Recently, I was interviewed by Bill Martinez on his nationally-syndicated radio show, Bill Martinez Live, about several hot topics, including how the church has reacted to COVID-19. In my last blog, I shared the beginning of our engaging discussion, including how divided the big-C Church has been over in-person gatherings, three scriptures the Lord gave me to guide our local church, and what we are doing to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Here are excerpts of the rest of the interview.
Rob Singleton
So I think the real question now becomes, how are we going to emerge out of this? What’s it going to look like? What’s the new normal? Are you getting a lot of questions about that?
Bill Martinez
Well, absolutely. [The church] is the powerful instrument of God that He has used throughout history. It has been the Church that has been the light of the world, and the Church, as keepers of that light, need to protect and honor that, because that is a mandate from God. It’s not from some president or some happenstance-ial, political group that just decided to assign that to the church.
Rob Singleton
No, I mean, you’re absolutely right. And there’s only so long, I think, that faithful church leaders—and by “so long,” I mean, “time’s up”—that we’re going to play this game…
So, some of our churches are opening up. I don’t know if we’re as open as places like Texas, and but it was so good to have even maybe a third of our folks in there in [our first service back]. And we’re trying to take care of them, let them know that we do care about them. But right in the middle of gathering, about two days before Sunday hit, another edict went out and changed the rules on us again. And so, I just wanted to get back to this thing: how’s the church going to be? Are we being wimps? Are we just buckling down?
Bill Martinez
And we’ve got about a minute left, Rob, so I’m going let you sum it up here. Okay, so good point. Go ahead.
Rob Singleton
55:30
Well, so we went ahead and did not adjust to the new rules. We went ahead and brought in the people that we’re going to bring in because I felt like, if we’re really worried about people, then the cat’s out of the bag. I mean, millions are in the streets rioting, so we’re going to find out whether that’s going to cause this COVID thing to get worse anyway.
Meanwhile, people need church. I have never seen our people happier and lifting up the name of Jesus than they did [our first Sunday back]. I could tell that our church was dying to get back to fellowship and that they were languishing. They were just fading without Christ. So yeah, the Church has got to stand up. We’ve been good. We’ve shown that we care [by suspending in-person gatherings], and we do care. But we’re also commanded to gather, and it’s time to gather.
Bill Martinez
Well, the church can be very thankful that there is a president in the White House that is protecting religious freedom the way he is. This has probably been the most aggressive president in a long time, at least in my era, where I can recall this. So this is incredible!
Well, Rob, God bless you. Thank you for coming on the show. It’s great to have you with us. I’d love to have you back because we need to continue this conversation because I think that it’s a process to figure out what the new normal is going to be… a combination of the successful outreach that you’ve enjoyed with online services, but the fact the matter is that we have to get people back in the pews again because that’s where we minister. You cannot have a lack of touch and connection with humanity.
And that’s why I’m saying these forces that have come in and are influencing this are for one reason. They know the religious community is strong. It is a formidable force. And they’re trying to do everything they can because we’re reminded that when the evil one comes, they tie down the strong man. If they can tie down the strong man, they can have their way. And from time in history, that’s one of the first points they go to: let’s render the effectiveness of the religious community. If we can do that, we’re very successful in pushing our agenda, right?
Rob Singleton
Well, I totally agree with you. And the power is in the Cross. And, at least at our church, we just finished a series called, The New Normal, and I talk about all that. I would love to come back on the show and tell you what I think God’s doing that’s actually positive.
Bill Martinez
Well, we’ve got to do that.
Rob Singleton
Thank you so much.
Bill Martinez
God bless you, Rob. Rob Singleton here on Bill Martinez Live.
Many thanks to Bill Martinez for having me on his show. I look forward to future conversations with him. I also want to encourage you to check out my new YouTube channel for relevant and timely videos, and join us in our online worship experiences at The Summit on Sundays at 9am & 11am Mountain time. (Of course, if you’re local or in town visiting, reserve your spot for one of our in-person worship experiences.)
Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing!
~Pastor Rob