Coronavirus and the Church

I wrote this to our congregation in Michigan this week.

Some Catholic churches in Washington state have suspended serving communion at mass.  A CREC church in Washington state has received requests to cancel services, given the concern.  Elders in churches on the west coast live very near hospitals with confirmed cases.  How do we think through this?  Here are some of my thoughts:

Fellowship or cleanliness?

This is a bit of a false dichotomy, but they ARE competing principles, to a degree.  Committing to fellowship together means a willingness to share germs, to a certain degree.  We shake hands, hug, talk into each other's faces, and share a common loaf of bread and the same tray of wine.  Even in the face of much more severe viruses and plagues, God's people have always risked their personal health to meet together and serve those in need.  Outbreaks like this challenge prosperous Christians like us to put Christian virtues above what Francis Schaeffer called our idol of "personal peace and affluence."

Observe good hygiene

That said, there is a lot we can do to hinder the spread of germs.  Touch your face less often, cough into your elbow, wash your hands, etc.  For example, at church I've taken to having an elder or deacon break the bread and take the communion tray when I have a cold.

Observe common courtesy

When we catch a cold from each other, we likely take it in stride as sharing in the miseries of this life together.  If we have the stomach flu, though, we feel more obligated to quarantine ourselves and not give that to others.  Whatever the threshold, teach your children and remind yourselves that it is loving your neighbor to avoid giving them your sick germs!  Having a non-sick family member handle the bread and wine could be a way to do that at church.

Allow for varying opinions

This is a hard area in which to extend tolerance for other views, but it remains necessary!  If the family behind you in the pew is coughing or sniffling, it can be easy to judge them for infecting your family.  But they decided it was too mild a case to warrant missing church, and we need to trust each other's decisions.  The threshold for staying home is higher for some of us than for others.  You're risking getting sick from them, so that they can be here in worship.

Don't panic

There are no confirmed cases of Corona in Michigan as of today.  The death rate is low for those who do get it - mostly for those with other severe conditions already.  We don't need to consider canceling church at this point.  If anything, you may want to consider adjusting that threshold for whether you keep a mildly sick family member home or not.  (The experts seem to be saying that in the absence of a vaccine or built up immunity in us to a new virus, good health habits are the best way to slow and stop its spread.)  

 - We don't want to disregard science or basic hygiene, yet we can't see the germs, we don't have perfect knowledge of who is how sick.  So we need in the end to trust God's providence, as we act wisely.