Harlan Kirgan
As the Rev. Chris Frye, pastor New Hope Fellowship, said about Easter this year, “It will be one for the records. Unlike any other, I’m sure.”
The message from the pulpits may be the same as in years past, but the pews in churches will be empty as the CLOVID-19 stay-at-home order keeps people from gathering in groups of 10 or more and at least six-feet apart when they do get together.
The answer for many churches is to broadcast their services however they can to their congregation and others.
The Rev. Brent Shoalmire, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Eunice, said, “Our message will still remain the same. He is risen, what that means and why it matters.”
The normally crowded pews will be empty.
“This is the most high attendance Sunday of the year normally, but that’s different this year due to social distancing requirements,” Shoalmire said.
A drive-in type service was considered, but the First Baptist Church on Park Avenue doesn’t have the parking space to do that.
Easter Sunday’s service will be online, he said. The congregation will use Facebook and youtube to join in the service.
“We’ve done quite a bit to enhance that to make that be the best it can be,” he said.
Everything will be normal about Sunday services except where worshippers are seated, he said.
The social separation demanded to slow the coronavirus COVID-19 runs counter to a church that enjoys being together, he said.
The missed opportunity for face-to-face fellowship is a challenge, he said.
But adjustments have been made.
On Thursday, there was a drive-through communion. The children’s minister has been using video conferencing.
At New Hope Fellowship the importance of an online presence has been recognized before the virus. The church’s internet address is eunicechurch.com.
Freye said the church paid for the address recognizing its importance.
Frye said a drive-in service was considered for Saturday, but the weather forecast nixed that idea.
“If this thing is extended further, we’ll end up doing one of those,” he said.
But the church’s services are going to be on the webpage, Facebook, youtube and a Roku channel.
There is no COVID-19 message to override the Easter story.
“We have been speaking to the fact we are under a stay home mandate and we should do our best to honor that mandate. But I was quoted recently to have said, ‘Jesus came that we may have life, not just church services. And the church is not any more bound to the four walls than Jesus was to the grave,” he said.
“If the grave couldn’t hold Him, then nothing that we face in this life should be able to hold us,” he said.