Food for Thought: Meaningful Worship in a Pandemic
\nRev. Johnny Wang<\/p>\n
When something big like the Coronavirus (COVID 19) Pandemic of 2019 hits, it catches our attention. Are church people, both leaders and members, ready for the unannounced and sudden arrival of the disruptions of such magnitude? Worship services, undoubtedly are one of most important activities in Christian church ministry that can be disrupted by any of the following: wars, natural disasters like storm and flood, human mistakes in forest fire, political and religious persecutions and in the destruction of church and temple buildings, in denial of freedom in assembly and practices, and health pandemics as seen in history and at our doorsteps. The signs of success in 21st century in world business are big, more, and eye-catching; Church \u201cbusiness\u201d is not exempted from such in opinion polls.<\/p>\n
When church attendance is affected, take worship for example, what are our immediate and long-term measures for now and for time to come? Thank God for on-line digital modern miracles that keep believers connected. However, this is not the ideal long-term solution to having close-distance fellowship with God and fellow-Christians.<\/p>\n
According to Jeremiah Chapters 7 and 8, three things are suggested that we do with regards to meaningful worship:<\/p>\n
FIRST, approach worship with \u201cclean hands\u201d (Jer. 7:1-12). Look for holiness in your personal life. Holiness is God\u2019s 20\/20 vision into our lives! Don\u2019t be a virus carrier in close contact with other worshippers that would cause trouble in worship places, the church!<\/p>\n
SECOND, approach worship with a \u201csincere desire\u201d (Jer. 7:21-24). Obey the voice of the Lord. Do what the Law says in the 15-day Shelter in-Place order. In simple language, don\u2019t just hear, but have a desire to do! Don\u2019t just say, but act upon it! Isaiah chapter one points out His displeasure in many things found in worshippers in their insincerity. God loves His people to worship Him in spirit and in truth!<\/p>\n
THIRD, approach the worship with repentance, for there is always physicians for recovery (Jer. 8:4-7;20-22). There shall be other viruses that can cause trouble in our lifetime. If Christians say that they have no sin; they lie! Christians win over sin by confessing and by coming before Christ whose blood cleanses all our sins for Father God\u2019s justification.<\/p>\n
Collectively, the church is a Christian group. Worship is a collective Christian gathering. Numbers and locations matter little. Just imagine when the worship service is full of virus-free people in close fellowship, who should care about BIG, MORE, AND ATTENTION; this worship has it all. I shall have no need to look for another church nor another kind of worship service. Dear fellow servants of the Lord, hang loose; and by being faithful to Him and His words, spread the Gospel. My fellow-Christians, true peace can only be found in our Lord; and, there are always physicians and balm available for healing in Christ.\u201d
\n3\/23\/20)<\/p>\n
Rev. Johnny Wang is an Advisor and a past President of the Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the US and Canada. He and his wife, Vivian, live in San Francisco, California.
\nFrom Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the United States and Canada email list.<\/p>\n
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Food for Thought: Meaningful Worship in a Pandemic Rev. Johnny Wang When something big like the Coronavirus (COVID 19) Pandemic of 2019<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotionals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecommunitympk.org\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}