Who could have ever expected the world’s predicament of the past seven weeks? No human for sure, but our God has known about it from before time began and He was not surprised at all. He is an all-knowing (omniscient) God who is still sovereign and in control when our world is not! He is so AMAZING and AWESOME! He even knows when we are going to be able to meet again at full physical church strength. When will that be? Honestly, I wish I knew. We have been reading everything and watching churches around the country to see when it will be safe for the church (people), which is the godly thing to do. There are a lot of people that are defying what is best for the church (people) and meeting because they don’t want their constitutional rights taken away from them.
In a similar move, I just read (and saw pictures) this morning of hundreds of Jewish people in New York crowding around the casket of an honored rabbi. This is in the state with the most cases and deaths in America, and the rabbi himself died of COVID-19. It seems crazy in the midst of the situation New York is in.
I one hundred percent agree that we don’t want the government to run the church. There is only One in charge of the church and that is our Lord God. We will always bow to Him, but not to the government. In these days we are experiencing now, the government is suggesting what is best for the church. By not coming together (physically) we are helping to possibly save lives of believers that can live their lives being ambassadors for Christ. The results of meeting digitally right now seem to be as follows:
- More people are seeking the spiritual in this time and will come to church digitally with you.
- We are reaching more people with our digital services than we have ever reached before.
- We are not risking Riverlawn becoming a cluster of outbreaks, therefore tarnishing the good name of Christ and His church that has been developed over the past 65 years.
- We are keeping Riverlawn from facing greedy, frivolous lawsuits if something were to happen.
- We are doing better pastoral care right now through phone calls and personal connection than we have ever done before.
- We are seeing more people take their spiritual growth on personally and not depending on the church.
- We are praying with 100s every night through our Facebook live page.
Now, to be clear, there is nobody who wants to meet together more than me! I miss you guys! I miss the services together. I miss seeing the church meeting together throughout the week. I miss so much about what we were doing eight weeks ago. On the flip side, I am excited to see us adapt to these unparalleled times and strive to make disciples who make disciples in a new way.
We are working on plans for relaunching our meetings. (Remember the church has never closed because the church is the people of God!) We will relaunch when we believe that we can safely do so for your health and the church’s influence in our community, and most importantly to honor Christ!
Missing you,
Jeff
How to Stay Connected or Get Involved
Family & Kids
Kurt Schneider -Family Pastor
kschneider@riverlawn.org
Devin Donnell – Kids Pastor
ddonnell@riverlawn.org
Students
Eli Bayless – Students Pastor
ebayless@riverlawn.org
Missions
missions@riverlawn.org
Young Adults & Small Groups
Josh Gores – Discipleship Pastor
jgores@riverlawn.org
Connections
Greg Schuessler – Connections Director
gschuessler@riverlawn.org
Women’s
Alisha Illian – Women’s Ministry Leader
questions@riverlawn.org
