@Fred_ButlerReplying to@triablogueIf the church where you currently attend is told by the state to close down for a couple of weeks, will you all do it, or are you gonna resist and rebel?
Fred is responding to this post:
His question is confused at multiple levels:
i) A layman can't decide for anyone else.
ii) Depending on the polity, the only folks in a position to close it down are the (senior?) pastor, church board, and/or bishop. If it has a congregational polity, the congregation could overrule the pastor.
That's unless the authorities board it up. In that case it's out of the hands of the clergy and parishioners alike, although churches can file class action suits.
iii) If I was the pastor, and it was up to me, I'd defy the order.
iv) Whether other parishioners attend or stay home is up to them.
I would think you could break up the services some. Of course, larger churches already have multiple services. But one could break it down still more. That is a *lot* more work for the pastor, though. But perhaps this is an argument for changing format. For example, suppose one had multiple, rolling prayer, Bible reading, and singing meetings going on many times per week, with on-line sign-up sheets so that each one had no more than twenty people in a group. Odd numbers (if the people who want to come are not divisible by 15 or twenty or whatever) could be handled by prudent juggling--a few more or less in this or that group. Most evangelical, Baptist, and other Protestant churches have communion only once per month. These small groups could have Communion as well. The sermon from the head pastor could still be livestreamed.
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