Local ministers get creative in order to deliver the word

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced all of us to make changes to our daily lives. How we communicate, how we do business and how we travel are all areas in which adjustments have been made in order to help prevent the spread of this potentially life-threatening disease.

Also undergoing many unexpected changes recently are local churches. With large gatherings of people currently prohibited in the state, how are church leaders maintaining a connection with their congregations? How are they making sure that those who need to hear the good news of the gospel are still able to do so?

Allen Bonnell, lead pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Corbin, said of the challenges currently being presented by COVID-19, “It’s the speed at which we are having to move in this changing landscape. From how services are delivered, to changing systems and processes with the next news conference, to trying to creatively serve our community. Serving our community is more complicated because of the social distancing.”

As for how Bonnell and the folks at Immanuel are dealing with these new challenges, he explained, “We already live stream our services to our Williamsburg and Richmond locations, so the equipment is in place. But we are going to a house church model. A house church is basically someone willing to say, ‘I will be watching Sunday morning.’ Once they sign up as a house church, we send them resources to make it the best experience as possible.”

“We are creating a lot more content than normal,” Bonnell said. “Creating posts, blogs, e-mails, and phone calls. You can’t communicate too much, and people have a lot more time on their hands. And believe it or not, if it was possible, the amount of time on social media has gone up significantly per user.”

Another more specific challenge for churches right now is maintaining contact with youth members, and making sure that they are still receiving the guidance and teaching that they need as they continue to grow in their budding faith.

Luke Osborne, youth pastor at Grace on the Hill in Corbin, said, “This has definitely been something we never expected, that we would have to cancel services, but that doesn’t mean that the church and our ministry have to stop. As a youth pastor, this was very exciting to try and figure out a new way to minister to students. We had our last Wednesday night meeting via Instagram Live with 28 students tuning in. That is close to what we have on a typical Wednesday night.”

“Although students weren’t able to come together, they still were able to get a message while on Instagram,” said Osborne. “We can’t always expect students come to church, but we can bring the church to the students, meeting them where they are.”

Another area of concern for churches is maintaining contact with family units, and providing ways for them to continue to effectively worship together. Josh Pollitt, children and families pastor at Central Baptist Church of Corbin, explained, “There are several challenges that we face. In particular, how do we stay connected as a church when we are not gathering? Beyond that, how do we serve our community and church family? We are called by Jesus to love our neighbor. What’s really odd about this pandemic is that the best way to love our neighbor is to practice social distancing. So we’re asking the question, ‘How do we show love to each other while protecting each other?’”

This is indeed a very difficult question that church leaders like Pollitt are asking themselves all over the country right now. As for what he’s doing at Central, he said, “We’re praying for creativity! We need God to give us creativity! We’re pointing people to our Facebook page, and our church website to ‘attend’ our services. Our manger ministry this week got creative and distributed diapers and wipes, but they did so by having people park in the parking lot while volunteers brought the diapers to their car. We’re having our deacons stay in contact with those in our congregation who are 60 years and older. Instead of our kids gathering for AWANA on Wednesday nights, we are doing AWANA with the online platform Zoom. Our church council has met through conference call. There are definitely more creative things that we can do, though, and I’m excited to see what new creative ideas our people will come up with next.”

In Williamsburg, at Main Street Baptist Church, Pastor Donnie Patrick and Worship Pastor Steven Lowe said, “We have developed what is called a MAP, or Member Action Plan. We have seven areas that we have addressed: Prayer, where we pray daily as a church body at the same time(s); Gatherings, where we stream online Sunday mornings via mainstreetbc.org or our Facebook page; Deacon Response Team, where we will check on seniors and those with long term sickness; Tithes and Offerings, which can be given online or through the mail; RightNow Media, which offers Bible study and Christian entertainment for all ages; Acts 2:42, which involves groups of ten or less; and Who’s Your One, where we work with the senior citizens center to deliver meals.”

All of these local church leaders report that their respective congregations are responding in mostly positive ways to the recent adjustments brought on by the coronavirus, although everyone is eager for the day to come where live, in-person services once again become the norm.

Despite the difficulties in having to quickly learn about new technologies in order to adapt to this difficult situation, all pastors also agree that these trying times also offer good opportunities to reach new people. “I absolutely think that we have an amazing opportunity to reach people we haven’t before,” said Osborne. “If you think about all the people that scroll through Facebook and YouTube who don’t typically come to a church building, that’s a lot of people! If we can get the gospel to them, then they may want to connect with us on a more personal level after this pandemic passes.”

In closing, Bonnell urged our local community to, “Look to God for your help. Don’t go through this alone. Life is better together. Social distancing is not what we need. Physical distancing, yes, but we need to find creative ways to be even more ‘social’ right now. Find a local church, and we have so many good churches in our area, and tune in this Sunday.”