Put yourself in the shoes of a BridgeWay elder right now. You have the ‘privilege’ of setting policy to guide the church during a pandemic, with the following objectives:
- to create a missional environment (where people will see your church as a beacon of hope in a very dark and uncertain time);
- to create a safe environment (while a virus that has killed more than 675,000 Americans in the last year-and-a-half still rages in hot spots across the country);
- to create a unified environment (where the beauty of the body of Christ will be on full display in one of the most culturally corrosive and divisive eras in our history.)
Since the Delta variant first became a “thing” a couple of months ago, our elders and staff have held multiple meetings and conversations about it, while listening to the concerns of many in the church body. This past weekend we announced an adjustment to our current practice where we asked the congregation to voluntarily resume wearing masks during our public worship services until this latest surge subsides. Our elders sent out a carefully crafted letter (here), which I referred to as a “love mandate”, not a “mask mandate”.
The same diversity of opinion about Covid-19 that runs through our country right now runs through our church, and in fact runs straight through our elder board. None of this is surprising. We’re human. Thankfully though up till now we have managed to avoid the division and infighting that has accompanied those diverse opinions, which says a lot about the heart of our congregation.
But in the past month the elders have received notes accusing them of being selfish and unloving in not going far enough fast enough in requiring masks, and now we’re receiving notes from those who are saying we’ve gone too far and they’ll stop coming if they have to wear a mask.
Can you imagine how disheartening that is for a leader (people you know and love incidentally) to know that whichever way you decide, families will get their undies in a bunch and go off in a huff.
If I may, let me appeal to you for a moment not just as an attender of BridgeWay – a consumer of religious resources, but as a leader or future leader in the Lord’s church who is concerned more about the Great Commission (that we make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28:18-20) than just about any other consideration.
What The Bible Has To Teach About Such Disagreements
The Bible does not leave us without guidance in a situation like we are in. In fact, the early Church faced just such a potentially explosive controversy in the debate over what should be done about the Old Testament Jewish law now that Christ had come.
Gentiles that were excluded from worship for centuries, now were welcome into fellowship. Additionally, a host of ceremonial and liturgical laws the Jews had observed as far back as anyone could remember now were classified as “fulfilled”, and no longer binding.
Don’t think for a moment that accepting these changes was easy for most. Peter had to be literally clubbed over the head with a vision to convince him to go along with the changes (Acts 10). The first churchwide business meeting in history was held to decide the matter (Acts 15). Yet even so, adopting these changes by individual congregations was not without controversy. And so the apostles developed what we might call a “missional strategy” to help them move forward (which is most clearly described in Romans 14, and 1 Corinthians 8 & 9.)
The essence of the strategy was this: Even if you were on the right side of the debate (you’re the “stronger” brother in that you fully and readily accepted all the changes), as you interacted with fellow believers who were not sure yet if it was the right thing to do (the “weaker” brother, though we might call them ‘late adopters’) you were to love them, accept them, and even conform your behavior so as to accommodate their hesitancy. (For example, you wouldn’t eat a pulled pork sandwich around someone who still couldn’t let go of the food laws. A modern example might be choosing not to drink a beer when you’re chumming with a buddy who’s an alcoholic. In Christlike love, you don’t flaunt your freedom around the “weaker” brother or sister.)
Paul summarized the strategy this way: “For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love…For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God, and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.” – Romans 14:15-20
The purpose of the strategy was this: In choosing to love the weaker brother in this way, not only did you preserve them, by not causing them to stumble, but you preserved the testimony of the church in the eyes of the unbelieving world that needed Christ.
“To those under the law I became as one under the law…To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” – 1 Corinthians 9:21-22)
How This Applies Today
What’s interesting about this example from the 1st century is that you had a case where one side was clearly “right”, and one side was “wrong”. Yet the stronger brother was still to love their weaker brothers and sisters in humility and grace, and give them time to “catch up”.
Here’s what’s bewildering about today’s conflict though: neither side of the conflict can definitively say that they are on the right side!
Covid-19 has made a liar out of each one of us, and poked holes in all the systems of logic we have set up to explain whichever position we have taken. Take masks for example. Saying, “Masks are worthless!” is as indefensible as claiming that masks are 100% guaranteed to protect you from the virus.
The truth is somewhere between those extremes. There is a degree of protection you’ll receive by mask-wearing, but it’s impacted by the type of mask you wear, the number of people in the room, social distancing, your own health vulnerabilities, and other factors including the study you read.
If we’re speaking honestly about whatever position we carve out, we have to humbly add on to whatever assertions we make, “I could be wrong about this.” No one should be too swift to declare themselves the “stronger brother”.
And it’s in that zone of uncertainty where responsible leaders have to set policy to guide their schools, churches, businesses, etc. We’ll never be able to eliminate risk or guarantee outcomes. But we can create an environment where safety is at least promoted, and the most vulnerable of our population are shielded with some amount of protection.
How do we decide what to do? While it’s not “simple”, the simple answer is to ask, “Which side, if wrong, could lead to more severe outcomes?” If those who insist on masks are wrong, the most that will be suffered if we ask people to wear masks for a season is some annoyance and discomfort. If those who insist that masks are useless are wrong, and we say to people do whatever you want, the consequences we risk are considerably more dire.
This is not just theoretical. My mother died in that zone of uncertainty by being in a home and church where everyone insisted that they were on the right side. My mother’s gravestone is proof that at least for her, it was the wrong side.
So back to Romans 14. Even in a situation where one side was 100% right, and the other side 100% wrong, the mandate was to love each other in a way that respected the faith and thought of those who were struggling to change. (Incidentally, we’ve been teaching this from the very beginning. Here’s an early article I wrote on Covid.)
And why act this way? For the sake of helping those weaker ones along, and for the sake of preserving the church’s essential mission of reaching a lost world for Christ. “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.”
How much more should we adopt the same approach in our current situation where no one knows for sure who is right or wrong? And for the same reasons: to help those who disagree with us to keep reaching for Jesus, and for the sake of preserving our mission, of “Making disciples, connecting communities, and growing the body of Christ”.
Can’t you just hear Paul saying, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of masking or unmasking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
The Difference Between A Mask Mandate And A Love Mandate
Some think we’re just playing a word-game by saying this time around that we’re not mandating masks. “It’s a love-mandate.” (Which by the way comes from Romans 13:8 – “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”) Paul is saying you don’t need laws in a community where the reflex of its members is to love others. The Good Samaritan didn’t need a law to command him to help the robbery victim. All he needed was compassion in his heart.
It’s only when people won’t love their neighbors as themselves that the laws start piling up. God begins with one commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” But in a society without love, you end up with 378 prohibitions against every imaginable form of theft.
So no, this is not a word-game.
A mask mandate is legalistic and rigid. A love mandate breathes with grace.
A mask mandate breeds resentment. No one likes being told what to do. A love mandate nurtures respect.
A mask mandate creates “Karens” (and forgive me if your name is Karen) – moral police always looking to jump on infractions. A love mandate inserts trust in the gaps that exist between us, not suspicion. (For a short, yet powerful description of what this means exactly, watch this brief 3-part presentation by Pastor Andy Stanley. I would order you to do it, but yunno…)
If you walk into the Event Center early on a Sunday, or are one of the last to leave, you’ll probably see me without a mask if I find myself with my vaccination/quarantine buddies. If you find me at Panera having coffee with a church member, you’ll likely find me without my mask. If I visit you in your home, I’ll ask you what makes you the most comfortable. If you walk in on an elders meeting, some will have masks on, some won’t.
We’re not instructing our Life Groups what to do with masks. Just love one another. When I’m out in public, I’ll read the room. At my Mom’s funeral visitation, there was an outbreak happening within one wing of my family. On went the mask. Even though I’m vaccinated. The idea of break-through infections and asymptomatic transmission was starting to emerge. Who’s on the right side? I dunno! Could be wrong about this! I’ll put on the mask.
Another thing: mask mandates are inflexible. A love mandate can adjust with the situation. I know we’re all weary of Covid. And not one of us likes masks or any of the other protocols. The simple thing is just to shout out, “Faith over fear!” and be done with it all. But just because we get all Braveheart with Covid and shout out, “Freedom!” doesn’t mean this virus will tuck tail and run.
We’re going to have to pray and think our way through this. Faith and science. (If you missed it, rewatch my teaching on faith and science from a couple of weeks ago, “Our Brave New World”.) There is no one policy we’ll be able to set and leave it at that.
Hopefully soon, we’ll be able to dial back these adjustments we’ve made. Some of you think the numbers from the CDC that we’re using as a gauge to guide our decisions are completely random and pointless. Others of you think they are hard and fast data that is perfectly reliable, and that safety is 100% assured in following them. Once again the truth is somewhere in the middle.
On the other hand, we could be wrong about this. What if there is no dialing back? Or…here’s a Debbie Downer thought…what if this pandemic is just a set-up for a worse threat waiting out there on the horizon?
What Hardly Anyone Is Thinking About
One thing I hardly hear anyone talking about is that there are very real spiritual considerations with this pandemic which Christians of all people should be mindful of. Read your Isaiah 1 to 5, read your Jeremiah (pretty much all of it), read your minor prophets (try Amos on for size), read your Matthew 24. The Lord is at work with this virus, shaking the earth (Hebrews 12:26), calling out to our country to repent as he did to Israel in days of old (2 Chronicles 7:14), and working out his sovereign purposes (Acts 17:26-27).
Some of you who spend all your time fretting about politics or conspiracies or masks are not seeing the big picture, that God could very well be using this season we are in to answer that prayer we all pray from time to time – “Thy kingdom come.”
Rather than constantly asking God to make it all better, and take us back to the safe, comfy lives we all were living, maybe we should begin to offer up more Thy kingdom come sort of prayers.
What would Thy kingdom come prayers for BridgeWay sound like? I know for a fact that the Lord has a vision for his little platoon BridgeWay that goes far beyond our imaginations. He wants us to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16)– here, near and far, to quote Pastor Kevin. He has people in our vicinity that do not presently know him, but they would know him if they met a member of BridgeWay that was focused on the right things (Acts 18:9-10). We’re to pray for laborers to go into this harvest field of ours (Matthew 9:37-38). You want to know how to pray for one another in the church? Pray Colossians 1:9-11 for each other for just one week, and see how it changes your heart.
Scripture tells us that when God shakes the earth, another purpose of it is to sift his Church, for “judgment begins at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17.) Covid is quite literally wreaking havoc on churches across the country, but in so doing I picture God walking down that long fence of apathy that so many believers are sitting on, and shaking that fence, compelling them to choose afresh, like Joshua of old, if their household will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).
BridgeWay, we have a decision to make in the storm right now. God has set a vital future in front of us, and is asking each of you if you want to be part of that future. We’ve called it a relaunching. But choose your word – awakening, revival, renewal…
But there is another darker path we could follow, and it’s outside the camp right now, trying to find a way in. The best way to describe this darker future is found in words Paul wrote to the Galatians.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” – Galatians 5:13-15
I could be wrong about any or all of this. You can decide to be angry about any or all of this. Or you can join your brothers and sisters at the altar of prayer and conversation, as we seek the Lord’s leading to guide us forward.
May the eyes of our hearts be opened that we might know the hope to which God has called us, the riches of the Lord’s glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19).
Under His wings,
Pastor Bear