EMPTY PEWS & AN EMPTY TOMB

"Never have I ever..." is a game that used to get played a lot at church camp, lockins, and any other time desperate youth workers were looking for something to do to occupy a few minutes with a rowdy bunch of teenagers. The participants would take turns standing and declaring, "Never have I ever..." and then make some outlandish claim in the hopes that other people had done that thing that they had never done!

"Never have I ever been placed under a shelter-in-place order due to a deadly virus" is forever off the table.

If I'm honest, I am still processing the situation in which we find ourselves. Right when I think I have a grasp on the circumstances, the circumstances change - a new development, a new government order, a new set of projections. When the President's coronavirus response team came out this week and said we could anticipate as many as 250,000 deaths in the United States, that was a serious punch in the gut.

Never have I ever pastored a virtual congregation - until now.

I want to publicly thank God for the way he was preparing our church (even though we didn't realize exactly how he was preparing us).

• Last year, we were able to introduce online giving and text-based giving. At the time, we offered it as a matter of convenience. But now, online giving will allow people to continue to support our Great Commission endeavors even when it is impossible to pass an offering plate.

• In December of 2018, we upgraded our phone system from an old analog system to a digital system. That digital system allows for staff to be reached anywhere in the world, just like they were sitting at their desk.

• Last year, we qualified for Google for Nonprofits. That may not seem like a big deal, but that allowed us to gain access to certain features for free that would otherwise come at a substantial cost to the church. Those features are now the lifeblood of our streaming capability and our ability to stay connected as a staff.

• Earlier this year, we made a significant update in our sanctuary that allowed us to produce a professional quality video of our worship service. The intent was to provide a video stream for our nursery workers, shut-ins, and those who might be out of town on any given Sunday. Little did we know that it would become the primary means for the church to "gather" during this health crisis.

We never made any of these changes to weather this current storm. However, God has been reminding me over the last couple of weeks the remarkable way he was preparing our church for this season. I hope you will join me in giving thanks for his gracious providence!

I also want to thank you all for the encouragement you have offered me. Preaching to an empty sanctuary is not easy. Leading a Bible study online very much reminds me of my first preaching class in seminary. The professor asked us to practice our delivery in front of a mirror before we preached to the class. Whether it is a mirror or a video monitor, it still feels very lonely when the only face staring back at you is you.

In spite of the empty pews, the vacant parking lot, and the vapid interactions of social media and online sermon streaming, I find myself encouraged by this singular truth - an empty tomb means that there will never be an empty church.

There may be empty church buildings. But there is not a virus in the universe that can shutter the church. You can't close the church. You can ask her to stop gathering together. You can close her buildings. You can put her sermons and her songs on the internet. But you can't close the church.

It would be easier to convince the sun to withhold its shine than it would be to close the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So even as we are prevented from gathering on April 12, we need to understand that you will never prevent the church from celebrating a Resurrected Savior. In the darkest of times, when persecution has been rampant, when the church has had to hide underground, an empty tomb still stands and still brings encouragement to all those who suffer.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because He lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know He holds the future.

My life is worth the living, just because He lives!