CLG family,

After prayerful consideration, our leadership team has made the decision to suspend our Sunday church services as well as youth group and AWANA on Wednesdays, out of respect for the recommendations of our governing authorities, and as an act of love and service to those in our church family and local community who are susceptible to serious complications from the COVID-19 virus. (If you are in a small group, check with your leaders concerning their plans).

We will be streaming or posting video of the message. Check the church Facebook page or website (clgonline.org) for video, audio and notes. Note that social distancing is not the same as relational distancing. We are still accessible! We just aren’t going to meet with 100 of you at a time – for now.

This is temporary, or course. We will be closely monitoring governmental recommendations and local church practices. We plan to resume our regularly scheduled meetings and gathering together as soon as seems wise.

This is also a decision motivated not only by the current State Of Michigan recommendation for community and faith-based organizations, but by our witness as well. A missionary in Hong Kong has noted about what has been happening in their area:

“In Singapore and Korea, huge shares of the infected became infected via religious gatherings. In many cases, these were Christian gatherings… If we are reckless and allow our churches to become centers of disease, then we damage the reputation of the Gospel in our communities. Don’t do that. Do no wrong in the eyes of anyone! In a time of plague, Christians should not abandon their posts, and should be examples of good disease management. Christians invented hospitals during the first 5 centuries of our faith, because Christians thought it was important to have a good witness through our care for the sick. Let’s keep up that good record passed on to us from the saints of the past.”

I appreciate what Andy Crouch has written on how churches should respond to this current crisis.

“The reason to alter our practices, especially the way we gather, is not self-protection. For one thing, in the case of this particular virus, if individuals are young and healthy, infection may pose not much more threat than the ordinary seasonal flu. The change is needed because our vulnerable neighbors — those of any age with compromised immune systems, and those over 70 years old — are at grave risk. One of the basic axioms of the Christian life is that the “strong” must consider the “weak” (see Rom. 15). We are making these choices not to minimize our own risk, but to protect others from risk.
At the same time, some people are taking steps, sometimes extreme ones, to protect themselves and their families, often out of terrible anxiety, and this will likely increase in the coming days. This is not a Christian posture. We do not change our behavior out of fear. In a very different context, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I want you to be free of anxieties” so that his community could serve the Lord (1 Cor. 7:32). We prepare for our expected needs, and others’, so that we can be free of anxieties and serve freely when the time comes. It is entirely possible to prepare, even to prepare urgently, out of love.”

Once again, we will be streaming or videoing the message. Check the church Facebook page or website (clgonline.org) for video, audio and notes. The church office will continue to be open during the week.

Also, we encourage you to continue giving to the mission of the church. You can do so online, https://www.clgonline.org/give, or you can mail/drop off offerings at the church. There are two important reasons for this.

First, we still have to pay the bills.
Second, we expect that there will be a financial impact from COVID-19 closings on people in the church whose jobs are suffering, and who also have to pay bills. Your generosity can make possible our generosity toward church family members in need.

And if you have too much toilet paper, give some to your neighbor :)

With hope and peace from the God of all comfort,

Anthony (on behalf of our church elders and staff)