I’m not insisting that in-person services is the only form of “real” worship. We had no issues worshiping and holding cell groups online for the past year and three months. I also considered holding online-only services to help us focus on our personal relationship with God and nothing else.

But from June onwards, I felt that this is the time to worship in person. It is very difficult to spread Covid during services where we all wear masks and face the same direction, as opposed to smaller groups where we might take them off and sit across each other – so unless the government announces another lockdown, I plan to continue to hold in person services despite the difficult Covid situation here in the UK. This is because it looks like Covid is here to stay for a while, and is taking a similar path to that of the Spanish flu – while this infected over 500 million people and killed 17 million people a hundred years ago, it has now lost its sting and has settled amongst us. Indeed, recent studies show that Covid has weakened in strength by around 70%, and that the death rate is relatively low.

The other reason is members of our church that live alone. Married couples probably don’t feel this, but living the UK is different from living in Korea where we can see family and friends and go to restaurants and cafés any time we want. It’s very difficult to live alone even for a few weeks in a foreign country where you don’t have family and can’t even step outside to a café without being concerned. At first, they probably endured thinking that Covid will go away soon, but with new variants the transmission rate continues to be high, despite a low mortality rate. We can’t just ignore those struggling while living alone. Holding online services only is easy and simple, but if it helps other Christians, the church needs to take the difficult road, even when that can be burdensome.

As the pandemic continues, a lot of members have reached out and asked for prayer over heath issues. Since our congregation is relatively young I wasn’t sure why, but most of these illnesses seemed to stem from living in isolation for a long time. So we need to remember that while some may prefer online services, in-person services may be needed for some. I want our church to be a church that can welcome and greet people that are struggling alone and come to the church out of desperation for human contact.

But we of course still need to be careful, for our safety. When entering the church, please ensure that you are wearing a mask and that you sanitise your hands when entering and leaving. Please fill in the sign-in sheet as much as you can so that we can easily reach out to those that come into contact with someone with Covid, and make sure that you stay in your allocated seat rather than sitting somewhere else. Please refrain from eating together, but if you have to, please make sure that you take a lateral flow test beforehand.

If we come together and cooperate, I am sure that our congregation will be built up through this situation, as has been the case so far. We cannot be passive in the face of Covid – rather than passively hoping that this will go away, I hope that our church will break through the situation with prayer and continue to walk forward with wisdom from God. God will help us do so.