Community

Churches Create Safe Ways to Worship, Serve Communities During Covid-19

By Baijun “Jack” Jiang

Spectrum staff

Unable to gather for worship in the sanctuary, youth leaders of Bethany Church sang and prayed from the rooftop of the Wyckoff, N.J., building where, before a pandemic, they usually gathered indoors. The people for they whom sang and prayed either sat inside or stood beside vehicles in the church’s parking lot.

At Redeemer Montclair, a Presbyterian congregation in Montclair, N.J., members brought lawn chairs, blankets and snacks to a church-wide picnic in a local park at the end of June, ending months of time apart.

Cornerstone Christian Church, also in Wyckoff, will be streaming services online and conducting them outdoors until further notice, according to its website.

For sure, Covid-19 is a crisis. But it also has brought real opportunities for people in faith communities, according to some church leaders and church-goers.

“I’ve felt a great privilege to preach in this time period,” the Rev. Fred Provencher, Cornerstone’s pastor, told The Spectrum. “We are learning that we cannot trust the gods of this world. We have to trust our God. We have to be people of hope.”

One of the joys of these days, he said, is that more people have tuned in for services online than showed up in the sanctuary before Covid-19. Several weekly, Facebook Live discussions are taking place among his church members.

Kristen Ghinelli, a senior at Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon, N.J., said she has been tuning in to a church in Auburn, Ala., after seeing clips of its service on Instagram.

“Since we are already in quarantined, I was, like, ‘Why don’t I try something different?’ ” she said.  She likes how the Alabama church’s  “message targets more toward young people. It helped me see real life issues I am facing now from a Christian worldview.”

Aside from meetings spiritual needs in these challenging times, churches are also making tangible contributions to their communities. Rockpoint Community Church, also in North Haledon, is scheduled in August to co-host its second America Red Cross. This first one also was during Covid-19.

Cornerstone set up a benevolence fund for people who, because coronavirus-related financial difficulties, can’t pay everything from their mortgage or rent to car repairs

Redeemer Montclair has been giving cash to places such as Toni’s Kitchen, the food ministry of nearby St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Salvation Army.

The pastors said they are glad to be able to help, and that their congregations are managing reasonably well during a very hard time.

“As a pastor, one of the things I enjoyed most is creating spaces where community happens, seeing people come together,” said the Rev. Brad Bissell, an assistant pastor at Redeemer Montclair. “And, in this season, all of these are mediated by screens or phones. This is monumentally different.”

“If I could,” said Provencher, of Cornerstone, “I would go to sleep and wake in a hundred and one days … But that’s not an option. It’s not what I was called to do.”