Everything we do at CTK is guided by our mission: Love God. Love Neighbor. Love Savannah. Some of us are better at loving God: worshipping him, and at considering him more important than ourselves. Some of us are better at loving neighbors: at empathizing with them, and at considering them more important than ourselves. Walking with Jesus means being apprenticed to somebody who did both.
The COVID situation is fluid and constantly changing. After speaking with many of you, it seems that, though there isn't much fear of dying from COVID in our community, none of us want to miss work days or cause classes to have to quarantine because we test positive. This is particularly true for the 25% of the CTK community who work in healthcare, and whose gifts and training are especially needed as our hospitals are full of patients.
In light of this dynamic reality, we are making a few relatively minor changes to our policies:
1. We will continue to gather and encourage corporate worship as being "worth the risk"; worth the risk of missing work days, of getting sick, or worse: having to stay home with our kids for a week while they quarantine.
2. The community is strongly encouraged to social distance and wear masks during worship. I cannot mandate this, as neither the session nor the civil government has issued any mandates relating to our gathering. However, only the last row will be reserved for those who are unable or unwilling to wear masks.
3. We will postpone the beginning of our parish groups until at least the week of August 29th and may extend the postponement.
4. We will have our final Hot Topic (masked, socially distanced) "When the Church Does Harm" on Wednesday, August 25th from 6-730.
5. CTK will continue to submit to governing authorities on all matters that do not conflict with our understanding of God's Law as it applies in a reasonable way to the matter in question.
One final word. I know we are all looking forward to a time in the future when none of us has to think about pandemics and plagues and what a mask does or does not say about who any of us is. I know masks are a symbol for much in our culture right now: for the tribe you belong to, for the social righteousness you possess, for your anxiety around COVID, for your responsibility to your employer or your patients. In my conversations with a variety of you over the last few days, I have heard other things from you, whispers of another Story, bigger than politics or public health. I've heard you say that the tribe you belong to is the body of Christ, that your righteousness flows from His atoning work alone, and that He has overcome the domain of death, whether that is sin in our hearts or disease in our bodies. So maybe, juuuuust maybe, regardless of our opinions on masks in the world, they could become in our community a symbol of something else: our desire to love our neighbor (particularly the immunocompromised and those in the medical community) as ourselves, or even as a monument to our willingness to "bear with one another in love (Eph. 4:2)."
Onward, forward. See you Sunday, if you can make it. And if you can't—if you're quarantined or otherwise in need—let us know. We'll bring you some food.
Thanks
Soren