COVID-19: What’s Love Got To Do With It?

TogetherLA is a movement of pastors, church leaders and people of faith who love LA. And there is no better time to discuss what it means to love LA than when a global pandemic reaches our shores.

What seemed like someone else’s concern just a few weeks ago is now the concern of every person on planet earth. It is hard to believe that statement is not hyperbole. COVID-19, aka the novel Coronavirus, is now a pandemic. The goal is no longer to stop the disease in its tracks, but rather reduce the rate at which the disease spreads.

Every company, organization and social institution is asking what their responsibility needs to be in mitigating the spread of the Coronavirus, and that includes churches. But churches have historically been a place of refuge in situations such as these. So what should our response be when it might be most beneficial to close our doors? Do we continue to host live services, community groups and classes, or do we disrupt our accessibility to the masses to reduce spread?

California officials are calling for a cancellation of all large group gatherings of 250 people or more, as are many other cities and states throughout the country. Churches in the LA area and beyond have decided to move their gatherings online, or cancel them altogether for the foreseeable future. And for good reason.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, told Congress today that “Right now, all of us, regardless of what testing is going on, need to be doing the kind of distancing, avoiding crowds, teleworking when possible. I said it many times and I’ll say it again. This is not business as usual.”

How do we, as a church, best love our city? We certainly do not want to react in fear. We want to be confident that God is in control and will provide all we need. However, we also want to lean in to the common grace God has afforded us through the wisdom of science and medicine. And if we look at past pandemics, enforcing social distancing has historically been extremely effective at lowering morbidity rates and reducing the rate of spread.

We have to ask ourselves - is it more loving for us to provide traditional gatherings for our congregants and our city, or is it more loving to place a temporary halt on our daily lives in order to fight for the safety of those who are most vulnerable among us?

In the coming days we will look at how the Coronavirus is affecting all areas of life and church and what it looks like to love LA in these unprecedented times.