Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.

Joshua 1:2

The world was shaken to its core early in the year of 2020. News was learned by the United States that a virus unlike any other quickly spread throughout the world. Soon travel was restricted, governments were shut down, businesses and schools were closed, and yes, churches were closed. Hospitals began to be filled with people who had a disease that had no cure. Doctors and nurses were overwhelmed and the death toll began to rise. The world was shaken due to a pandemic, COVID-19.

Everyone across the world had to make adjustments. Morning Star adjusted by changing our procedures. This loving church posted signs – No handshaking, No Hugging. Before long, masks, social distance, constant washing of hands, and sanitization plans had to be put in place. Morning Star had to continue to adjust. We were not ready to ensure that our sanctuary and total facility was setup to meet the safety needs of our church members. This required another adjustment; we adjusted by closing our doors.

As your leader, I was forced as well to adjust. I had to adjust to not being able to come into the church without concern for the safety of all of our members. I had to gain better insight on how our church would address the widespread disease that saw hundreds of people dying daily. In all my years as your pastor, I have been most concerned about the spirituality of the church members, but now I was forced to also be concerned about the physical safety and health of our members, while also praying and planning for a return back to the church.

One thing for sure, we cannot stay away from the House of God forever. We will disobey God if we stop gathering together, as commanded in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” If we totally stop gathering together, we will not only be disobeying God, but we will also become lazy, complacent, fractured, and lack the strength gained by the saints coming together to love one another, serve one another, support one another, and encourage one another. We have to make an adjustment.

God wants us to regain our momentum. Momentum enables us to keep moving forward toward a goal. We must increase or accelerate growth, one in which we change for the better. We must adjust to advance so we can progress.

God’s will in every area of life is that we move forward. We need to move forward in our relationships with God. This means we need to get closer to Him and not fall away or backslide. We need to move forward in our relationships with people. This means that we need to get closer to our church members and not drift apart. We need to move forward in our finances. This means that we need to stay ahead of our church expenses and not fall behind. We need to move forward in our education so that we don’t digress in learning about the Word and Will of God. For some of us, we know about moving forward in our career. We do what we can to move up the corporate ladder of success. We seek to get promoted and not demoted. We have momentum to keep staying hired and not be fired.

Just as we move with momentum in the world in the cause for self, God is telling me that we must move with momentum in the church for the cause of God. We must get on fire and not let the water of COVID-19 put our fire out.

Moving forward does not happen by accident. It comes when we follow the ways of God. All it takes to go backwards, get behind, fallaway or drift apart – is to do nothing. Moving forward takes effort.

As we move forward, we are believing and praying for a better year; for the vaccine to work; and for a cure for COVID. However, neither of us know what 2021 actually will bring. We don’t know if things will be better or worse. We can’t say with certainty that COVID will be cured, but we do know one thing – God never changes! That’s why as we move with momentum, without the knowledge of what will happen in the future, we can say with certainty, SAME GOD – NEW YEAR!

Don’t you dare let what you don’t know or what you perceive about the time and place we are in today, or how drastic things have become with hundreds of thousands of lives lost due to COVID –lead you to believe that the God we serve is not still the Same strong and mighty God that we here at 1513 Rorer Ave., S. W. served for 90 years. He is the Same God – It’s just a New Year!

Just like God told Joshua in Joshua 1:2, ““Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them….”

Even in the midst of loss, God has a plan. He will never leave us or forsake us. I don’t know what lessons God wants us to learn during this pandemic. However, I do know that He is still in control. He is the one who keeps us, sustains us, and gives us life, and can give it more abundantly.

We must obey God and move with momentum toward Regathering. We are going to resume indoor church morning worship effective the 1^st Sunday in March, March 7, 2021.

The Regathering Plan can be found under my 2021 Charge located at this website.

I look forward to seeing those who can regather with us on March 7, 2021.

- Pastor L. A. Lewis

Click HERE to see the March 7th, 2021 Regathering Plan for Morning Star Baptist Church.