Remarks on the Mask Mandate
*The following are remarks made at each worship service at Christ Church Bellingham on August 31, 2021, regarding the church’s current position on the governor’s recent mask mandate on all public indoor spaces.
Let me begin by saying that it is our church’s sincere desire to be law abiding citizens and to give honor to the rightful use of authority entrusted to our civil government. We should remember though that there is a diversity of opinions around this matter in our community, yet our church is full of people on both sides who we would regard as both wise and God-fearing. That should give us pause in making judgments against each other about these issues.
Alongside that, we have consistently said throughout this pandemic that it is important to equally recognize the church’s God given authority in her ecclesiastical government, alongside the civil magistrate. Each has been entrusted a different sphere of authority, and both should be honored by us. This is an application of the limits Paul puts on authority in Romans 13—“there is no authority except from God.” Both authorities (church and state) are limited to only the authority that has been entrusted to them by God.
Our Book of Church Order acknowledges that the church’s power is of two kinds: ministerial (we serve people) and declarative (we declare God’s word to people). It is never coercive. We cannot force people to do things. Let me read two of the Preliminary Principles from the PCA’s Book of Church Order:
7. All church power, whether exercised by the body in general, or by representation, is only ministerial and declarative since the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice. No church judicatory may make laws to bind the conscience. All church courts may err through human frailty, yet it rests upon them to uphold the laws of Scripture though this obligation be lodged with fallible men.
8. Since ecclesiastical discipline must be purely moral or spiritual in its object, and not attended with any civil effects, it can derive no force whatever, but from its own justice, the approbation of an impartial public, and the countenance and blessing of the great Head of the Church.”
Now in the case of this mandate, the point where these two God-given authorities (the civil government and the church) have come in conflict is primarily in one particular paragraph of the governor’s mandate, which reads this way:
“I further prohibit any governmental, commercial, or nonprofit entity or private party from allowing any individual to enter or remain in any indoor space under their control unless the individual is in compliance with the Secretary of Health’s face covering order and any subsequent amendments.”
The governor is requiring the church to police those who come into God’s presence. We believe this goes beyond the powers entrusted to us by God.
In addition, our doctrinal standard (The Westminster Confession of Faith), which was a statement of theology written by the church to Parliament in England in the 1640’s, has chapters on both the authority of the government and the authority of the church. In the chapter on Church synods and councils (like the session in our local church), it gives authority to:
“...set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of the church...which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission; not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God appointed thereunto in his Word.” (WCF 31.2)
The ordering of the worship service is entrusted by God to church councils and not to the civil magistrate. One of the key ways the church orders our worship service is by declaring who is welcome to the Lord’s Supper. To refuse the Lord’s Supper to someone is an act of church discipline. So the governor is requiring us to enforce church discipline on someone for not wearing a mask.
In light of this, the elders in our church (who have a diversity of views about how we should be responding to COVID currently) agree on these two points:
The coercive power to enforce mask-wearing has not been given by God to the church. Our powers are ministerial (we serve people) and declarative (we declare God’s word to people). Therefore, we will not take it upon ourselves to enforce the governor’s mandate.
Because of the large amount of disagreement (even within our church) about the legitimacy of this mandate, and the lack of Scriptural instruction about it, we regard this as a third tier doctrine, a matter of wisdom and personal conviction. To bar someone from coming to the Lord’s Supper is an act of church discipline, and we do not regard a refusal to wear a mask as warranting such discipline.
It has also been our goal as elders throughout this pandemic to accommodate (as much as we can) the variety of conscience issues surrounding this matter. Therefore we have asked those who desire to be in a worship service more fully complying to the mandate to attend our 8:30am service.
Our elders welcome your input. Please reach out to any of them (their emails were included in the note that went out this week).
