Dear Redeemer Family and Friends,
Acts 8:1 records the terror of the days immediately following the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr for our faith: “And there arose that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” These early Christians must have wondered as their daily lives were disrupted and their leaders were jailed and stoned: “What could God possibly be doing through all this?” Out of Stephen’s death and the scattering of the church, however, God did a marvelous thing. The church grew! The gospel spread like wildfire! New churches were planted! Men, women, and children came to faith! What might God do in this extraordinary time among us? How might he use this time—when we must step away from our normal responsibilities and distractions—for his own glory and the good of our church?
That’s the question we wrestled with as we met on Tuesday evening in light of the new restrictions announced by Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and Austin Mayor Steve Adler to prohibit gatherings of 10 or more people in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. First, we determined that in obedience to Romans 13 and under the guidance of the Westminster Larger Catechism 127, we will comply with this new order by suspending worship services and activities, effective immediately. Further, we will suspend the use of our facilities by any group (either Redeemer-sponsored or an outside group), with the exception of counseling by Redeemer staff counselors and limited office hours by our staff to keep essential services operating. Sadly, these new orders are currently set to remain in effect until May 1, so in addition to suspending our Sunday worship services, at this time we are also suspending the Maundy Thursday Feast on April 9 and the Good Friday service on April 10.
But, despite these suspensions, the Lord’s work will continue during this time. We have sought to determine the best way to continue to fulfill the three main tasks of our church’s work (Worship, Community, and Mission), even as our normal life is somewhat disrupted.
Worship
How will we continue to worship the Lord during this strange time? While we considered a number of options, we decided that each week the pastoral staff will provide a guide for individual and family worship to the congregation. It will contain some responsive readings, hymns, Scripture readings, a brief meditation from our pastors, and other material that will feel familiar and help lead you in a time of devotion throughout this time. This guide will be emailed on Fridays. We urge you to use the guides on Sundays as an aid to worship either with your family or in a limited group of no more than 10 people (or whatever the legal limit is in your city or county), as you feel comfortable. This may even provide you with an opportunity to invite neighbors who may not otherwise come to church under normal circumstances to join you and your family in worship.
Our hope is that this period of abstinence from meeting together will create within us all a longing for the people of God and the worship of God. May we with the psalmist cry out, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.” (Psalm 84:1-2).
Community
Our shepherding teams will be contacting all the members of the church for prayer and to ensure that your needs are being met. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our deacons at 512-900-0912 if you need assistance.
Think about the people you normally see sitting around you on Sunday—those to whom you have passed “the peace of Christ.” Consider reaching out to them with a video chat, a phone call, an email or a text. Check in on them, find out how you can pray for them, and catch up on how God has revealed himself as a faithful father and friend during this unusual season.
We want to encourage each of our small groups and sponsored Bible studies to suspend their meetings unless they can comfortably and willingly break into groups of 10 or fewer people. In place of meeting together, small groups might want to consider a study that can be completed in one’s own home and then join together for a discussion and prayer via group text or video conferencing. We are exploring options for online tools and platforms to facilitate this and may offer some suggestions in a later email. (And if tech-savvy members have suggestions, please pass them along to Josh Torrey at joshua.torrey@gmail.com or Randy Scott at ras@rscott.us.)
As you deem appropriate, you might also consider limited fellowship with other individuals or families. To ensure safety, we recommend that you restrict it to just a few individuals or families who are not sick and are not part of an at-risk population.
Mission
Even though Redeemer is now scattered across our region, we urge you to find ways to continue to live on mission. The church is an embassy of God’s grace; it is a scale-model of the Kingdom of God. Even as an individual or family, you can still serve as Christ’s ambassadors, demonstrating the goodness, truth, and beauty of the New Creation.
There are many ways that you can assist others during this time of need:
- As mentioned above, invite a neighbor to worship with you on Sunday
- Donate blood
- Drop off food at a local food pantry
- Help the family of a health-care provider, first-responder, or someone working in a critical industry or business with child care
- Help a family that has never homeschooled their children
- Make a special donation to a nonprofit agency doing good
- Consider a special gift to our deacons’ fund as they will undoubtedly be helping people affected by the crisis
- Join the “NextDoor” app for your neighborhood and volunteer to meet the needs of your neighbors as they are posted
- As Pastor Eric encouraged us on Sunday, find one person to whom you can minister and be in regular communication with them
- Continue to stay tuned to the church’s communications via email, social media, and the website as we consider new ways to minister to our community
Our local and worldwide partners (https://redeemerpres.org/mission-2/) can also use your help:
- In light of the move by UT Austin to close the campus, contact John Trapp (john.trapp@ruf.org), Terry Dykstra (terry.dykstra@ruf.org) or Summers Guo to see if they know students who need help moving out of dorms or emergency housing
- Consider making a special donation
- Inquire with them about volunteer opportunities
- Write letters (real letters!) to our missionaries
Conclusion
When God’s people were exiled to Babylon they found themselves hundreds of miles from Jerusalem and from the worship they had known for generations. While our circumstances are different in many ways (COVID-19 is not today’s equivalent of the Babylonians), there are some interesting parallels, and we would do well to listen to the Lord’s commandment to them to seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which they had been exiled and to wait for God to deliver them (Jer. 29:7). May our longing for the Lord and his people make us more grateful for all the ways he has blessed us as a church, and may we use this as an opportunity to grow in faithfulness and dependence on the Lord.
In Christ,
The Session