Pastor's Blog: Back to the Future
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Many will remember the wildly popular science fiction comedy from the 80’s titled, “Back to the Future.” It’s a film in which the lead character is sent back in time where he meets his future parents in high school, creates a conflict in their relationship, and has to repair the damage, all the while working to find a way to get back to 1985. The movie coined a new phrase in our American lexicon in which to go “back to the future” refers to any time we must stop thinking about ways we could have acted in the past so that what may have happened could have been averted. It’s a totally useless exercise because the past is past and the only thing over which we might have any measure of real influence is what lies ahead of us in the future.
As I have made all too clear in my recent preaching and writing, I’m ready to move beyond the past ten or so months. I’m ready to put the “season of COVID” in my rearview mirror as quickly as possible. But alas, reality won’t let me. Therefore, as much as I’d like never to have to make a COVID-related decision again, the recent spike in coronavirus cases throughout the country in general and Jefferson County in particular makes doing so unavoidable.
What’s made this spike in coronavirus cases such a pressing concern for me now is the manner in which the virus has begun to show up in the membership of our church. As long as we were hearing only occasional reports of positive cases among our membership, I felt like we were in good shape in terms of our in-person gatherings. But the increase in positive cases within the MBBC fold and the knowledge that many of them have been recently present for ministry activities, albeit unaware of their positive diagnosis, has led me to see that now is the time to make an adjustment back to online participation. We are fortunate that throughout these last months our church has not been the center of a COVID outbreak. But to press on with in-person gatherings at this time seems irresponsible to me.
So, after having conferred with Drs. Meredith Welch and Leland Allen, both infectious disease physicians in our church who have been on the front lines of this fight, they are in the strongest agreement that we should hold off on allowing for in-person participation until the situation improves. Specifically, we will be tracking the percentage of positive test cases of all tests done over a fourteen-day period, which is presently at 40%, more than double the rate of positivity we saw in the summer after Independence Day and Labor Day gatherings. If you’d like to follow those numbers as well, you can access them at www.bamatracker.com. We will make the transition to online-only participation beginning this Sunday, January 10, and going through January 31, and at that time will look at the percentages and make a determination for February. Then we will go forward on a month-by-month basis until we are in a better place to resume our in-person gatherings.
This transition applies to all in-person gatherings at MBBC, both large and small, church-related and parachurch-related. The church office, however, will remain open during regular hours, Monday through Friday, and we will also honor scheduled weddings and funerals, with appropriate safety protocols in place, which include limited attendance and mandatory face coverings. And we will do our best to accommodate other weddings and funerals, as may be necessary. The Early Learning Center has its own board, and they will decide how they will proceed at this time and will communicate their plans with their staff and families.
I’m grateful to everyone who has been following the guidelines we put in place so that we haven’t seen the situation at the church spiral out of control to this point. But now, we are facing the consequences of those persons outside of the church who haven’t heeded the pleas of public health officials to be cautious in their holiday gatherings and must do our part in not adding to what is clearly a post-holiday spike in cases.
Simply put, we can’t change the past. But we can do something about the future and do something we must. I’m confident that making this decision now will lessen the odds of contributing to the problem and in the process offer our larger community a compelling witness about our church’s commitment to the neighbor love about which Jesus taught. Yes, it will mean some sacrifice on our part for the short term. But doing so will make it possible for us to gather again sooner and safer.
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for the online participation you will continue to give in the weeks to come. Most of all, thank you for your willingness to be salt and light and in this way to remove all obstacles that might keep us not only from a paralyzing past but also from the good and joyful future God in Christ Jesus has for all of us to know.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).