My goal here is simple: I want you to go to church.  I want the church to eat bread and wine together again and be shaped by the singing, reading and preaching of the word of God. My hope is that churches will unapologetically consider their work together (liturgy) as being absolutely essential for the functioning of society. There are, of course, caveats to be considered when gathering during the continuing spread of COVID-19, but those caveats are getting thinner as more and more data is made available (here are the CDC statistics breaking down mortality by age groups) and increasing numbers of epidemiologists release their collective take on the public and social response (Here is a link to the Great Barrington Declaration). 

To summarize the data - COVID disproportionately harms older, compromised individuals and poses very little danger to younger, healthier members of the population. To summarize the statement from the scientists: the vast majority of the population needs to resume life as normal and expect to get COVID. Vulnerable populations should be isolated and supported when possible. Their assessment is that current masking and isolation policies are doing significant long-term harm to the health of the population and society. 

So, with those things on the table, I’ll put the caveats right up front: Older, health-compromised members of the church should be accounted for and cared for in ways that protect them from the spread of the virus. This support should not be compulsory, but small additional offerings can be made to serve these people, even as you encourage them to be a part of the church. We offer outdoor seating and a radio transmission to nearby cars - where people can be with the church, receive communion, and worship with God’s people - even if from behind some steel and windows. 

But regardless of how one goes about assessing the risks involved with gathering for worship, my argument below isn’t contingent on that assessment. Gathering for worship has always been riskier than not gathering for worship. There are social and health risks. These might be greater now than they were a year ago, but they are not so grave as they’ve been in the past as saints gathered for worship in far more devastating situations. The bigger issue is that we’ve spent the last 7 months inadvertently learning to avoid the risks associated with gathering for the church’s worship.  We have learned that the church’s gathering in person is optional when its risky. We must unlearn this lesson. Coffee and your couch and an internet connection will always be safer and more convenient than dressing up, getting in your car and going to a place where a bunch of people are gathering in the name of the triune God. 

Now, here are some reasons why the church must gather and worship:

1) You need the Church

The church, gathered as the people of God, administers the word and the sacrament to God’s people. These aren’t things you can receive adequately through an internet connection and some crackers and grape soda from the kitchen. These things require physical presence, they call for the practice of gathering and filling a space with song and prayer and preaching. The past few decades have seen many of us evangelicals reduce the worship of the church to either an intellectual event or an entertaining one. Those things can be done rather effectively online. But that is not what the covenant renewing worship of the church is. The church gathers together in the presence of God to renew her covenant together with Him. You can’t do that in your living room, whilst wearing your PJ’s and sending emoji’s to your friends on zoom. This is a tremendous and holy thing that requires the church’s physical presence. 

This gathering, with its singing and confessing and praying and preaching and reading is not simply a nice pick-me-up for your private spirituality. It is the fundamental means by which the Triune God gives and sustains our faith. It is the primary means by which we commune together with his Spirit. It is the primary means by which we are to be exhorted to believe and to obey. It is meant to pour steel into your spine as you live courageously in a world gone mad. You do not merely go to church because you believe, you go to church in order to believe. Pastors, your people need the worship of the church. Do not withhold this fundamental means by which we are to feed and care for God’s sheep. 

2) The City needs the Worship of the Church

The current virtue messaging of our day is that our city needs people to be isolated, masked, and to avoid any and all larger gatherings. This has been packaged as how to “love your neighbor” or as I just saw on a pretty nifty TV screen here at DIA, “Do the right thing.” Christians have been told to put others before themselves and refrain from gathering, or at least to exercise severe restrictions when gathering. I want to contend that the gathering of God’s people to worship is one of the most urgent needs our neighbors have - whether they recognize it, show up, or not. The gathered worship of the church has a leavening effect on the surrounding culture. The preached and sung Word of God, the confession of sin, the assurance of pardon, communion and a benediction wherein God’s people are sent out to bear witness to their neighbors of God’s good reign are some of the greatest gifts given to our city. Where it happens, it transforms the culture of a city. It alters the political and social discourse (just consider: as bad as the political discourse was in 2016, how much worse is 2020?). Where this practice is lost, there is incalculable loss to the surrounding city. The worship of the church preserves the world. And so, Love your neighbor by gathering for worship with the church. 

3) God is worthy of our Worship

The church inherits glorious gifts when she gathers for worship. Her worship offers gifts to even pagan cultures. But mostly, the church gathers to honor and to give thanks to God as his covenant people. His name deserves to be praised and declared in our cities. He has given us and continues to give his people gift upon gift, kindness upon kindness. Should we not gather as God’s people to acknowledge these gifts, to give thanks for these gifts and to honor him by asking for more (Psalm 104)? There are crises that may occur that could prevent the church from gathering, but these must be rare and grave. This is the fundamental labor of God’s people that gives shape and life and meaning to all our other labors in the world - be they in the professional world or in seeking to serve our neighbors. We honor God here, together, so that we might honor him everywhere.

So Christian, go to church. Worship Jesus. If prudent for your particular situation, wear a mask, sit a little further apart or sit outside, but do not forsake the gathering together of God’s people. This forsaking is no longer merely the habit of some, it is increasingly the habit of most. You need it, our neighbors needs it, and God is worthy of it.