In answering the question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus responded by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

While it may seem that Jesus mentions two commandments, He actually refers to them as one. We should think of them as two sides to the same coin, inseparable and just as valuable. We demonstrate a love for God when we gather together for worship, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship. But we also demonstrate a love for God when we love our neighbors. Yes, we worship through our obedience to assemble when God calls us to assemble, but we also worship through our obedience not to assemble when civil authorities ask us not to in the face of a spreading pandemic.

It breaks our hearts to not be able to gather together in person. We miss our church family and the connections we make each week. But we believe it is prudent to continue to follow the social-distancing recommendations of our president, governor, and the CDC. Since they have extended their recommendations through April 30, we have decided to stay online-only for the remainder of the month. We will continue to stream live services on Sundays at 11:00am and Wednesdays at 6:00pm. Our Life Groups will continue to meet through the Zoom teleconferencing app. Our Next Gen ministries are staying connected through a mixture of Facebook Live and Zoom teleconferenced meetings. Please let us know if you are interested in joining any of these groups.

As always, if you have a need that we might be able to meet, please connect with us. You can find different ways to stay connected at www.pbclc.com/parkviewonline. For now, our office will remain open, Monday-Thursday, 8:00am-5:00pm as usual. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate challenging circumstances and make difficult decisions. We will all do our part to “flatten the curve” by staying home as much as possible.