Pastor Greg Fairrington, the pastor of Destiny Christian Church in Sacramento told his congregants that he will defy official mandate by continuing to hold in-person services.
"I believe my mandate as a pastor is to obey the word of God. Worship is a part of what we do together as a church corporately and we need to do this," the pastor shared in a video he posted on Facebook.
"We are not going to allow the government to use data that is not supported factually to shut the church down," Farrington added.
He worded his speech to encourage his congregants to not "live in fear" and to come out and defy the mandate with him as seen in a statement, "Our mandate is to obey the Word of God, and worship is a part of what we do as a church corporately," the church's statement read. "As we pull together as a community, we choose to live in faith over fear. Just like our currency states, our founders pledged, and our churches believe: In God We Trust."
California reported 7,346 new coronavirus cases on July 13 totaling the state's coronavirus cases to 336,508 according to data from the state's health department.
Respectively, California Governor, Gavin Newsom's announced his second shutdown on Monday.
In a livestream church survive held earlier in July, the pastor told the congregants that he would run for governor if he gets enough support.
"If we don't take a stand, all we're doing is kicking the can down the road and we will be having the same conversations in three weeks, six weeks, six months, or even a year from now," Pastor Farrington said.
"We need to collectively take a stand and say, 'We are the church, and we have a biblical and First Amendment right to worship together,'" the pastor said to encourage his congregants to physically come out to service.
Farrington reopened his church on May 31 after President Trump declared "houses of worship" as "essential" and threatened to override governors that didn't allow them to open.
