COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
| APRIL 16, 2020
|
3A
Celebrating Easter Sunday in the virtual world
By Cindy Weeldreyer
Special to The Sentinel
E
aster Sunday morn-
ing in Cottage Grove
is often cloudy and
wet, but not this year.
The sun shone brilliant-
ly as members of Calvary
Chapel parked their vehi-
cles outside the church in
the Village Shopping Cen-
ter to follow Governor Kate
Brown’s social distancing
orders while still collec-
tively participating in their
church service — virtually,
at least.
They tuned into the ser-
vice via an FM station, with
many using their phones
or computer tablets to con-
currently watch the broad-
cast on Facebook.
Pastor Jeff Smith and the
worship team conducted
the praise and worship seg-
ment inside, then Smith
went outside with his guitar
to deliver his Easter Sunday
message. Church members
responded to the service at
different times using their
vehicle horns.
On March 9, Governor
Brown issued a State of
Emergency in response to
the deadly worldwide coro-
navirus pandemic in order
to “flatten the curve” of
outbreaks here in Oregon
so hospitals would not be
overwhelmed with victims.
The initiative order pro-
hibited gatherings of 25
people or more. On March
23, she tightened the re-
strictions with her “Stay
Home, Save Lives” order
prohibiting all non-essen-
tial social and recreational
gatherings regardless of
size, if a distance of at least
6 feet between individuals
cannot be maintained.
Churches throughout the
world have been radically
impacted by the virus. The
said, while she
missed the church’s
Easter
traditions
such as breakfast
and children’s Eas-
ter egg hunt, she is
pleased they em-
braced the differ-
ence the virus cre-
ated.
“We began our
online service with
Easter music and I
gave a short med-
itation on the Eas-
ter story,” she said.
“We then invited
our congregation
to watch a service
offered by our de-
nomination
and
worshipped
with
other members of
the body of Christ
across the nation.”
COURTESY PHOTO
Living Faith As-
Vehicles line the parking lot to listen in on the Easter service for the Calvary Chapel,
sembly
began live
which broadcasted its April 12 service on a low-requency FM station, with participants
streaming
its Sunday
voicing their “Amen” with honking horns.
service on March 29.
restrictions forced at least beeping horns.” Smith said. provide a sense of famil-
Pastor Rulon Combs
seven local church pastors “I’m now contacting people iarity and normalcy to his said they will continue do-
to move their Sunday ser- on Facebook, by email or congregation and maintain ing so and expressed what
vices online to continue by calling them just to pray a connection to Christ and an adjustment it has been
each other.
spiritually feeding their for them.”
for him.
United
Methodist
Tim Baker pastors the
flock. It was a steep learn-
“We have chosen for sev-
ing curve at first and they Sixth and Gibbs Church. Church pastor, the Rev. Dr. eral reasons to continue
had to adjust to delivering He said Easter was a very Craig Pesti-Strobel, over- doing live services every
their message to an invis- different experience for his came initial hurdles and is weekend. I’m still getting
ible congregation. Some family because he pre-re- now pre-recording music used to speaking just to
offer a live experience on corded his message and via YouTube and provid- the worship team and the
their Facebook page or joined other church mem- ing a visual message that is tech team,” Combs said.
website, while others offer bers as they sat in their posted on the church web- “Although we have to re-
homes and watched it to- site.
a pre-recorded message.
calibrate the way we share
He described how the the Gospel, we are reaching
Calvary Chapel Pastor gether.
experienced more people than we ever
“Despite it being differ- Methodists
Smith said Easter 2020 was
the church’s 21st anniver- ent from the norm, we still Easter Sunday, explaining have before.”
sary and it was bittersweet shared the message of Jesus he “... utilized several vid-
Cottage Grove Bible
to not be able to celebrate and His resurrection and eos featuring pastors and Church Pastor Bob Singer
the milestone face-to-face. His name was still praised,” their families throughout said the new format is dif-
our conference to serve ferent but their church is
He said the current situa- he said.
Trinity Lutheran Church as the Greeting, Prayer making it work and there
tion forces him to be more
creative in how he stays in Pastor Jim Markus said the of Preparation, Scripture have been benefits as well.
restrictions came during Reading, and Corporate
touch.
“It was strange preaching
“Having drive-in church the middle of the Lenten Prayer in addition to my to the choir,” Singer said,
was hard but actually excit- season, which features two own sermon, words of “but there have been un-
ing for the people as they weekly worship services. greeting and so on.”
foreseen benefits also with
Rev. Karen Hill of the increased participation.
found new ways to com- His goal in creating the
municate ‘amen’ by their virtual experience was to First Presbyterian Church
Now, with three weeks
of experience, pastors say
it is getting easier and the
online experience is im-
proving.
All are thankful technol-
ogy allows them to contin-
ue to touch people’s lives
and proclaim the love of
Jesus to all who tune in.
For church members
who do not have Internet
service, pastors are going
“old-school” making reg-
ular phone calls offering
prayer and encouragement.
Several churches are re-
sponding to community
calls for help. Some pastors
agree there is an upside to
being a virtual church.
Singer and Combs not-
ed they are reaching more
people than ever before.
Singer includes a strong
Gospel message each week
because he doesn’t know
who is watching.
All the pastors look for-
ward to feeding their flock
face-to-face again and say
they are hopeful going for-
ward. Recognizing it is a
different and challenging
time, they have confidence
their congregations will
get through it and will be
stronger because of it.
Singer said he anticipates
the Church in America will
also be stronger than it was
before it began.
Markus said, “In this
realm of death in which
we all live, we continue to
proclaim that Jesus has
conquered death for all of
us and He is with us in this
current crisis.”
A list of churches offer-
ing virtual services is avail-
able on the calendar page at
www.knnd.com.
KNND also offers its
Sunday Morning Light
program from 7 a.m. to 10
a.m. to provide spiritual
encouragement in this time
of national crisis.
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