Finding Faith ... in the setbacks, again

Dear Faith Family:

There is a popular meme (which is essentially a visual joke) showing up on Facebook accounts about how teachers are using Etch A Sketches to make their lesson plans for 2020 because they have to make changes so rapidly and so often.

Well … running a church in 2020 is a very similar proposition. We have to be continually mindful of the changing circumstances we face in this growing COVID pandemic. For our church leaders, this calls for us to lead with caution, flexibility and a mindfulness of what is best for our overall congregation. It’s no easy task these days, trust me.

As Faith Lutheran’s leaders (the council and myself), we promised months ago that we would approach our return to in-person service with several guiding principles, including the safety and wellbeing of our entire congregation, inclusivity, logistics and cautiously addressing the unknowns.

And to date, I am proud of the work that our council, our various church committees and the folks who sit on our church’s newly formed “Smart Restart Committee” have done. Despite worshiping digitally for five months, our congregation has remained steadfast in its fellowship, our giving has remained strong, and our faithful have focused on the positives this experience has delivered us. … We should all be proud of this! It’s a sign that we have a compassionate, healthy, vibrant and strong church community.

So, all that being said, our church council met again Wednesday, Aug. 12, for its monthly meeting, and the No. 1 topic on the agenda was to make a decision about when to return to in-person services.

Our council weighed all of the relevant information, including information from the state, our synod leaders, our Education Committee, our Smart Restart Committee and even me speaking pastorally, and they voted to continue worshipping each week in the same fashion that we have since mid-March through the end of October.

This means that we will continue to host a “live” digital worship each Tuesday night at 6 p.m. on our church’s Facebook page. And then I will post that recorded service to our YouTube page and for replay at 10 a.m. (normal season start time) on our Facebook page. As we’ve discussed before, this approach allows our Faith Family to experience the worship service in the manner that is working best for their family.

This decision, of course, deviates from our initial plan. In early summer, we thought we, and the country, might be in a place where in-person services were feasible beginning in September. But, after a healthy discussion on Wednesday night, the council and I believe that is too ambitious of a goal at this time.

So, instead, we are planning to delay a return to in-person services until Sunday, Nov. 1. And we will, of course, revisit this proposition again in October after we have more information about what is happening with the pandemic, the flu season, our children’s return to school, and many other factors. This will continue to be a fluid situation, and thus we as leaders will continue to be flexible in our decision making.

I will also share with you that our Education Committee voted this past Monday night to also continue delivering Sunday school through digital means. I’m excited to say that our Education Committee members have embraced this challenge in the past five months, and they have delivered some awesome remote learning opportunities for our 15 or so Sunday school learners. And so I have no doubt that they will continue to deliver meaningful faith education in these next couple of months even if they have to do it online.

Faith Family ... as your pastor, I wholeheartedly support these decisions, and even advocated for them. As this fall drew nearer and nearer, the ball of anxiety that was growing in my stomach seemed unbearable. I was wondering how, as a faith leader, I could support a return to service that would put so many of our Faith Family at risk. This past weekend, I finally came to the realization that I couldn’t. ... And on Wednesday night, I shared my feelings with the council.

Believe me when I say that no one in this congregation wants to return to in-person worship and Sunday school more than this guy! … Planning services for a group of five people each week and then delivering sermons into a camera leaves a lot to be desired for a pastor who cherishes what he gets to do. And so it was with no easy conscience that I made my recommendations this week.

But I do believe it is the right thing to do, both spiritually and practically. We have demonstrated these past five months that we truly know and believe that the church is not composed of the four walls that are holding up the roof at Faith Lutheran Church. Our church is composed of the dozens of members who are caring for each other, praying for each other and doing acts of kindness for one another to get us through this challenging time.

And so my recommendation to the council was to temporarily divert our efforts involved in returning to in-person service into new efforts to ensure that our most vulnerable believers are being taken care of. In other words, instead of asking for volunteers to help us hold a church service that frankly was going to be pretty devoid of soulfulness, let’s ask for those volunteers to support those among our congregation who need the most support right now. Instead of seeking out volunteers to sanitize the church each week, let’s ask for volunteers to create a Faith Family calling tree. Instead of asking for volunteers to work a front desk to test people coming in for worship, let’s ask for those who might be willing to run errands for those in need. Instead of asking for volunteers to usher folks into a sterile worshipping environment, let’s ask for those who are willing to get involved in our ministry of healing. … Well, you get the idea: There are vital and necessary ways to invest our members’ willingness to help, without pouring them into an in-person worship service.

I believe with all of my pastor’s heart right now that we are being asked to care for each other in ways that do not require us to come together to worship.

Faith Family … there will come a day when we will return to the church for worship. And that will be a glorious day! … You can bet that I will be the first one at the front doors heartily welcoming you all in and joyfully leading you all down the center aisle as we happily flood the sanctuary with our members! But until that day, let’s do the prudent thing and protect our vulnerable, ensure that we are not excluding others by holding services they cannot attend, and making our decisions based on the love for one another.

That being said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some tweaks that could be made to our current practices so that our Faith Family is getting spiritually fed as they need. And the No. 1 concern is most likely communion.

Council President Debi Byars and I are working on a plan so that we can deliver a drive-up communion to those who desire. Our plan is this: We will designate certain worship services as “communion” services, and those wanting communion could line up outside the church in their cars. After we conclude the service for the night, we could come outside and deliver communion to each car, sacraments and blessings and all.

We know communion means so much to so many. It is a very personal sacrament, and there is no digital experience that is going to replace it. And so we think this plan gives us a way to deliver the sacrament and to ensure that everyone is being spiritually fed in the manner they desire and need, while keeping people safe.

Additionally, I plan to work with the Education Committee to share the faith formation work the children are doing with the rest of the congregation. We will continue to utilize our Facebook page to do so, and maybe even our monthly newsletters when it works out. And as we progress, we’ll continue to look for other ways to creatively celebrate fellowship among our members. In fact, if you have ideas, please send them to Debi or I.

This was not the news that I wanted to be sharing with you after the council’s August meeting. In the months leading up to the meeting, I was jazzed to think about what that first joyous day back in the church was going to be like for our congregation. But somewhere in the journey, it became obvious to me that this was not going to be a joyous return to service. It was going to be very sterile and a shell of what we all loved about worshipping together. And at that point, my views changed more to prioritizing safety and inclusivity rather than a rush to worship in person again.

Faith Family, there will be that day when we return to in-person service, and I’ll lead the whole joyous procession in a conga line down the center aise! We’ll find some tambourines and Mike Nelson can play a rousing version of “When The Saints Come Marching In” as we enter! … And we’ll make one grand party out of our return!

But until that day, let’s focus on lifting up our fellow Faith family members and our neighbors, being kind to each other, and most importantly praying for a country that could use some prayers. I think that is the Christlike thing to do right now.

I hope this letter finds you all safe, healthy and secure. Blessing to you all!

Intern Pastor Devlyn