2021-int.html
www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2020/july/decision-not-to-gather-physically-on-sundays-until-2021-int.html
...this isn't me in my prayer closet saying, "God has shown me. Here we go." I do not lead that way. I don't recommend anybody leading that way. There were a lot of conversations: we surveyed our staff and our volunteers. We surveyed our congregation in general, but at the same time, for us this is a safety issue. The way I've said it to the press in the Atlanta area is that we are for our community. We don't want to accidentally do something harmful to our community while gathering a whole lot of people. Under these circumstances, you run the risk of actually doing something negative to the community and gathering the 20% that show up is doing nothing for the community.
What we can do for the community is to reallocate assets and resources, to serve the community, to get more involved with our community charities that we support all year long, and to raise money for organizations. This is an incredible opportunity for the church to be seen doing good. This is important. It is not enough for the church to do good. The church must be seen doing good.
Our secular culture is very health conscious. We're not going to ask people to come do something that's unsafe, and in a church as large as ours, we cannot do contact tracing. The government doesn't require this, but it's good stewardship.
We're having a hard time just doing contact tracing with our staff and we've had multiple staff members test positive for COVID-19. I can't imagine taking on the responsibility of doing that when you have children and preschoolers and adults roaming around the building.
What we can do for the community is to reallocate assets and resources, to serve the community, to get more involved with our community charities that we support all year long, and to raise money for organizations. This is an incredible opportunity for the church to be seen doing good. This is important. It is not enough for the church to do good. The church must be seen doing good.
Our secular culture is very health conscious. We're not going to ask people to come do something that's unsafe, and in a church as large as ours, we cannot do contact tracing. The government doesn't require this, but it's good stewardship.
We're having a hard time just doing contact tracing with our staff and we've had multiple staff members test positive for COVID-19. I can't imagine taking on the responsibility of doing that when you have children and preschoolers and adults roaming around the building.
