21 Mar 3:16 Church Decentralised
Recently, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) will continue for some time – a year, and maybe longer. [1]
Quite a few things have happened in this past week.
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- Malaysia has issued a nationwide lock-down, restricting entries and exits until 31 March.
- Singapore saw our highest number of confirmed daily infected cases.
- There are also a few more local churches with reported cases of Covid-19.
In light of all these, what should 3:16 Church do?
While we will work on the precautionary measures, we do not want to miss the prophetic message that God wants 3:16 Church to carry in such times.
Before I share on 3:16 Church’s new precautionary measure, there are 2 things I would like you to understand:
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- Practising good personal hygiene, temperature taking, cancelling large group gatherings, and practising of social distancing are important. We must do our part to help our nation’s leaders fight the Covid-19. Many doctors, nurses and front-line workers are working hard do their part and like them, we too have a part to play. We cannot let them down.
- The gathering of believers is a basic necessity for our faith. We do not check-in on Sundays just to listen a sermon. We do not want to be sermon-centric but Saviour-centric.
As written in Hebrews 10:25, we must not forsake the assembly of believers. This is especially true in times of crisis.
Regardless the measures 3:16 Church adopts, we do not want to forgo this. Social distancing cannot and must not lead to spiritual distancing. In times like these, we should redeem it into a movement for spiritual discipleship.
So, what would 3:16 Church do?
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- Despite 3:16 Church’s average attendance being lower than 250 people – 250 is the maximum capacity allowed for all events by the Ministry of Health [2] – We will be reducing our gathering capacity through decentralising our weekly Sunday Worship Services into 12 smaller satellite locations for 5 weeks starting from 29 March 2020. This will help us to be Covid-19 ready for the long haul.
- In the event any person or family is unable to join us at one of these gatherings, we will be streaming our sermons online to serve you and your family better.
I will be sharing more this Sunday at Capital Tower.
We are not only understanding these precautionary measures but also the prophetic message that God had for 3:16 Church in this season. Come and be a part of this redemptive move in this national health crisis.
Pastor Ian
[1] Full text of speech by PM Lee Hsien Loong on the Covid-19 outbreak
[2] New measures added by Ministry of Health on 20 March