The twenty-fourth album in our series showing our brothers and sisters in Christ gathering for church service as faithful believers.
Right now churches are canceling their services at an astonishing rate, with thousands announcing that services are canceled for the next month, if not longer. Furthermore, stringent conditions are being placed on believers, with countries having vaccine mandates in order to attend church.
While going to church does not make one a believer, refusing to faithfully attend a local church should seriously call that faith into question. This is a glimpse of what the global church is up to, and will feature images in chronological order, week to week, of the men and women being obedient to the scriptures. As always, click to enlarge.
For our multi-volume series showing the progression of the Church worldwide experiencing the lockdown and pandemic, from March 2020- July 2021, click here.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, the acclaimed scientist, geneticist, and professing Christian, released a statement several months ago for PRIDE month, where he publically revealed himself to be thoroughly compromised on the Christian’s view of LGBTQ issues and the scriptures, offering them his personal support as an “ally” and regurgitating all the progressive talking points while using progressive language that those interested in tearing down the biblical view of family have.
The (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government and is responsible for biomedical and public health research, compromised of nearly 20,000 employees and having an annual budget of 42 billion dollars. For this reason, it is no surprise that the organization might issue a woke statement, using “we” language to represent everyone as a matter of policy. They certainly have a media relations team that would put out such a statement.
Yet Collins’s letter is personal. We don’t know why he felt he had to release a statement in the first place, but even if he as the Director was being pressured to and he was forced to under penalty of losing his job, he personalizes it using “I” rather than “we,” saying among other things:
I applaud the courage and resilience it takes for individuals to live openly and authentically
As a White cisgender and heterosexual man, I have not had the same experiences, but I am committed to listening, respecting, and supporting those individuals as an ally and advocate.
I know that developing allyship is critical as we continue to make NIH, and the world, a more inclusive place for all.
For that reason, I am excited to share this year’s Pride theme, Allyship in Action
To address this need, I am proud to announce that NIH recently funded a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study to review current measures and methodological issues related to measuring sex as a non-binary construct.
I hope that you join me this Pride Month in exemplifying allyship and celebrating the broad diversity of SGM communities.
There is one thing about working for an organization that puts out statements in support of so-called “sexual minorities” that celebrates sexual perversions of God’s design for men and women. It’s another thing to personally go out of your way to ensure that your public statements are as far as a view from Romans 1 as possible, all the while crowing about how proud you are of them.
We are quickly discovering that the beliefs of Francis Collins, one of the world’s leading geneticists, scientists and professing Christians, are more thoroughly compromised than we imagined (including his views of Pride Month and LGBTQ) Collins is the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the founder of BioLogos, the self-described “Christian organization” that seeks to bridge the bible and evolution while insisting that humans evolved from apes 200,000 years ago and that Adam and Eve never actually existed.
In an interview with Ed Stetzer, who tried to smuggle him in as an authoritative voice Christians should be listening to, Collins informs Stetzer that it’s more important that kids have in-person school than adults and kids have in-person church.
Stetzer: If kids need in-person school, and we don’t have any clear end to this pandemic, do people need in-person church? Are there ways to do this more safely?
Collins:The consequences of missing out on that personal interaction for educational progress, for social interactions, just for human development as a child are really significant. Those of us who are adults that are missing our church gathering, we’re suffering too. But if I have to make a priority, it’s getting those kids in school is even higher in my list...
…It troubles me greatly, that somehow we’ve gotten in this big political debate about whether masks need to be worn in school for kids under 12, who can’t be vaccinated, who could therefore get infected and could then spread it to others. If we don’t have mask wearing in school, it’s guaranteed we’re going to have outbreaks and then the kids will be back home again, doing the virtual thing that we were trying to avoid. Really too bad that it’s turned into such a strange argument that’s going on… In special circumstances, especially if your church can meet outside, well, take advantage of that because we know it’s safer. Otherwise, if there was an absolutely critical need, keep that physical distance and insist that everybody wear masks.
Stetzer: What I’m not sure I’m on the same place as the esteemed Dr. Francis Collins is, if kids need in-person school and we can take appropriate mitigations, why don’t we also say that we need in-person church? You’ve been a Christian a long time, you know, they’re gonna have to quote the verses to you, but people want me to quote the verses to you. But you know the verses. Church is not just about electrons and avatars, it’s about feet and faces. If we can have kids sitting in desks and follow mitigations, can we do that in church?
Collins: We can do it. And again, the question is, what’s the risk? And how strongly do we feel that that risk is worth taking? If Christ’s strongest recommendation to us; how love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, we’re supposed to use our mind about this. And of course, the next is the commandment love your neighbor as yourself. This is a ‘love your neighbor’ circumstance.
Because if you are gathering in person, in a church, even being careful about it, there may be somebody sitting there who’s got an immune deficiency, maybe they know it, maybe they don’t. And then that individual, despite thinking they were protected, turns out to get COVID, ends up in the ICU and maybe loses their life.
So how do we balance that risk, which is not zero, against the deep desire that we all have to gather together?What is God calling us to do in that circumstance? I guess I come back to love your neighbor. And if I’m doing something that I think might be putting my neighbor at risk, then I’m worried about moving in that direction.
Collins concludes by explaining that if he were the ‘king of evangelicals” overseeing the churches who insist on meeting in person, he would “certainly continuing to insist on mask-wearing for everybody vaccinated or unvaccinated physical distancing, trying to maintain that six-foot distance” and explains that the most dangerous part of a service is afterward, where everyone wants to stop and greet and hug each other.
The seventieth and last album in our series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. We started documenting April 7th, 2020, back when there were only a handful of churches daring to gather- and even then half of them were doing drive-in services, which would frequently result in arrests or fines from the police and law enforcement.
16 months later, most churches are worshipping as they please, at least in the United States. Many countries aren’t so lucky, however, and are subjected to rolling lockdowns whereby gathering for church is still prohibited, with threats of fines and jail time if they disobey. Yet with the pandemic functionally over in our country, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25). All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
Also, while this series may be ending, it’s only a small conclusion. Starting next week we will be commencing our new series, which will leave off where this one ended. In a similar fashion, we will be simply documenting other Christian congregations out there, posting pictures of our brothers and sisters in Christ, with a particular emphasis on different countries, If you want your church family documented, send your pictures to protestia@outlook.com
The sixty-seventh album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, even having the pastors arrested and churches having underground service, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, are having drive-through services, or are meeting in secret. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
This will be the third last post in this series, as we will end on 70 weeks.
The sixty-fourth album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, even having the pastors arrested, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, are having drive-through services, or are meeting in secret. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
The sixty-third album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, even having the pastors arrested, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, are having drive-through services, or are meeting in secret. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
The sixty-second album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, even having the pastors arrested, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, are having drive-through services, or are meeting in secret. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
The fifty-ninth album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
One year in, and we’re still doing this.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, or are having drive-through services. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
The fifty-fourth album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
One year in, and we’re still doing this.
With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, or are having drive-through services. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.
All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.
