The battle between Los Angeles County and the Lord’s Faithful continued Monday, with cantankerous county officials trying for *the fourth time* to get Grace Community Church (GCC) to make like Beth Moore and go home, taking them to the courts and seeking to shut them down from having indoor worship services of more than just handful of souls.
In a declaration filed by Pastor John MacArthur, the church states that they view the worship ban as “nonsensical” and an attack on their faith which requires worship. They write that meeting outdoors is not feasible, and that “Grace Community Church’s sanctuary is a spiritual refuge for our congregation” of which the county has no right to deprive them, arguing that ultimately, their imposition to not have the church down is asking them to sin, which they are not willing to do.
Pastor MacArthur continued in that vein, getting more personal and passionate, seeking to encapsulate the importance of GCC.
Our church is not an event center. It is a family of lives who love and care for each other in very intensely personal ways. So essential to personal well being that people rushed back as soon as they could. The utter unnecessary deprivation of all our people by completely shutting down the mutual love and care that sustains our people in all the exigencies, pressures, and challenges of life was cruel. And after 63 years of sacrificial kindness to our city, to be repeatedly threatened with court-ordered efforts to shut Grace Community Church down when no one is sick, reveals an inexplicable preference for a mostly harmless virus over the life-enriching and necessary fellowship of the church.
We will update this post after the court’s ruling.
