I admit it. The title to this email was click bait. As far as I know, no one at Fairview is sick with COVID or another contagious illness. Did the title make you fearful? Did you think, “I told you so!”? How did you react?

My aim in writing is to remind us that we are entering fall. Cold and flu season will begin (adding to the virus already going around) and people will get sick. What will this mean for us as a church? What precautions will we take? How will it be handled when someone is sick? It’s important to consider these things before they happen.
 

When Someone Does Get Sick

First, we have no plans to adjust our service format. We want to continue to leave it to you to make decisions for your own health. We will not cancel services, limit attendance, mandate masks, enforce physical distancing, or other such measures. We ask that you use common sense to keep up good hygiene and stay home if you are ill—the same measures I know you already practice during cold and flu season.

Second, I know of two churches in our circles who have had attendees test positive for COVID (none were a result of transmission at church). They’ve shared with me their stories and I want to pass on this information so that you know what to expect when something similar happens at Fairview.

1. When someone tests positive for COVID, Alberta Health Services (AHS) will seek to do contact tracing to find out where a person was infected and identify others who may have been exposed to the virus.
2. For both churches, when those infected mentioned the church they attended, AHS sent a representative to a Sunday service to evaluate COVID protection measures in place and to give recommendations. If/when such happens at Fairview, let us be welcoming, courteous, and act with integrity as we gather and worship as we normally do.
3. In one case, AHS asked for a list of those who attended the church. The church chose to send an internal email to the congregation instead. The person infected allowed their name to be mentioned in the email. If necessary, we would also follow this procedure of using our internal communication rather than sending contact information to AHS without your consent.
4. One pastor thought it was helpful to let you know that a person isn’t legally obligated to get tested nor to answer any questions about contact tracing.

Third, the biggest challenge for us when someone is sick is handling the new stigma associated with sickness. For example, children have been unfairly stigmatized as super-spreaders. Many fear children and many children have a fear of COVID. Yet, studies show that children are at zero risk for serious outcomes and in fact are not super-spreaders of the virus (see here and here).

We must realize that we’ve been conditioned to look upon someone with a cough and sniffles, or a fever and chills, as if they’ve done something wrong. They must have been careless. They must have not worn a mask when they were supposed to. They must have foolishly avoided a vaccine, or denied the seriousness of this disease. Therefore, we need to avoid them and people like them.

Let us not succumb to such thinking. This is the world’s method of cancel culture and shaming that has no place in Christ’s body. Christians should be known as those who care for the sick, not those who shame them. We should be known as those who understand that God is sovereign over sickness, not us. Our society thinks that we can change the climate and stop a virus, but only God has such power. We can take all the precautions and still get the virus (as has happened to many). Consider how Jesus treated lepers and the sick. Then let us minister to those who are sick among us through providing meals, phone calls, and care rather than shunning and shame.

Finally, let us not be fearful to attend church. Let us not prioritize avoiding a cold or flu above worship and obedience to Christ. Let us be a testimony to the world of people living without fear who have care and compassion for the sick. And may God grant us continued favor as we seek to obey Him in all things and grow in knowledge and grace.

—Tim Stephens

Starting this Sunday (August 9th) the downstairs basement will be setup with an audio/video feed from upstairs. This will allow the basement to be used as an area for those who feel comfortable with greater physical distancing, overflow when there isn’t enough room upstairs, or mothers with young children.

Video will be available for the pastoral prayer and preaching, and audio will be available for the singing and for communion after the sermon.

Romans 13 and Masks
Romans 13 is clear. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2).

Most would understand that we ought to follow this teaching unless the government is requiring us to sin or forbidding what God has commanded. That is, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) when we are forbidden to do what God has commanded (e.g., preach the gospel) or when we are commanded to disobey God (e.g., burn incense in worship to Caesar).

Masks are clearly not in this category. Wearing a mask is not sinful. And it doesn’t prevent us from doing what God commands. So why would Christians be opposed to wearing a mask? On what biblical basis?

Romans 13 does not give the government authority over health decisions that God has given to the individual and the family.

What is important to realize is that the governing authorities do not have authority over every aspect of our lives. Biblically, the responsibility of the health and care of family members rests in the hands of family members (1 Timothy 5:3-8; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20). Most would agree that forced vaccinations or forced surgery would violate God’s order and design as he has given responsibility to individuals and families to make medical decisions. I’m not contending that masks are the same as vaccines or surgery. But the reason why forced vaccinations would not be a Romans 13 issue (one in which we must obey the government) is the same reason why masks are not a Romans 13 issue. God has given the primary responsibility for our health to individuals and the family.

So when the government makes an edict such as mandating masks, they are out of their lane. They are exercising an authority that they don’t have. God never gave them this authority.

Some individuals and families will conclude that it is better for their health and the health of others not to wear a mask. They will conclude that masks impede the development of their children, impede the worship of God, give approval for the government to make medical decisions for everyone, impede the effectiveness and beauty of communication, impede breathing and oxygen levels, increase chances of bacterial infections, and will not stop the virus but actually aid its spread.

You may disagree but there is a long standing tradition that adults and parents make their own health decisions. This is because our society was founded on a biblical worldview. Our society is changing. Parents no longer have the authority to affirm the God-given gender of their children. The state has taken that right away. Christians should value freedom where God has granted freedom. Christians should understand the responsibilities given to individuals and families to make their own medical choices and defend the right of others to make those choices. Yes, let’s persuade one with reason and sound argument, but we cannot force medical decisions on one another, and neither should the governing authorities.

Face coverings have become a political and polarizing issue today. The range of opinions are legion yet there is a growing consensus among policy makers that masks should be mandatory in public.

In Alberta, the province has shied away from making masks mandatory in public. Calgary City Council will make them mandatory effective August 1^st. This new bylaw does apply to churches and other places of worship. What will our policy be as a church? As we gather for worship on Sundays (and meet together for Bible studies and prayer), masks will not be enforced at our gatherings. Since the end of May we have left the choice to wear a mask or not up to you and this will be our continued policy.

This is all you need to know for our gatherings. If, however, you are interested in the reasoning behind such a decision, then set aside a few minutes and think with me through the recent discussions concerning masks and the church.

Many influential groups have released long statements on why Christians should wear a mask:

• https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/4-reasons-wear-mask
• https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/explainer-how-masks-can-help-prevent-the-spread-of-covid-19/

Others have written against the wearing of masks. I would encourage you to read all these articles with charity and grace. We should also remember that even when we agree with teachings about loving our neighbor, living in submission to our governing authorities, and being a witness to the world, we can have differing convictions on how those biblical teachings apply to this situation.

Consider the following biblical teachings:

Loving Your Neighbor (Matthew 22:39)

We can choose to wear a mask motivated by love for neighbor by reducing the risk of sharing COVID disease with them (e.g., see articles listed above).

We can choose not to wear a mask motivated by love for neighbor. How can this be? In Ephesians 4:15–16 it describes the church being built up in love by speaking the truth in love. It is loving to speak truth to people.

The truth is that COVID-19 is not the kind of disease people originally feared it was. Consider these statistics taken from the Alberta.ca website on July 28, 2020.

• The current death rate in Alberta is 1.8% (186 deaths with 10390 confirmed cases). That means 98.2% recover from this virus. Considering that confirmed cases will always be lower than the actual cases, the recovery rate for this disease is more than 99%.
• The average age of a person who has died with (not necessarily of) COVID is 83. The life expectancy in Alberta is 81.5.
• While only representing 6% of the total cases of COVID, 73% of all COVID deaths were residents of long-term care facilities. This means that only 50 people have died with COVID outside of care facilities. Outside of a long-term care facility people with COVID have a 99.5% recovery rate.
• 74% of all people who have died with COVID had 3 or more comorbidities. The recovery rate of those without a comorbidity (such as dementia, cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc) who contract COVID is 99.9%.
• In the last year we have statistics for deaths in Alberta (2016), 24594 people died. That is 473 people every week. This means that over the last 5 months when 186 people have died with COVID, in the same time period 10248 people would normally die of a variety of causes. With these averages, COVID accounts for only 1.8% of the deaths here in Alberta. This doesn’t even put COVID related deaths into the top 10 causes of death in Alberta.
• In 2016 the flu accounted for  1.6% of all deaths and other respiratory diseases accounted for 1.1% of all deaths. Combined, whether flu or other respiratory illnesses, these accounted for 2.7% of all deaths—a higher death rate than we currently see with COVID.

It also can’t be denied that COVID has become a very political issue. There is controversy regarding actual numbers, possible treatments, censorship, and hypocrisy in allowing mass protests but restricting churches. We can all affirm that racism is wrong, but we can’t support the organization Black Lives Matter because of their narrative and political motivations. We can also affirm our responsibility to steward our environment, but we can’t support the narrative and political motivations of  “climate change.” So too we can see COVID as a real disease, but we can’t support the narrative of fear and political motivations leading to more government control.

Considering this, some will choose to express their love for neighbor by wearing a mask in order to reduce the risk of spreading any disease to them.

Others will choose to express their love for neighbor by not wearing a mask to resist anti-Christian politics and communicate that this disease should not be feared nor alter our lives in harmful ways.

Respecting Authorities (Romans 13:1–7)

We can choose to wear a mask out of submission to our governing authorities.

We can choose not to wear a mask because we consider the governing authorities have overreached their mandate.

A good example of this is a recent statement by John MacArthur on why their church is going to disobey their governor and meet as normal as a church. This invoked a response by Jonathan Leeman and 9Marks. Both agree that there is a time that we “must obey God rather than men.” They differ on whether COVID-19 is that time.

Therefore, some will choose to wear a mask considering the governing authorities are acting reasonably to preserve life.

Others will choose not to wear a mask convinced that the governing authorities are acting unreasonably and hindering peoples livelihoods, and most importantly, our free worship of God.

A Living Testimony for Christ and the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:19–23)

We can choose to wear a mask as a testimony to the world that we care about our neighbors to the point that we are willing to give up freedoms and not risk spreading the virus.

We can choose not to wear a mask as a testimony to the world that we don’t fear this virus and that gathering together with loud singing, hugs, and handshakes is essential to following our Lord.

An example of this occurred last weekend at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in California. Thousands of people attended their service in defiance of orders not to gather with no distancing or masks and sang rather loudly. Some saw this as a great testimony of boldness for Christ and fidelity to the word. Some saw this as a poor testimony since it puts people at risk of COVID.

We all must wrestle with the Scriptures and exercise wisdom concerning this issue. Whether you wear a mask or not this Sunday, let’s have grace and charity for one another (Romans 14) and be sure that we have biblical reasons for what we do and why we do it.

March 20, 2020

To Meet or Not to Meet. That is the question. I wanted to share with you the wrestling that has gone on in our minds as we deliberated over what the current COVID-19 pandemic means for our gathered time of worship.

The Situation

Our country and province has recently put a limit on gatherings. No more than 50 people are to meet together. This is not an attack against religious gatherings. All gatherings, sports, schools, conferences, and so forth are affected by this. These policies—common around the world—are meant to stay the spread of COVID-19, keeping our medical resources available to cope with illness and save lives. There are different opinions on whether “social distancing” or isolation measures are the best course of action, but this is the position of our government leaders. So what should we do?

The Options

Option 1: Defiance. Churches could defy the government orders. However, such defiance would be unwise and would bring unwarranted harm to the name of Christ and his followers. If this was a case of religious persecution, the course of action would differ. But in this case, it is best to submit to our governing authorities (1 Peter 2:13–14). Paul instructed Titus to teach his church to obey their governing leaders (Titus 3:1).

Option 2: Multiple Services or Small Groups. We could continue to gather in a group less than 50 at church. We could arrange multiple services where people could check-in to a time where there is room. This would keep us under the limit of 50 to a gathering. Or we could meet in different homes to enjoy fellowship, worship in song, and hear the word taught.

However, this cannot replace the church (the gathered assembly). We would still be a divided body. For example, it is clear from Scripture that the Lord’s Supper is for “when you come together as a church” (1 Cor 11:17). Certainly we can meet in smaller groups for encouragement and equipping, but it cannot be a substitute for the gathered church on the Lord’s Day. And would not the same motivation to submit to our governing authorities and to love our neighbor to reduce the risk of transmission apply here?

Option 3: Online Service. Some have sought to recreate church online. Many preachers in past weeks and coming weeks stand behind the pulpit addressing empty chairs while people watch via livestream from home. Larger churches incorporate the worship band, children’s ministry, and other aspects of their church service online. Fully online churches already exist and others are following their example in this time.

We can be thankful that technology today makes such modes of communication possible. However, this form of “church” forgets that the church is the people, not the performers on stage. It can communicate that what is essential is what comes from the stage.

In fact, all substitutes will say something about what we believe the church is. Your own preferences or convictions about what to do on Sunday will be informed by your view of the church and what is essential. The truth is that none of these options can be substitutes for the gathered church. The gathered church is more than small groups, more than preaching, more than worship in song, more than fellowship, it is those things and more as God’s people gather together to devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42).

Option 4: No Services. This is not a suggestion that Sunday should just come and go as any other day. Rather, this would be a day of family worship and devotion. It would be a time of waiting until we can be united together again. It would be a time of hunger as we long to be satisfied in a future gathering of the body of Christ.

Our Plan for this Sunday

There was much prayer, wrestling and counsel sought on what we should do. Our plan for this Sunday is a bit eclectic. We have decided that we will not be gathering this week. We should use this time for family devotion and longing to be together again. We should use this time for extra time in the word, in song, and in prayer. We should use this time to call others in the church or write an email to one another. Let us do our best to keep in touch and keep encouraging each other as we wait to gather again.

What will I be doing? As we long to be reunited together again, I will be making an address to the church online via livestream. Paul was in jail, unable to gather with the brethren, and he wrote them letters. The Scottish “Puritan” Samuel Rutherford was exiled and not permitted to be with the church he pastored, so he wrote them letters. I plan to speak with you through the internet with Scriptural reflections from 2 Timothy 1 as Paul longed to be with the church and gave Timothy encouragement as he was facing a difficult situation alone.

And remember, church is not canceled. We are the church. We exist regardless of whether we meet together. We are at this time providentially hindered from gathering.

Some may disagree, but I pray you all understand. Continue to pray for us as the end of this pandemic is not in sight. We will continue to follow the situation day by day and will revisit this decision for future Sundays.