Articles https://www.livinghopecc.org Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:48:34 -0700 http://churchplantmedia.com/ Should Churches Defy State Orders? https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/should-churches-defy-state-orders https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/should-churches-defy-state-orders#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700 https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/should-churches-defy-state-orders Should Churches Defy State Orders?

Many of you have heard the news about prominent churches defying State order and meeting indoor for worship and other prominent churches declaring that they will not meet again in 2020 though they are allowed to meet in some capacity. As many of you have commented or asked, I thought it would be helpful for you to know how the leadership is processing this issue.

 

1. We Don't Want to Add to Friendly Fire

One of the things that I am sad of is the division occurring in the Church between those who are meeting in faith and those who are not meeting out of love. It has become too easy to be critical of those whom we disagree with because we feel they lack love/faith. As a rule of thumb, we will not contribute to division by criticizing other leaders/churches in private and in public. I will continue to read, listen to, attend conferences sponsored by many of these leaders because I believe they are holding to their perspective out of their desire to honor God.

 

2. There May Be a Time When The Church Should Practice Civil Disobedience

I want to be clear that our elders are not blindly following every government guidance as that can be confusing and contradictory. We also understand that there may come a time when the church will need to exercise civil disobedience in the same way that the underground churches in China do. If we felt that the government was prohibiting worship and the proclamation of the gospel, Living Hope would join the voices of those who would say that "We must obey God and not men. (Acts 5:29)" For now, we believe we have been inconvenienced, but not prohibited.

 

3. We Prioritize Safety & Witness

One of our guiding principles in decision making has been safety - safety of our members and the safety of our community. We feel that we have a duty to love our church and our community by doing our part in not being a part of the problerm. We have not only followed the State's guidelines but scrutinized our own operations and have gone above and beyond what is required of us. Because of the abundance of caution in our implementation, we would also say that our church, even during indoor gatherings, is safer than most hospitals. We believe this attitude not only keeps our church safe but serves as good witnesses to those around us.

 

4. We Want You to Love God & Others

But our highest principle has been and will be to love God and love others. And though online worship has been wonderful for many, we also crave in-person gatherings. God may call us to spend time in solitude for a season, but He also created the human soul to crave in-person interaction and worship in community (Hebrews 10:24-25). Without in-person gathering, we worry about the general spiritual deterioration of our people, our children and our community.

And so we gather when we can do so safely with those who feel comfortable. On Sunday, September 6, we will hold our first Outdoor Service at 9:30 and 11:30. We are blessed with a large patio (about twice the size of our sanctuary) that can accommodate safe and comfortable worship. If things go well, we are hoping to meet regularly outdoors for adult worship and youth worship. Please stay tuned.

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Should Churches Defy State Orders?

Many of you have heard the news about prominent churches defying State order and meeting indoor for worship and other prominent churches declaring that they will not meet again in 2020 though they are allowed to meet in some capacity. As many of you have commented or asked, I thought it would be helpful for you to know how the leadership is processing this issue.

 

1. We Don't Want to Add to Friendly Fire

One of the things that I am sad of is the division occurring in the Church between those who are meeting in faith and those who are not meeting out of love. It has become too easy to be critical of those whom we disagree with because we feel they lack love/faith. As a rule of thumb, we will not contribute to division by criticizing other leaders/churches in private and in public. I will continue to read, listen to, attend conferences sponsored by many of these leaders because I believe they are holding to their perspective out of their desire to honor God.

 

2. There May Be a Time When The Church Should Practice Civil Disobedience

I want to be clear that our elders are not blindly following every government guidance as that can be confusing and contradictory. We also understand that there may come a time when the church will need to exercise civil disobedience in the same way that the underground churches in China do. If we felt that the government was prohibiting worship and the proclamation of the gospel, Living Hope would join the voices of those who would say that "We must obey God and not men. (Acts 5:29)" For now, we believe we have been inconvenienced, but not prohibited.

 

3. We Prioritize Safety & Witness

One of our guiding principles in decision making has been safety - safety of our members and the safety of our community. We feel that we have a duty to love our church and our community by doing our part in not being a part of the problerm. We have not only followed the State's guidelines but scrutinized our own operations and have gone above and beyond what is required of us. Because of the abundance of caution in our implementation, we would also say that our church, even during indoor gatherings, is safer than most hospitals. We believe this attitude not only keeps our church safe but serves as good witnesses to those around us.

 

4. We Want You to Love God & Others

But our highest principle has been and will be to love God and love others. And though online worship has been wonderful for many, we also crave in-person gatherings. God may call us to spend time in solitude for a season, but He also created the human soul to crave in-person interaction and worship in community (Hebrews 10:24-25). Without in-person gathering, we worry about the general spiritual deterioration of our people, our children and our community.

And so we gather when we can do so safely with those who feel comfortable. On Sunday, September 6, we will hold our first Outdoor Service at 9:30 and 11:30. We are blessed with a large patio (about twice the size of our sanctuary) that can accommodate safe and comfortable worship. If things go well, we are hoping to meet regularly outdoors for adult worship and youth worship. Please stay tuned.

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Re-Opening Announcement https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/reopening- https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/reopening-#comments Fri, 29 May 2020 10:00:00 -0700 https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/reopening- Re-Opening Announcement

Hi Living Hope.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our reopening. I know that's what's on our mind. This is the graphic and we are looking forward to that day.

 

Guiding Principles

Let me give you some guiding principles of how we made some decisions we made.

1. Include various voices in input

First of all, we included different voices from our elder board, our task force, and our pastoral staff. We have people from the medical profession, legal, educational, college, single adults, married, married with older kids, married with younger kids all included. We thought that was important.

2. Start with the end in mind

Secondly, we want to start with the end in mind. We don't want to look at this singular decision, but where is it that we want to get to. And I'll explain that a little bit more.

3. Acknowledge differences of conviction

We wanted to acknowledge differences of conviction. We know that there are those who are extremely confident and they want to come to church right now. And there are those who are very concerned and who want us to wait as long as possible. And we hear you.

4. Follow health guidelines

Fourthly, follow health guidelines. We looked at the CDC as well as California Department of Public Health and their published guidelines for churches. And our task force looked at each one, line by line and said, “Okay, how does this apply to Living Hope.” 

5. Begin with dress rehearsals

And finally, I we wanted to start with dress rehearsal. We cannot go from nothing to fully opening. We thought that there was some intermediate stages that we need to get to.

 

Reopening Sequence

Four Stages

So let me show you our stage. We start with Stay at Home, then Dress Rehearsal, to get to what I call Transitional Normal. And finally, New Normal. 

Stage 1 – Stay at Home

We were in stage one, where we are locked down. The federal, state, county, everyone said stay home for your neighbors and your own good. And we've been doing that. A week and a half ago or two weeks ago, I sent out a survey asking how you were feeling and this is what you had said… that you were anxious, tired, exhausted, concerned, frustrated. But at the same time,  you were thankful, okay, well, hopeful, and you thought about your family. And I think that's how we are feeling - frustrated and anxious, and at the same time, we are grateful for God's provision. But we’re kind of ready for the next stage.

Stage 4 – New Normal 

A lot of people think that we go from stay-at-home to completely normal. But let me explain this. We will be ready for a new normal when science has developed a vaccine, therapy or herd immunity… plus, time required for it to be widespread… plus, time for society to psychologically, emotionally get used to it. We think this is going to take a lot longer than what we want. And so the new normal won’t be for while.

Stage 3 – Transitional Normal

And so the end that we think that we need to look at is a transitional normal. This is what we need to plan for. It is a time when we live in tension where we would practice abundance of caution with acceptable risk. That's what the world is doing. They are kind of trying to move on in this transitional normal. And society will continue to have to adjust. We are committed to those in our church for a confident, as well as those who are cautious. You are part of our church family and we hear you and we want to minister to you. So for example, we will be committed to doing in personal worship as well as online worship during this transitional normal. And we will be committed to that. We believe that there would be a segment of our church who may not feel comfortable with church or small group until we get to this new normal. So during this transitional normal, we believe that we need to go through a hybrid model of sorts. 

Stage 2 – Dress Rehearsal 

In order to get to the transitional normal, we have to ease ourselves into it through some dress rehearsal. This is a period of time when we are implementing practices and culture to prepare for a transitional normal. For example, what does it feel like to worship with masks on?, What does it feel like to have to come in and go through a check in system where they take your temperature?, and things of that nature. We are implementing policies, purchasing equipment, and bringing up teams. If you want to be a part of these teams: streaming team, facility safety team, or welcoming safety team, please let us know. And we're making some modifications in terms of how we seat people in the sanctuary and things of that nature.

Our schedule is something like this. On May 31st, this coming Sunday, we’re going to go two live worship. I’ll be preaching twice. On June 7th, we’ll have centralized streaming. We’ll have all of the departments stream from the physical location here. And on June 14th, we’ll have a pre-opening. We’ll invite volunteer leaders to help set up some of those teams and get ready for the public. And when we open for the public in the transitional normal will have to be sometime after that. Hopefully it will be shortly after that.

And if you are listening to this and you say, “Gosh, I really would love to come and worship at church.” On June 9th, and we know we've been doing Prayer Chapels every Tuesday night. On June 9th, which is the second Tuesday of the month, we will be doing Prayer Chapel in the sanctuary. And we will allow people to come and do in person Prayer Chapel with us. You'll have to register. There will be a limited number of guests allowed. But that will be the first time you would be allowed to come and be with us.

You know it's been a long journey and I'm so grateful for Living Hope. I'm so grateful for many of you. I will look forward to seeing you again. Keep us in prayer. I will pray for you as well. And God bless and we look forward to seeing you.

]]>
Re-Opening Announcement

Hi Living Hope.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our reopening. I know that's what's on our mind. This is the graphic and we are looking forward to that day.

 

Guiding Principles

Let me give you some guiding principles of how we made some decisions we made.

1. Include various voices in input

First of all, we included different voices from our elder board, our task force, and our pastoral staff. We have people from the medical profession, legal, educational, college, single adults, married, married with older kids, married with younger kids all included. We thought that was important.

2. Start with the end in mind

Secondly, we want to start with the end in mind. We don't want to look at this singular decision, but where is it that we want to get to. And I'll explain that a little bit more.

3. Acknowledge differences of conviction

We wanted to acknowledge differences of conviction. We know that there are those who are extremely confident and they want to come to church right now. And there are those who are very concerned and who want us to wait as long as possible. And we hear you.

4. Follow health guidelines

Fourthly, follow health guidelines. We looked at the CDC as well as California Department of Public Health and their published guidelines for churches. And our task force looked at each one, line by line and said, “Okay, how does this apply to Living Hope.” 

5. Begin with dress rehearsals

And finally, I we wanted to start with dress rehearsal. We cannot go from nothing to fully opening. We thought that there was some intermediate stages that we need to get to.

 

Reopening Sequence

Four Stages

So let me show you our stage. We start with Stay at Home, then Dress Rehearsal, to get to what I call Transitional Normal. And finally, New Normal. 

Stage 1 – Stay at Home

We were in stage one, where we are locked down. The federal, state, county, everyone said stay home for your neighbors and your own good. And we've been doing that. A week and a half ago or two weeks ago, I sent out a survey asking how you were feeling and this is what you had said… that you were anxious, tired, exhausted, concerned, frustrated. But at the same time,  you were thankful, okay, well, hopeful, and you thought about your family. And I think that's how we are feeling - frustrated and anxious, and at the same time, we are grateful for God's provision. But we’re kind of ready for the next stage.

Stage 4 – New Normal 

A lot of people think that we go from stay-at-home to completely normal. But let me explain this. We will be ready for a new normal when science has developed a vaccine, therapy or herd immunity… plus, time required for it to be widespread… plus, time for society to psychologically, emotionally get used to it. We think this is going to take a lot longer than what we want. And so the new normal won’t be for while.

Stage 3 – Transitional Normal

And so the end that we think that we need to look at is a transitional normal. This is what we need to plan for. It is a time when we live in tension where we would practice abundance of caution with acceptable risk. That's what the world is doing. They are kind of trying to move on in this transitional normal. And society will continue to have to adjust. We are committed to those in our church for a confident, as well as those who are cautious. You are part of our church family and we hear you and we want to minister to you. So for example, we will be committed to doing in personal worship as well as online worship during this transitional normal. And we will be committed to that. We believe that there would be a segment of our church who may not feel comfortable with church or small group until we get to this new normal. So during this transitional normal, we believe that we need to go through a hybrid model of sorts. 

Stage 2 – Dress Rehearsal 

In order to get to the transitional normal, we have to ease ourselves into it through some dress rehearsal. This is a period of time when we are implementing practices and culture to prepare for a transitional normal. For example, what does it feel like to worship with masks on?, What does it feel like to have to come in and go through a check in system where they take your temperature?, and things of that nature. We are implementing policies, purchasing equipment, and bringing up teams. If you want to be a part of these teams: streaming team, facility safety team, or welcoming safety team, please let us know. And we're making some modifications in terms of how we seat people in the sanctuary and things of that nature.

Our schedule is something like this. On May 31st, this coming Sunday, we’re going to go two live worship. I’ll be preaching twice. On June 7th, we’ll have centralized streaming. We’ll have all of the departments stream from the physical location here. And on June 14th, we’ll have a pre-opening. We’ll invite volunteer leaders to help set up some of those teams and get ready for the public. And when we open for the public in the transitional normal will have to be sometime after that. Hopefully it will be shortly after that.

And if you are listening to this and you say, “Gosh, I really would love to come and worship at church.” On June 9th, and we know we've been doing Prayer Chapels every Tuesday night. On June 9th, which is the second Tuesday of the month, we will be doing Prayer Chapel in the sanctuary. And we will allow people to come and do in person Prayer Chapel with us. You'll have to register. There will be a limited number of guests allowed. But that will be the first time you would be allowed to come and be with us.

You know it's been a long journey and I'm so grateful for Living Hope. I'm so grateful for many of you. I will look forward to seeing you again. Keep us in prayer. I will pray for you as well. And God bless and we look forward to seeing you.

]]>
4 Habits Not to Fall Into In Online Worship https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/4habits https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/4habits#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2020 10:00:00 -0700 https://www.livinghopecc.org/blog/post/4habits 4 Habits Not to Fall Into In Online Worship

We have worshipped online for six weeks and it looks like it’s going to go a lot longer. And what I wanted to do was to speak to you as your pastor to encourage you on how to make more of our own My Worship experience and at the same time I'll warn you about habits that I don't want us to get into.

 

1. Make Sunday a new (or second) Saturday | Remember the Sabbath 

The first habit I don't want us to get into is to make Sunday a new (or second) Saturday. You know for a lot of people, Monday through Friday are workdays. Sunday used to be a day of worship and Saturday used to be a blah day. It’s when we kind of relaxed and did nothing and be unproductive. And unfortunately, because we’re not actually physically going to church on Sunday, we can be tempted to make Sunday another blah day. 

But rather, I want you to realize that in the Ten Commandments, the Lord thought it was so important to keep one day a week a rhythm in which we try not to work but rather focus on the Lord. And he said in the Ten Commandments to remember the Sabbath. And so in a culture and in a world in a time of anxiety or concerns of uncertainty, I want you to focus on worship on Sunday. Don't just stream any time that is convenient for you but as if you had an appointment with the Lord on Sunday at 9:30 or 11:30, remember the Sabbath!

 

2. Children first. Worship second. | Worship first. Children second.

The second habit that I don't want us to fall into this to make children first and worship second.  You know, we have a wonderful children and youth ministry and on Sunday at 10:40 I’m imaging that in a lot of homes they're waiting for that 10:40 time.

But I want you to, as much as we love our children, to make worship first, that your worship becomes more important than your children’s worship. That at 9:30 or 11:30, that your children ought to watch you worship because they realize that mom and dad worship the Lord and that's what they want to as well. You know when you ride on the plane, one of the messages said we hear… that in the time of turbulence, when the oxygen mask comes down, don't put the oxygen mask on your child. But rather, put it on you first because do you need to be healthy and whole spiritually before you help your children.

 

3. Be completely comfortable | Offer a posture of worship

The third habit I don't want us to get into is to become too comfortable. You know, at home it's easy to get up on a Sunday morning, be in our pajamas, not be shaven or washed, and sit in front of our sofa and you know what turn on the TV when the stream is on and feel like we worshipping. 

Rather, what I would encourage you to do is to offer a posture of worship.  if the Lord Jesus came to your house on a Sunday morning how would you be dressed? How would you present yourself? How would you sit? I want you to offer a posture of worship because what we present with our bodies actually impacts our hearts. And so I want you to prepare yourself as if you are meeting the Lord that morning.

 

4. Worship alone | Worship within a community

Fourthly and lastly, the habit I don't want to get into is to worship alone. You know, worshipping is something that we do before the Lord. But when the Lord created humanity in Genesis chapter 2, He said everything was good except the fact that man was alone and so He made us community creatures. So even in worship, I want us to worship in community as Acts chapter 2 told us that worship began in a community. On Sunday morning, I want you to gather your family in a common room before you worship. Don’t be worshipping separately but worship together. And when you go online, say hello to the host, leave a comment, leave a like, or share it or ask for prayer. And also starting this Sunday, we’ll have an online lobby so go in there and say hello.

What I have been very encouraged by is to see a lot of groups actually coming together in a zoom room and worshipping together. How great is that! You know one leader said the reason why we need to worship in a community is that it is an echo of what we will experience in heaven. So worship together.

So, hey Living Hope, I'm so proud and grateful for you. And don’t fall into these bad habits of making Sunday a new (or second) Saturday but rather keep the Sabbath. I don't want you to make children first but really, you learn to worship first. And thirdly, don't be too comfortable but rather offer up a posture of worship. Finally, don’t worship alone but worship within a community. I'll see you this Sunday as we apply some of these things in worship.

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4 Habits Not to Fall Into In Online Worship

We have worshipped online for six weeks and it looks like it’s going to go a lot longer. And what I wanted to do was to speak to you as your pastor to encourage you on how to make more of our own My Worship experience and at the same time I'll warn you about habits that I don't want us to get into.

 

1. Make Sunday a new (or second) Saturday | Remember the Sabbath 

The first habit I don't want us to get into is to make Sunday a new (or second) Saturday. You know for a lot of people, Monday through Friday are workdays. Sunday used to be a day of worship and Saturday used to be a blah day. It’s when we kind of relaxed and did nothing and be unproductive. And unfortunately, because we’re not actually physically going to church on Sunday, we can be tempted to make Sunday another blah day. 

But rather, I want you to realize that in the Ten Commandments, the Lord thought it was so important to keep one day a week a rhythm in which we try not to work but rather focus on the Lord. And he said in the Ten Commandments to remember the Sabbath. And so in a culture and in a world in a time of anxiety or concerns of uncertainty, I want you to focus on worship on Sunday. Don't just stream any time that is convenient for you but as if you had an appointment with the Lord on Sunday at 9:30 or 11:30, remember the Sabbath!

 

2. Children first. Worship second. | Worship first. Children second.

The second habit that I don't want us to fall into this to make children first and worship second.  You know, we have a wonderful children and youth ministry and on Sunday at 10:40 I’m imaging that in a lot of homes they're waiting for that 10:40 time.

But I want you to, as much as we love our children, to make worship first, that your worship becomes more important than your children’s worship. That at 9:30 or 11:30, that your children ought to watch you worship because they realize that mom and dad worship the Lord and that's what they want to as well. You know when you ride on the plane, one of the messages said we hear… that in the time of turbulence, when the oxygen mask comes down, don't put the oxygen mask on your child. But rather, put it on you first because do you need to be healthy and whole spiritually before you help your children.

 

3. Be completely comfortable | Offer a posture of worship

The third habit I don't want us to get into is to become too comfortable. You know, at home it's easy to get up on a Sunday morning, be in our pajamas, not be shaven or washed, and sit in front of our sofa and you know what turn on the TV when the stream is on and feel like we worshipping. 

Rather, what I would encourage you to do is to offer a posture of worship.  if the Lord Jesus came to your house on a Sunday morning how would you be dressed? How would you present yourself? How would you sit? I want you to offer a posture of worship because what we present with our bodies actually impacts our hearts. And so I want you to prepare yourself as if you are meeting the Lord that morning.

 

4. Worship alone | Worship within a community

Fourthly and lastly, the habit I don't want to get into is to worship alone. You know, worshipping is something that we do before the Lord. But when the Lord created humanity in Genesis chapter 2, He said everything was good except the fact that man was alone and so He made us community creatures. So even in worship, I want us to worship in community as Acts chapter 2 told us that worship began in a community. On Sunday morning, I want you to gather your family in a common room before you worship. Don’t be worshipping separately but worship together. And when you go online, say hello to the host, leave a comment, leave a like, or share it or ask for prayer. And also starting this Sunday, we’ll have an online lobby so go in there and say hello.

What I have been very encouraged by is to see a lot of groups actually coming together in a zoom room and worshipping together. How great is that! You know one leader said the reason why we need to worship in a community is that it is an echo of what we will experience in heaven. So worship together.

So, hey Living Hope, I'm so proud and grateful for you. And don’t fall into these bad habits of making Sunday a new (or second) Saturday but rather keep the Sabbath. I don't want you to make children first but really, you learn to worship first. And thirdly, don't be too comfortable but rather offer up a posture of worship. Finally, don’t worship alone but worship within a community. I'll see you this Sunday as we apply some of these things in worship.

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