Within the conservative Lutheran traditions, the pastor serves the congregation and is not accountable for Caesar’s rules.
The Lutheran Pastor is the protector of Part B of the Establishment Clause, “the free exercise thereof”; AND protected there-under.
Sundry boards make up the accountable leadership.
These are the ones who should be willing to go to jail/be fined.
The property is owned by the members so, that cannot be restricted by the government in any way.
The boards administrate the business affairs of the congregation.
This is the Lutheran concept of “Right hand and Left Hand” (RH=Gospel, LH=secular Law)
And, in the long run, such property is merely passing since “The Church” is the gathered Faithful; people.
Unfortunately, much of the cowardly “leadership” thinks that they are accountable for the property and fear that Caesar would seize that property.
1st Amendment.
Is your church run by a bunch of cowards or by The Gospel?
I am the lone sheep-dog cutting the herd.
I don’t know how the property ownership goes at church. Never even thought about that till you asked. I am proud of our Pastor’s stance. But, I’m guessing not everyone is on board as our attendance is down 30-40%. My guess is the absentees are fearbro equivalent? But I tend to suspect there were those who let laziness creep in after 3 or 4 weeks shutdown back in March-April.
Our pastor reserved a city baseball field for Easter services. He refused to accept losing our Easter celebration. At the last minute the field owner reneged on the deal and we were stuck without a venue. Don’t want to go into all details but our building is small and we require 3 services to fit everyone in. Now we are down to 2 services but we went back in the Sunday after Easter. No mask requirement. No social distance requirement BUT he does ask us to respect distance with anyone who wishes distance. Kinda common courtesy.
He is the person who instigated these praise sessions at the park. Just praise, worship, prayer for any who need it, celebrating Jesus. So I find the spirit kindred. Yup, we drive 45 min to church. That decision was made years ago. With this plandemic I am super glad to be well settled with a manned-up pastor and elder board.