Church,

With a heavy heart, we are cancelling service for tomorrow morning, including both the education hour and the worship service. I assure you, there has been much deliberation and many phone calls over what to do in the wake of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. The recommendations I’ve seen are generally aimed at gatherings over 250 (and some recommending anything over 500) be cancelled. However, there are also arguments being made that “social distancing” is a benefit to the community as a whole during this time, and if we can avoid close contact with anyone outside our home for a little while the cases would drop to manageable levels. 

There were many factors that went into this decision (most I will not enumerate here). More than anything I realize we are part of a community of people living together. We have an opportunity to play our part in the community as a whole, and with other churches, discourage gathering together in groups where the virus might be shared. We are not doing this out of fear, but we are making this step out of deference to the community as a whole as a gesture to say that we care about the well-being and flourishing of Tuscaloosa and its citizens.

This does have limits, believe me. I take cancelling a worship service very seriously since it is a command in scripture to not forsake the assembly (Heb. 10:24-25), and we are citizens of heaven first and foremost. We haven’t decided what to do next week, but I am reasonably confident there will be a service of some kind. Please take an opportunity with your families tomorrow (even if for 15 minutes), to pray, sing, read scripture and discuss. Though this isn’t a total replacement for gathering together as a church body, it is a good reminder for us all that the one and only Son of God was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, securing eternal life for all who place their trust in him. 

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

-Michael