There has been, to put it mildly, “much more heat than light” when it comes to discussion of COVID-19 and the church over the past year. Any discussion at all of the subject seems to invite inflamed emotions and put people radically at odds. It is my intention in this column, therefore, to carefully stick to the “light” side of that equation and entirely avoid the “heat” side.
In mid-March of 2020, the world changed in ways none of us could have ever foreseen. I remember well when President Donald Trump asked all Americans to participate in “15 days to flatten the curve.” No matter which side of the COVID watershed you come down on, there is no disputing that somehow 15 days turned into a year and counting.
As a pastor, the decisions and reactions of churches, pastors and church members have been of particular interest to me. Some churches closed the doors entirely and to this day do not have any reopening date in sight. Others carried on entirely with things as normal. We chose to strike a balance between those two approaches.
We never missed an in-person service the entire time, but for two months we did move our services out into the parking lot. God blessed us with good weather the entire time, and everyone enjoyed the novelty. But toward the end of that time period, I knew that it was time for us to go back inside and pick up where we left off, three services a week plus Sunday School, with some added safeguards in place.
We began by stationing some of our nurses at the door to take everyone’s temperature as they came in. We have always made liberal use of hand sanitizer, so that did not have to change. We started disinfecting everything between services. We told everyone to stay home if they felt the least bit sick. We stopped shaking hands. We stopped passing the offering plates. We stopped having choir practice. We encouraged people to spread out.