Churches Respond to Coronavirus

With things moving quickly, I said to my wife this morning that who is to say, looking at it from a Tuesday perspective, that we will have a service this weekend?

The following (and today’s images) are all from a Twitter news sub-feed indicating what churches are doing, accessed at 9:00 AM EST today:

• ‘No hugs, no handshakes’ seems to be the #1 rule in these times
• Prevalence of hand sanitizer stations, or in one church, people receiving a pump of sanitizer from the priest before receiving communion
• At many Catholic churches, the Holy Water has been temporarily removed
• At other churches, no wine for Communion/Eucharist
• At some, the priests are dispensing the wafers with a ladle
• At Orthodox churches, parishioners are asked to honor the icons by bowing, not kissing them
• Many churches are already streaming services online
• People encouraged to stay at home if they’re not feeling 100%
• Denominations and parachurch organizations are cancelling larger conferences and seminars
  
• At a synagogue, the hamantaschen (triangular filled cookie; festival of Purim tie-in) are individually wrapped instead of being on a tray
• Some LDS churches have purchased high-speed thermometers
• Area around the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque in Mecca shut down for sterilization

While these address the more practical concern, there is also the issue of fear, worry, anxiety, etc., and the subsequent depression this situation can bring on. The ability of the capital ‘C’ Church to meet these needs will certainly be tested over the coming weeks. 

Addressing this climate of concern, while at the same time remaining transparent about urgency taking measures to not spread germs is a two-pronged challenge. 

Then there is the question if some of the things we do on a regular basis, such as the shaking of hands, the sharing of the cup at the Lord’s Table, etc., should be reexamined long after the current outbreak has passed.

A Golden Age of Christian Blogging

Blogging introduces you to a worldwide collective of people you will probably never meet in this life.   Nonetheless, the online connection means that you can be a source of encouragement to many, many people. The right words, fitly spoken at the right time, can really make a difference in a person’s life.  That’s why I like this picture. The words are coming off the page to bring comfort. Everybody needs a bit of that now and then. The best things that are happening in the blogsphere aren’t always happening on the blogs themselves, but in the meta. When you get to follow-up with someone who has a particular interest. Or try to offer some direct, offline advice to someone who might appreciate a bit of a challenge.  Or know of a third-party resource that could be of great help. Or just to say, “I really don’t have a clue about your whole situation, but I want you to know someone is reading your blog who really cares.” Or offer to pray for them. To actually pray for them.

Words communicate. People are listening. You can have a part in what they hear.

~ Thinking Out Loud, September 2008

Recently I was thinking about the writers who inspired me to start doing this…many of who are no longer writing online, or are doing something completely different. After leaving comments on other blogs, I decided to start one of my own. We started on a platform called e4God, but fortunately were able to migrate the content to WordPress.

Honestly, I think this was a golden age for Christian blogging. Twitter wasn’t a force and podcasts were rare. Today, many bloggers simply post videos or podcast links or have abandoned their platform altogether in favor of the 140-character alternative. 

Travel back in time with me; except where noted these are in no particular order.

• 22 Words — Not the blog you now know, but in those days, Abraham Piper actually confined each post to exactly 22 words.
• Sacramentis — Sally Morganthaler’s website was a hub for people who wanted to discuss worship ideas. The church was going through a period of accelerated change, and people like Sally, Nancy Beach and Robert Weber were all speaking into that change.
• Stuff Christians Like — The mind of Jon Acuff knew no boundaries. Think Babylon Bee for a previous decade. I think of Jon every time I’m in church and need to give someone a side hug. The blog spun off a book deal with Zondervan.
  
• Stuff White Christians Like — …well, let’s be honest; there were a number of spin-offs from Jon’s blog, Stephy’s was one of them.
• Lark News — The original Babylon Bee.
• The Very Worst Missionary — Jamie Wright provided a missionary’s perspective on short term mission trips which many of us will never forget.
• Fred McKinnon — What avid worship leader didn’t visit late Sunday night or midday Monday to find out what other worship leaders had posted to The Sunday Set List?
• Puragtorio — Can someone help me remember this one? Seriously.
• ASBO Jesus — From across the pond, Jon Birch’s website was delightfully cynical. The initials stand for Anti Social Behavior Order.
• Flowerdust — The writer formerly known as Anne Jackson gained a huge following early on and was a reminder to us all that it was okay to be broken or wounded or both.
• Evotional — The original blog of Mark Batterson, bestselling author and pastor of National Community Church in DC.  (When he called his first book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, I thought, “That’s a real dumb title. So much for his writing career.”)
• Letters from Camp Krusty — My first initiation into the wonderful strange world of Brant Hansen.
• Greg Boyd — This guy had a huge influence on us. We spent endless road trips throughout the U.S. popping discs in the CD player of downloaded sermons from Woodland Hills Church on the Gospel of Luke. Great memories. “Now go out and build the kingdom!”
• Skyebox — Skye Jethani would later play a pivotal role in my own life for which I am most grateful. Today, he’s a regular on The Phil Vischer Podcast and an important analyst and commentator on the state of Evangelicalism in North America.
  
• Out of Ur — The blog of Leadership Journal at Christianity Today and for 22 months, the home of the Wednesday Link List. (See previous entry.)
  
• Tall Skinny Kiwi — As I write this, Andrew Jones and the girls are heading back to Europe mid-June. His unique, ongoing story continues and he has my utmost respect and admiration for carrying on despite the loss of Debbie to complications from malaria and typhoid.
• Donald Miller — I don’t think it was called StoryLine back then, but I can’t remember. He’s been at this a long time!
• Bene Diction Blogs On — Investigative blogging in an era before Warren Throckmorton. But who was Bene Diction? I have a friend who claims to know and says I knew her. Wait, what? Her?
• Naked Pastor — David Hayward migrated his blog to Patheos but then moved back to his own domain. I love his writing, but I’m sure he’s best known for the pictures: Original artwork which you can purchase.
• Without Wax — Pete Wilson is still blogging. Back then, they were like family; I can still name all three of Pete’s boys.
• Trevin Wax — (no relation to the above) Trevin is now more aligned with a tribe I no longer follow, but I tracked with his writing for many years.
• Challies — Tim Challies must have been in the right place at the right time, because today his blog regularly ranks in the Top Ten Christian blog lists in the U.S. though, like myself, he is Canadian. Must reading for the neo-Calvinist set. (Tim lives just about 90 minutes from me. Sometimes in the early morning we drive by his house and root through his recycling bin.)
  
• Take Your Vitamin Z — Zach Nielson’s blog had a cool title. Three years ago this month, like many others, he switched his primary focus from blogging to Twitter. 
• Desiring God — The Pipester was a force to be reckoned with! You never actually had to read it though, because for a time, the Calvinist world faithfully re-blogged every word J.P. wrote.
  
• Reformissionary — The original name for Steve McCoy’s blog. Many nights at supper we prayed for Molly.
  
• DashHouse — Another Canadian, Darryl Dash now writes primarily for fellow pastors and church leaders. He left a comfortable church in the Toronto suburbs a few years back to church plant in the urban core, albeit a more upscale neighborhood.
• Team Pyro — Note that we clustered all the Calvinist bloggers together here. These guys helped convince me that there was a type of Christ follower I wanted to be, and that tribe wasn’t it. (At this writing, the blog has been inactive for about six weeks. Don’t people need their weekly dose of Spurgeon?)
• CenturiOn — Frank Turk from Team Pyro. (Not to be confused with apologist Frank Turek.) I have to give them credit for the excellent illustrations and images.
  
• Vintage Blog— Another one from that era who is still writing; Dan Kimball aka “the guy with the pompadour haircut.” If you’re ever in Santa Cruz, look up Vintage Church.
• Eugene Cho — Another writer who’s been at this for a long time. Korean-born Cho is an author, lead pastor of Quest Church in Seattle and founder of the charity One Day’s Wages.
• Jesus Creed — Scot McKnight is another writer who has been faithfully at his computer producing a large number of columns each week since the world was flat. (With enough book sales, perhaps one day he’ll be able to afford the second ‘t’ in his first name.) 
• John Shore — I tend to think of John today in terms of one particular issue, but in the early days his blog was home for all those who had gotten burned out in their church experience.
  
• Michael Hyatt — Better known today for his writing on leadership issues, on building platform and on writing itself, it was his pieces on the publishing industry I enjoyed most back in the day.
• Blog In My Own Eye — Keith Brenton was another writer who snagged a great blog title. It’s been four years now since Angi, the love of his life was taken from us; yet each day at 3:00 PM, Keith goes on Twitter to offer to pray for anyone with a need or a request.
• Fire in my Bones — From the then-editor of Charisma Magazine, Lee Grady who still has a blog at the magazine. Right now I can’t think of a more balanced Pentecostal/Charismatic writer. (Maybe Jack Hayford, but he never blogged, did he?)
• Monday Morning Insights — Over the years, the Wednesday Link List borrowed a number of story leads from Todd Rhoades’ blog.
• The Idea Club — You never heard of it, right? Actually it was the original name for Cathy Lynn Grossman’s religion blog at USAToday. (Thinking Out Loud actually began as a USAToday blog as well.) An excellent religion reporter. You probably remember better from Faith and Reason. Watch for her byline where quality journalism is sold.
• Internet Monk — Still updated daily, but sadly without its founder, the late Michael Spencer. This one resonated with a lot of people at a transitional time for the church at large.
• Boar’s Head Tavern — Another blog Michael Spencer started. 
• Shlog — The original name for musician Sean Groves’ blog.  
• One Hand Clapping — Julie Clawson was an important voice in those early days. I wonder who reading this knows how the blog got its name?
  
• …Help! I can’t stop…

…This ended up longer than I planned. Those were great days. Through these and other writers I got to read some great books and think about things related to God, Jesus, The Bible, Church, Evangelism, Doctrine, etc., that I otherwise might never have considered.

My life is richer because of all of you…

…So…who did I miss from that era who was big impact on you?

---

And now, a Best-of… moment from those early days:

Wednesday Link List

This is another photograph in a continuing series by people known to readers here; this sunset was taken Monday night by author and pastor Mark Batterson.

 

On Monday I raked leaves and collected links; you could call it my own little feast of ingathering.

• If a conservative family wants to block their daughter from going to college, they can refuse to sign off on her financial aid package.
• That Noah’s Ark theme park in Kentucky may not qualify for state tax credits if they only hire people who believe in the flood after which the park is named.
• Many Evangelicals distance themselves from Joel and Victoria Osteen, but their views may be more common that we think.
• On the issue of election, this writer states you must choose between two extremes, there is no middle ground.
• Worship Leader’s dilemma: Wanting to continue to use a song by [name of worship leader] after a revelation of moral or doctrinal issues.
• You can file this one under the category of Most Counterproductive Conversion Stories Ever. (Author’s words!)
• If there are people in your church who have simply run out of money, it may be that whatever approach you take to help them may not be helpful.
• Scot McKnight’s blog has a sneak preview of Philip Yancey’s new book, Vanishing Grace…
• …A different type of book is coming October 27th: Unwelcome, a collection of church visitor horror stories. #DoNotDoThis (You can win a copy by sharing your own.)
• An update on a September article that went viral, in which a woman describes the aftermath of her husband’s coming out, divorcing her, taking the children, and marrying another man.
• A church mourns the loss of its youth pastor, his wife and teenaged sons.
• Zondervan has launched an instructional video that links to a webpage to help parents and grandparents navigate the maze of child and teen Bibles currently available.
• If your church uses a bulletin — print or electronic — you need to read these 15 observations on church communications and look at the links for each one.
• A veteran Christian songwriter on the issue of people who aren’t singing and how to get them engaged…
• …but if you’ve got about eight minutes, here’s a church where I don’t think you could not sing.
• If you’re reading the Bible purely as a manual or textbook, your sermon titles may be similar to the ones listed in this article.
• Celebrate President Jimmy Carter’s 90th birthday by suggesting that he might go to hell for saying that Jesus wouldn’t discriminate against LGBT people. Or better yet sign a petition asking for an apology from the two pastors who made that claim.
• Essay of the Week: “God Has Never Done a New Thing Using Old Songs.” (I guess we know on which side of the worship wars this one falls.)
• The next time it’s your turn to make the introductions, instead of introducing people in terms of what they do, introduce them in terms of what they are.
• Celebrity Stalking: It’s interesting how his Christian faith keeps intersecting with Justin Bieber’s journey, but this week it was Selena Gomez photographed with T. D. Jakes after attending his church.
• What does relief and development in Africa have in common with last week’s Nobel prize winners in Physics?
• From the leading Anglican website in the UK, an all-time top 100 Christian books list.
• Contest: Here is an illustration desperately needing a sermon to go with it. Which text and application would you pick? (Sorry, there are no prizes.)
• People’s expectations for funerals are changing.
• Sermon of the Week: Talbot Davis on FedEx, UPS, and why we should embrace obscurity in Christian service.
• Children blurt out the worst things at the worst times, but this one has that nightmarish quality…
• …and speaking of nightmares, a lot of people are terrorized by the thought of being picked to do the closing prayer at small group.
• Rob Bell’s latest ‘Surf ‘N Seminar’ conference claims to be targeting “People in business, creatives, entrepreneurs, those who work in healthcare, education, law, media and of course, moms.” In other words, the “Business Edition” is for everyone. (Everyone who has the $700.)
• Celebrating new births: Each new faith commitment at Louis Giglio’s Passion City Church is represented by a light bulb.
• Video of the Week: This live acoustic version of Depths from Hillsong’s No Other Name album, not to be confused with Hillsong United, which brings us to…
• The band Hillsong United took five awards home from The Dove Awards, and the Gospel Music Association also presented an award to satellite radio provider Sirius XM.
• It’s unlikely your boy will want to wear a dress, but if that, or something similar arises, this parent’s response is worth filing away.
• The writer of a piece on “The War on Advent” would like to see secular party-planners be more more liturgically minded.
• Podcast of the Week: Sorting out the Nephilim from Genesis and Numbers. Or trying to. Actually, we’re not sure who they were. (27 minutes)
• If you want the marriage to last, have a cheap wedding, but many guests.
• Are you a hypocrite? “Being a hypocrite is a human condition, not just for churchy folks.”
• There is also an egalitarian movement in the Jewish community.
• Separating church and state collides with the principle that you can’t exclude on religious grounds as a New York high school makes a second attempt to shut down a Christian club.
• KidMin Korner: I wonder if the Read and Ride concept has application for Christian education programs?
• Link List Extra: The woman at the well had a name. (Well of course she did; everyone does.)
• Yes, there were weird news stories this week.
• Finally, the latest children’s book from Tyndale House is one part Dr. Who and one part Duck Dynasty.

Paul Wilkinson’s wisdom and Christian multi-level business opportunities — “just drop by our house tomorrow night, we have something wonderful we’d like to share with you” — can be gleaned the rest of the week at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201 and in the Twitterverse. 

From the archives:
The problem with out-of-office email notifications:

Lost in translation: The English is clear enough to lorry drivers – but the Welsh reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.” …Read the whole 2008 BBC News story here.

Wednesday Link List

We either start off with really serious issues and end with something silly, or we do it the other way around. Today leads off with the latter:

• Psalm 42 in the Pirate translation. Seriously. Why would I lie about that?
• Which is just a warm up for SFL’s grand old hymn of the week, I’m Not Going to Hell.
• Which takes us to that other “stuff” site, SCL and the issue of inviting friends to church: “It doesn’t matter how great your church is Sunday after Sunday. On the one day you actually invite a neighbor for the first time, there’s a moment of panic that passes through you.”
• Hey, remember that 30-minute film you watched in youth group about a factory worker who finds a music box? It never went to DVD, but turns out it’s been on YouTube for five years.
  
• Eight weeks later, Jamie The Very Worst Blogger remembers she has a blog and updates it a second time on her birthday.
  
• Karen Spears Zacharias has met the enemy, and the enemy is talk radio.  Or maybe that one belongs in the next section…
  

Okay, we need some serious links also, right?

• Here’s a re-issue of a classic 2004 Michael Spencer post at iMonk where the fallibility of those in vocational ministry hits full force.
• In another re-print, Pete Wilson quotes Peter Scazzero on the American Church and the American Dream.
• Or check out Will Mancini’s take on how success in ministry adversely affects pastors.
  
• Here’s an interesting thought: If your church permits women preachers or allows women as elders, who ‘permits’ and who ‘allows’? Chances are it’s men. Hmmm. Kathy Escobar elaborates.
  
• The sad story of Jack Schaap continues with a plea agreement, followed by being taken into custody on the 20th, with a first court appearance scheduled for today (26th).
  
• Brian McLaren guests at CNN’s religion blog to discuss Islamaphobic Evangelical Christians in light of recent events in the Arab world. Also a response and video interview from Tony Jones.  
• Also at CNN’s Belief Blog/News page, the 15 Amish people who last fall “sheared” the beards of other Amish people could face ‘recommended’ prison terms of 17 years. 
• October 28th to November 4th is WRAP Week (White Ribbon Against Pornography) an annual event that creates a useful opportunity to raise the issue of pornography within the Church, and to call all Christians to renewed lives of sexual purity and freedom; and a project of the Salvation Army USA. Here’s the poster. Here’s info about the film Somebody’s Daughter. 
• Veteran Christian Band The 77s are touring in October. If you missed them, here’s an audio of one of my favorites.  (Two Ontario dates are available!)
• After Monday’s post about canonization, I realize how little I know about other faith traditions… Just when I think I have the rosary figured out, there’s prayer ropes for the Orthodox.
  
• I was wrong last week; the national Canadian Christian talk show hosted by Lorna Dueck has actually been out under the Context format (with a live audience that Listen Up never had) for over a year.
  
• Two articles on supporting your pastor(s): One from Lisa Robinson at Parchment and Pen, and one from Keith Brenton at Blog in My Own Eye.
  
• Sometimes I find about blogs from the “God Blogger” segment on The Drew Marshall Show. This week it was Timothy Dalrymple.
• Also this week discovered the blog, Hieropraxis while trying to track down a female apologetics expert, Dr. Holly Ordway; one of a few in what is otherwise more of man’s game.
• The funny graphic at the top of this post is actually from a very serious 2011 article, The Mega-Problem of Mega-Churches.
• …And the closing cartoon is from Dave Walker at CartoonChurch.com, but when I tried to find it for a proper link, I couldn’t.  This one is from the blog Digging a Lot.
  

Not enough links for you? The new Top 200 Church Blogs list is out.