Standing With Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ

This morning may be a challenging Sunday for many brothers and sisters in other states.  State and local governments have determined legal limitations on church gatherings that are no longer considered "unconstitutional."  The US Supreme Court has failed to hear a case from Nevada about a government limit on church gathering size regardless of the square footage of the space or safety precautions practiced. Other than fire-code and various social safety laws equally distributed to churches and businesses, Utah has not enacted laws like those we’re seeing in other states. However, based on the recent actions of the US Supreme Court, Utah lawmakers could, and there would be no human entity or institution by which to make an appeal.

Let us pray for the local churches and governments across our nation.  Let us also be thankful that our local municipalities have not limited our meetings in ways that are different from other gatherings.  

At Redeeming Life, we have made decisions about gathering and coronavirus safety at the encouragement of the local government and various other government authorities, but other than fire codes, noise ordinances, traffic laws, and other safety regulations, we are not legally prohibited from worshiping God how we choose, or gathering for worship this morning.   The decisions we've made were our decisions made out of the concern of our congregation.  As of today, these decisions were not legally forced upon us by our state authorities, but simply requests that we’ve respected.  This is not the case in some churches across the United States. 

We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We believe in the local autonomy of the church and know that each local church, under the direction of God and leadership of called pastor-elders must make decisions for the local church as led by God. Pastors have had to make some difficult decisions lately. Some, we might have made in their shoes, some we might not have. In any case, we know these are challenging times for pastors and churches.

Therefore, Redeeming Life, let us be thankful for the circumstances God has places us in, and let us stand with out brothers and sisters in prayer. 

For the Kingdom!
Pastor Bryan