Thoughts on reopening church

Liberty

Yes, churches have the right to worship, regardless of what a government says.  When the government closes down a church because it sees the church as a threat, that is persecution, and we should find a way to worship anyway.  But when the gov’t asks churches not to meet while also asking businesses and theaters to close, all for health reasons, the church should be inclined to comply.  Church leaders should check into the health reasons as best they can, so they can see and explain how closing is protecting their people.

Medical/Health Concerns

I’m not an expert, so take this for what it's worth: there is a highly contagious, airborne, and deadly virus out there that we have no effective treatment for.  So to breathe the same air with 200 other people in the same room for 2 hours doesn’t make much health sense.  This is why churches agreed to close.  Now, the virus appears to only severely affect the sick and elderly, and it is geographically limited to dense populations.  As we learn these things, it should change how we respond.  It seems the lockdown worked, in that it lowered the number of cases so the city hospitals could handle the load.  Whether we need to continue on this course is not at all obvious to me.  Next point:

How long? 

At the beginning of this quarantine, we all had the feeling that if we just did this for a month or so, we could get back to normal.  Now that we’re 2 months in, we’re getting restless and talking about our freedoms and our livelihoods.  Our governor just extended lockdown to the end of May.  I’ve recently read the Johns Hopkins medical guidelines for how governors should go about reopening.  It speaks of taking a small step to reopening, wait 2-3 weeks to get new data, then hopefully take another small step, then wait 2-3 weeks again.  If the data shows more cases, you clamp down again.  The timeline is far more extensive than was let on early on, and people are not taking that well.  What that means for church is this: going without worship for 1 month is do-able.  Considering this path for 3-6 months is not.  Churches will start meeting again, and they already have.  And this brings me to my last point.

Public perception of risk

I expect people will generally refuse to remain quarantined for that long.  They’ll start to accept the risk of going back to work and shop.  Especially the younger and healthier will accept that risk.  They will social distance the more worried they are, but they’ll start regaining a sense of normalcy.  Getting this virus is nothing to sneeze at (pun intended).  But it’s hardest on the elderly and those already sick.  Those people will see the risk as too great, and stay home.  But the rest are moving away from accepting CDC and Johns Hopkins procedures, which are extremely risk-averse to the point of tanking our economy.

Will people come back at this point?  Or will it take people a while yet to feel safe enough to be in crowds?  I myself have noted a high level of risk-aversion, yet.  But to maintain it at that level such that we don’t hold worship services until there is a vaccine is just not going to happen.  Church leaders, like state governors, may need to lead their folks back out into the church sanctuary, even when some think it’s too soon.

New expectations

Churches will need to make more accommodations for absent members to watch the service from home.  They’ll need to make clear that it’s okay to not attend if they don’t want to take the health risk.  May God give church leaders and members all wisdom to navigate these issues, and charity with each other when we come to different conclusions.