When Jesus tasked his disciples with the Great Commission in Matthew Chapter 28, verses 18-20 he said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
There was no instruction on how and what to do when obstacles are in the path,
Jesus just said go.
Sunflower County area pastors are staying true to the Great Commission but not in buildings where worship and prayer and Bible study normally take place.
With today’s government restrictions and quarantine, combined with social distancing, each congregation is seeking and finding ways to stay connected, stay fed and make disciples.
Technology, both old and new, is being used, stretched, pushed to its limits with new wrinkles being folded in.
Dr. Guy Burke, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Indianola is working every platform available to him and his congregation.
“Our weekly Sunday and Wednesday worship gatherings are now broadcast on Facebook Live through our Facebook page, and we’ve added an evening radio broadcast at 6 p.m. on WLNA - 1380 AM,” he said. “We have had Sunday School classes utilize Zoom for bible study.”
The church has also put together children packs that include a family devotional, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and such to help pass time during the quarantine.
And their Martha Ministry team has been putting together frozen meals that will be delivered to widows and elderly members to be utilized during quarantine.
At Bell Grove MB Church, Reverend Melvin Matthews has been thankful for blessings and working the forefront of the Great Commission with his fellow Jesus followers.
He’s mixing in some foundational old school methods with technology as needed.
“Day-to-day, I’m thanking God for being alive, that’s one,” Pastor Matthews said. “We are staying in contact with members weekly. We have a calendar ministry and each month has two leaders who are responsible for keeping in contact with members. They report on their welfare to me. I contact members throughout the week, letting them hear the pastor’s voice and seeing how they are doing and letting them know I’m ok.”
And as churches operate on tithes, gifts and offerings, Matthews and his leadership set up a service where members could come by and make their donations in a safe manner. But he noted the building where congregations come to is not the important thing to remember.
“We’re just staying low, praying and studying the Bible,” Matthews said. “As I’ve told our members, the church is not the building at 1301 BB King Road. The church is in them for the ones that are saved. They are the temple. Wherever they are, that’s where the church is.”
Matthews said he hopes now people can see the importance of attending church and getting their lives right with Christ.
“This is trying times, but Jesus promised He would never leave us or forsake us,” Matthews said. “It’s just part of life. It says a man born of a woman has few days full of trouble and we are going to have those days. But the thing is to make sure our eternal soul is taken care of. That’s what we’re taking care of at Bell Grove. Our theme this year is Kingdom Building and that means getting out and sharing the gospel with whoever we know and whoever we meet. Even though people are shut in, they have the phone, Facebook and Twitter. We are encouraging people to communicate with each other, share the good times and pray for each other.”
Reverend Allen King of Inverness First United Methodist Church has been creating Facebook Live events to gather his congregation.
“It’s a different world and I’m having to learn a new way of doing church,” he said. “But it’s been good in a way. It’s good to have social media when we need it.”
At Mount Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, Reverend Adoris Turner has been hard at work keeping in touch with his congregation while leaning on his “day job” skills at Delta Health Center as Director of External Relations.
“I’ve been urging our congregation and any others that will listen to me to not be fearful,” Turner said. “In other words, showing obedience by staying home and physically distancing ourselves to curb the spread. That’s not fear. That’s not a lack of faith. That’s showing the love of Christ by being concerned about our fellow man.”
Turner is using the Zoom platform to stay in touch.
“This allows us to still have face-to-face interaction even though it’s virtual,” he said. “We can interact during the service. You can unmute your speaker and say ‘Amen’ and we can sing congregational hymns. It also allows for our older congregants who aren’t comfortable using smart devices. They can call in and listen to the meetings.”
Turner is also using the technology for deacon meetings and to interact and continue to meet with members.
One challenge he’s recently had was putting together a large funeral.
“We put the body lying in state almost at the very entrance of the church and we did social distancing with physical distancing markers. Those coming to view remained in their cars and then stood in line,” he said. “We rotated people one at a time and they exited in a different direction so there was no passing of people in the entranceway.”
Constant sanitizing was going on as well.
Reverend Veronica Pritchard of First United Methodist Church has been polishing up her online skills for her Sunflower and Moorhead congregants.
“I’m blessed with my two congregations,” she said. “Like all the pastors, I miss gathering with the congregations in our sanctuaries. But each week, I’m uploading my sermons to YouTube and then texting out a link (search for Veronica Pritchard to follow along). Not everybody has Facebook so I can’t do Facebook Live.”
On Sunday mornings, she uses Zoom for Children’s Moments. During the week, she’s constantly on the phone and computer to contact members and shepherd them. But her two congregations have been shepherding as well.
“Even with not gathering, my members have always been the church. With all of this going on from day one we have some working in the medical field,” she said. “We have those who are diligently making masks. We have those who are taking care of children and those who are in essential businesses going to work. The farmers are preparing for the future. They are all faithful prayer warriors and don’t need a sanctuary to worship. They are sending me words of encouragement and scripture. They are definitely a people of hope.”
One of the most active using technology is Indianola First United Methodist where Reverend Trey Skaggs was preaching on Facebook before the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent quarantines.
“I feel like our staff and the day-school have adapted pretty well,” he said. “Some of our small groups have gone online meeting via Zoom. We are blessed with a young, innovative, skilled and dedicated staff and we’ve been able to do some really great high-quality production with our services and weekly devotionals.”
With more than a dozen production videos that are available on their Facebook page, First UMC staff have seen quite a few “hits” to their teachings and praise. The church has several services on Sundays with differing praise and teaching styles for varying audiences.
“We’ve been live premiering on Facebook and it’s been in the thousands in clicks and views (the church has about 300 members). We are trying to meet the needs of our people with the different kinds of worship service,” Skaggs said. “Twice a week we have Worship Sessions, an acoustic worship set in a living room. Two songs and an eight to ten-minute message and closing song. One of those we did had over 8,000 views. In light of terrible circumstances that’s been a little bit of a silver lining in the proclamation of the Gospel and lifting Jesus’ name on high. That’s been fantastic. A lot of our members share these services and we use the comment section to try and foster some sense of community.”
First Presbyterian Indianola Pastor Duncan Hoopes has been reaching into his pre-pastor career at IBM to keep his congregation connected.
“I think I’m working harder than ever,” Hoopes said. “We’ve been livestreaming a morning service and a night service on Sundays. I also added a conference call number and every weekday at 6:30 p.m. we meet for prayer. It’s been great because we’ve stayed more in touch than before the pandemic.”
Easter Services - New Tradition Wrinkles
Churches across the county have many Easter traditions from parades and Easter egg hunts to sunrise services and more. But this year the Good News of the empty tomb will come via the internet mostly.
“This coming Sunday I’ll be doing an online sermon on Facebook for Resurrection Sunday,” Reverend Matthews said.
Reverend King has plans to have a YouTube video for his congregation on Easter and had toyed with the idea of a “Drive-In” Church but the state orders put an end to that.
Turner notes he’ll use the Zoom platform to see Easter outfits and such in addition to preaching the Easter message.
“We are going to allow the children to stand up at home and deliver their Easter speeches. It worked extremely well last Sunday,” Turner said.
Pritchard has been putting together special daily messages for Easter week. Duncan Hoopes at Indianola First Presbyterian Church has been in town for only a few months and notes his services “haven’t missed a beat” but Easter will be different.
“It’s an interesting time. People expect Palm Sunday and Easter to be big events. We’ll do our livestream and I preach through books of the Bible. I won’t do an Easter sermon but will continue in First Timothy. I’ll include special references to the resurrection. It is a shame because traditionally family members come to town and such.”
Burke has a full slate of Easter worship for anyone interested.
“Wednesday, we Livestreamed at 6:00 p.m. And we have a Good Friday Prerecorded Devotional, a Sunrise Prerecorded Devotional and we printed devotionals and sent them to church membership,” he said. “Our Sunday Morning Worship Livestream includes Communion for Easter Sunday; elements will be delivered on Thursday by deacon leaders. And we’ll have a radio broadcast at 6:00 p.m. on WNLA 1380 AM.”
Skaggs noted that the church normally has an Easter egg hunt and an event where the cross is carried from one Methodist church to another. But he’s recording special services for Easter.
“We put out a Wednesday night Holy Week Service that premiered on Facebook. It’s a 25-minute service featuring Ric Grant, our pianist, and Robert Sledge, one of our choir members, and has a teaching from John Chapters 18 and 19,” he said. “On Friday, we’ll release an acoustic hymn service around sunset with a short devotion. On Sunday, we’ll premier our Vine Service at 9:00 a.m. They’ve been working on that for two weeks. At 11:00 a.m., we’ll have our traditional service. We’re an Easter people and we’ll be celebrating Easter on Sunday. We celebrate a risen savior who is with us and is alive. That will be our proclamation.”
Fellowship meals have gone by the wayside but prayer meetings, devotionals and Bible study are powering up through the telephone and internet according to Hoopes.
“The series I’ve done is designed for this and has a PDF I can email to people. We read scripture and talk about it,” he said.
Hoopes is also designing a Sit and Chat that works under the present coronavirus guidelines. With two zero-gravity lounge chairs a safe distance apart, Hoopes plans to meet and chat and or pray with members and just anyone who comes along.
“I have a banner that says, ‘Socially Distant Sit and Chat’ and the other half says, ‘Spiritually Close Sit and Chat.’ I don’t expect many to come by but essential businesses need to keep operating and my thinking is if you’re a first responder or a restaurant person and you’re going to be on the road anyway, we need each other. Scripture teaches us that it’s not good for man to be alone. I would think that during this time when we are so isolated, hey, come by and sit on the lawn and we’ll be more than six feet away.”
Hoopes notes he is calling people more than ever and he’s been out and about checking on shut-ins even more.
“Every single day I send an update through email to our church with news, specific prayers and sharing a bit of a Bible lesson in the midst of all that. People are hearing more from me than ever,” he said. “We’re staying inter-connected.”
Churches have assembled their leadership to be more technical and proactive.
“Our deacon leadership is contacting church members and their assigned widows during this time to gather specific prayer requests, items needed, or other spiritual/emotional needs during this time,” Pastor Burke said.
Pastors who have technical skills are in high demand these days as everything from music to preaching to short devotionals are all being either livestreamed or recorded for a live presentation.
Will This Become the New Normal?
The influx of technology to post sermons, music and teaching has ingrained itself in today’s churches. But will the technology continue to flourish once church doors actually open to the public again? Hoopes knows the answer.
“It’s my intention to continue the conference call no matter what,” he said. “I’ve got members who are elderly and can’t make it to church all of the time. Now that we have it working well, we’ll continue. And now that we’re videotaping, we’ll make that a bit more permanent.”
Follow Hoopes at IndianolaPCA.org with a livestream link.
Turner understands that using the new technology has “allowed us to be very conscientious of ways to include members who are separated from the body. The sick and shut-ins, our college students and members who may be headed to work or at work can use the platform to view. It’s really allowed us to be more engaging for those who are unable to be present.”
Skaggs will keep putting services on Facebook and will continue.
“When this is all said and done and whenever normalcy returns and our routines set back in, I hope we take what we learned during isolation and continue doing it. It’s forced us to be creative. It’s forced us to bring the gospel through different mediums to people. It’s been neat to connect with people online and use the internet as a tool for the proclamation of the gospel. I can give that a hearty ‘Amen.’”
