Avoiding the Extremes: Worship in the Cold and Heat
Recent discussions about restricting indoor worship sparked my curiosity. Some places allow limited outdoor gatherings, but these are only effective in moderate weather locations. Some places, like the city where I live, have glorious summers that very rarely suffer through extreme heat. Even in our hottest days, outside worship could be tolerable if we were in a reasonably shaded place with a breeze. Other locations are not so fortunate.
While outdoor worship in our summers could be tolerable, other times of the year would be chancy at best. Our main inclement feature is rain. When it rains, the temperatures drop (though we rarely drop below freezing). But with the lower temperatures (and almost constant wind) we have a penetrating wet chill that makes outdoor activities miserable. I would have a hard time meeting in a service where we had to keep dry (or at least, not soaked), and stand in the cold for any length of time. I conducted a graveside service for one of our dear ladies early in the Covid crisis with just a small family group. I tried not to go long, but we were still out there for a good thirty to forty minutes. Some of the younger grandchildren were shaking with our biting cold (and I was none too comfortable myself). At least it wasn’t raining for that half hour!
Other climes than moderate Victoria have extreme weather conditions. Most of Canada and many northern states have snow and freezing weather most of the winter. (Some say that winter lasts ten months, with two months of tough sledding in some of these places.) In the arid southwestern states, summer temperatures can exceed 100° F. daily. “It’s a dry heat,” they say. Well, in heat like that, I’d wilt pretty quick. And then think of the humid southeast with almost as hot temperatures! Outdoors meetings aren’t always the best idea.
Extreme (and sometimes not so extreme) weather conditions can lead to life threatening conditions. According to one website, hypothermia is a risk when the temperature drops below 60° F. Frostbite, heart attack, colds and flu, work-related accidents, depression, and other ailments are risks in extreme cold weather. (See here and here.) In hot weather, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, sunburns, and skin cancer are dangers. (Also see here.) I recall getting dehydrated one summer in Alberta as a boy. The doctor prescribed salt pills (just don’t suck through the candy coating!).
How did people cope with weather like this before the industrial revolution? Well in cold temperatures, they wore lots of layers, including linen next to the skin and woolen garments outside. Furs and leathers also kept folks warm. Fires were kept in homes, with architectural designs to keep heat in and let smoke out. Various devices kept beds warm. My dad told me about heating stones to put in their sleigh on a winters ride into town (this is post Industrial Revolution!) In hot temperatures, people preferred light cotton clothing and designed their homes and public buildings with high ceilings, cross ventilation, and even towers and turrets to carry heat upwards. If you are interested in such things, here is a list of articles describing the efforts to keep warm or cool, depending on the clime:
- How People Kept Houses Cool Before Air Conditioning Was Invented
- How Did Humans Handle Intense Heat Before Air Conditioning Became Popular?
- How Did People Survive the Winter Hundreds of Years Ago?
- A Brief History of Home Heating
- A Brief History of Heating and Cooling America’s Homes
- How Did People Survive Before Indoor Heating?
I am not an expert in these matters, but it seems to me that outdoor services are something that could work on a temporary basis in some locations, but in most locations a permanent move outside would be challenging.
In thinking about this, I wondered about how believers did things when avoiding government officials in places like Soviet Russia not so long ago. My impression is that some such services were outdoors. If the weather was off, how much could we accomplish outdoors? Perhaps a song, a Scripture reading, some prayer, and a brief exhortation and that would be it. Worship would be chancy, and mightily curtailed.
Still, God’s people would meet. Why? Because that is what the church does, and is. The church, to exist at all, must meet. A recent blog I read claimed that the church is changing forever and we need to get used to it. Virtual meetings will replace physical gatherings. I don’t believe it. Virtual meetings are a tool we can use, but nothing replaces the physical gathering. When our church shut down from mid-March to the end of May, a great longing built among us to meet again. We really need the in-person fellowship with one another, the edification, the encouraging one another. Corporate singing really does involve us all ministering to one another as we sing the gospel together. God is at work in the meeting house.
The world really doesn’t understand what corporate worship does for us psychologically and spiritually. They think they can get along without it, or can replace it with cheap, barely adequate substitutes. I know folks who never miss their get-togethers at the Legion, well known for its bar. Others head for bingos or other social organizations. These gatherings meet some psychological needs, but no spiritual needs.
Can we, then, if the world frowns at us (for “health” reasons or otherwise), simply resort to meeting outside, in all weathers? I suppose the church would find a way for such meetings to work, but, honestly, why should we be forced to such extremes? The current narrow focus on public health needs to consider psychological and spiritual health as well as physical health. The church can find ways to meet safely (from a physical perspective) that will promote health from the spiritual perspective. We should not suffer restriction for meeting the whole person needs that we all have. We shouldn’t be forced to risk physical health by outdoor meetings because the state wants to repress indoor meetings.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Thank you for your article, Pastor Johnson. I’ve been thinking much about this topic recently. In my opinion, this topic is an extension of the topic of whether we were biblically justified in not meeting in-person in the early days of the pandemic. Both scenarios (temperature/weather and a potentially high risk of contagion) relate to whether a person’s health risks are sufficient reason to temporarily suspend doing what the Lord has commanded His people to do (whether gathering together or obeying government authorities). I’m frankly not sure. The apostle Paul was certainly not concerned about his own well-being even when Agabus warned of the imprisonment that would befall him at Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-14). Was he being unnecessarily foolish with his life? We do have biblical precedent for sickness restricting the ability of a believer to minister fully (2 Timothy 4:20, James 5:14). But should health risks (rather than health conditions) themselves be cause for us to disobey Scripture? Perhaps the answer is in the extremeness of the weather or the level of the risk of contagion. I really don’t know. I realize that many will say that common sense will answer these questions. Others may argue that these government regulations are unreasonable. But I’m looking for biblical answers, not necessarily what common sense or human reason may say apart from Scripture. I certainly recognize that no Scripture passage deals with our exact situation, but there must still be biblical principles that we can apply to it.
Hi Josiah, just a quick answer for now. I am not arguing that we cannot meet in somewhat uncomfortable conditions, but there are extremes which would severely curtail the kind of meeting one could have (if one could meet at all) and that those extremes are something the church (and all of society) have dealt with for centuries by building a structure of some kind to protect from the elements.
I will try to give a more extended comment later.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Josiah, to answer a little more fully…
You are right, the Bible doesn’t provide a prescription for meeting, so numerous applications arise in the course of church life. As I said in my article, I think that meeting together is a fundamental aspect of “the church.” Would it be possible to have a strictly on-line gathering (say a Zoom meeting) and call it a church without ever meeting physically? I don’t think so. Assembling is fundamental to “churchiness.” Heb 10.23-25
The frequency of meeting is implied in 1 Cor 16.1-2, but not mandated. Principles of wisdom and prudence may be applied. See for example Prov 22.3 and Prov 27.12.
I mentioned in my article that we have little snow in our area. We do occasionally get snow, and it can make our roads extremely treacherous. Not only that, we have no way to clear our parking lot if we get more than a very light covering of snow. When this happens, our practice is to cancel services for that Sunday only. Usually, though, we only have to do that once a year, if that. I recall with great resentment one December when it snowed heavily on two successive Saturday’s forcing me to cancel services two weeks running and interupt my Christmas series, which I had to finish in January. It seemed something of a let down to be finishing in the New Year.
Anyway, my point here is that we cancel services or other activities only as a matter of prudence and temporarily, not permanently. If we were to cancel permanently, we would cease to be a church.
I hope that helps some.
Maranatha,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Pastor Johnson, thank you for your thoughtful reply. Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 are helpful. Taken by themselves, these verses might indicate the we should avoid all danger, but other passages (such as Acts 21:10-14 that I mentioned earlier) indicate that the apostles took risks for the sake of the gospel. Nevertheless, these verses provide a biblical basis for avoiding some danger and not living foolishly.