California Pastor moves worship outdoors after country fines church $112k for indoor services

California Pastor moves worship outdoors after country fines church $112k for indoor services

The pastor of a 3,000-seat California church said he will stop fighting Santa Clara County and hold services in the church parking lot as per local COVID-19 guidelines after fines rose to over $112,000. The county said it will not forgive the fines.

Jack Trieber, the pastor of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, has chosen to obey the county’s directives banning indoor services, according to ABC7News.

The church was being fined $5,000 for every service it held as well as fines for other violations such as singing.

ABC7News reports that Trieber told his congregation in an outdoor meeting this week that senators told him they had given President Donald Trump the pastor’s personal phone number and if he would be willing to receive a call from the White House. But the pastor said he didn’t want to take that course of action.

Trieber also reportedly said he has put on hold a campaign that was aimed at flooding local government offices with one million emails from supporters. “I don’t wish anything evil to happen with authorities. Tonight was the right decision to move out here,” he was quoted as saying.

County counsel James Williams told The Mercury News that banning indoor services was “essential” to the community’s safety. “The reality that churches and other religious institutions across our county were successfully holding outdoor services, drive-in services, remote services — and have been — just completely undermines the notion that they needed to have an indoor gathering and create that huge risk of danger,” he said.

The county’s order, sent to the pastor earlier, stated, “If you do not immediately correct the violations, the County may take additional legal action against you, including civil or criminal prosecution, with additional resulting penalties, fees, and costs.”

Trieber responded to the order, calling it “harassment” and warning, “If we don’t stop it here … it’s going to sweep all over the United States of America. Government cannot take away our freedom. You cannot take our right to assemble.”

In a video message shared on Facebook, the pastor asked the county to remove all fines and refrain from imposing future fines on the church. “To do this to a church … California preachers, we have rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, and we have rendered unto God through our tithes and offerings, which is His,” he said.

Addressing the county, Trieber said, “We are not closing down this church. I hope you get this message. I don’t know what the consequences on your part is going to be. … I know America does not want this to happen in her country and at this church. God bless you, America. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement.”

The pastor revealed that when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a total prohibition on religious worship services in some counties in March, his church ceased its in-person worship services, K4 through 12 Christian school, college, bus ministry, jail ministry, public school ministry, nursing home ministry, door-to-door visitation, hospital visitation, children’s ministries and Sunday School.

“But I’m in charge of the spiritual health of the people in this city and in this area,” he said. “I’ve been trying to do it for 45 years. Though health is [of the] utmost importance, spiritual health is supreme. Because we’ve been locked out in this county of churches, suicide is up, domestic violence, addiction is up, homelessness is up, alcoholism is up. We need to get back to worshiping God. I am commanded to worship God.”

In an earlier statement, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver called Newsom’s orders “unconstitutional” and said North Valley Baptist Church is incurring “horrendous fees for simply exercising its First Amendment right to worship.”

“Yet, Gov. Newsom supports tens of thousands of protestors, saying ‘God bless you. Keep doing it.’ This is wrong, and the governor’s unconstitutional hostility and discrimination against religious worship must end,” he said.