Churches return to in-person worship one step at a time

Ushers learn to seat worshippers six feet apart from anyone not in their households.

Collection baskets at sanctuary exits and instructions for online giving replace offering plates previously passed from one hand to another.

And churches that previously considered their facilities spotless discover what deep cleaning really means.

Texas Baptist churches that prepare to resume in-person worship discover a far different experience than they knew before the COVID-19 outbreak.

‘We know it’s sure to look different’

In recent weeks, when Gov. Gregg Abbott issued a series of guidelines for houses of worship in consultation with the state attorney general’s office, pastors and other church leaders began taking steps to develop their own plans to return to in-person worship gatherings.

“Three weeks ago, we began talking about it,” Troy Allen, pastor of First Baptist Church in College Station, said on May 1. “Our staff—particularly our ministry staff—started asking, ‘What is this going to look like?’ We know it’s sure to look different.”

The first set of guidelines from the state noted the Centers for Disease Control recommended no gatherings of 10 or more people if any individuals from at-risk populations attended. So, most churches discontinued in-person worship services, and many initiated or upgraded online alternatives.

Revised guidelines issued April 21 removed that stipulation but continued to encourage churches to “conduct as many activities as possible remotely and … follow federal guidelines when providing services in person.”

The most recent guidelines, issued jointly by the offices of the governor and the state attorney general April 27, include a recommended set of “minimum health protocols” for churches that decide to provide in-person services.

On April 28, Abbott issued an executive order launching Phase One of his “open Texas” initiative. Among other stipulations, the order allowed certain businesses and other public venues to reopen on May 1 at 25 percent of legal occupancy.

Because worship services are categorized as “essential services,” they are not subject to the restrictions mentioned in the executive order. However, many congregations are choosing to adopt a similar phased-in return to in-person worship and to be guided by the state-issued public health protocols.

Churches that are taking initial steps to resume in-person worship services have several traits in common. Online streaming of worship services continues. Members in high-risk groups are encouraged to participate by viewing from their homes. Churches are slow to resume offering childcare on their campuses. Seating in services is reconfigured to promote social distancing. And worshippers at on-site services are strongly encouraged—but not required—to wear masks.

Laredo church begins with drive-in worship

First Baptist Church in Laredo launched Phase One of its gradual return to in-person worship with drive-in services on the church’s parking lot beginning May 3. Members who joined in the worship event from their parked cars were able to listen on FM radio. Pastor Benjamin Karner preached outdoors, the church’s praise team led worship music from inside the sanctuary, and worshippers listened on their car radios.

“About three years ago, we had quite a few nursing mothers in our congregation and wanted to accommodate them. So, we bought a small FM transmitter so the moms would listen to the worship service from the nursing moms’ room,” Karner said.

When the initial limits on the size of gatherings went into effect in March, the church first planned to initiate the drive-in worship services at that point. However, when local officials quashed that idea, the church put it aside until the governor and attorney general issued subsequent guidelines for houses of worship.

The church hopes to move to Phase Two—a family service inside its worship center, reconfigured to allow for social distancing—on May 17. Seating in the sanctuary will be limited to about 25 percent of capacity, and overflow seating will be provided in the church’s fellowship hall. If attendance significantly surpasses seating capacity in the worship center the first Sunday, the church likely will add a second worship service, Karner said.

Timing of future phases flexible

In Phase Two, no childcare will be provided, and Bible study groups will continue to meet via video conference. The Sunday worship service and a mid-week Bible study will be livestreamed.

“The progression to this phase of relaunching is dependent on community factors. If we are experiencing further outbreaks or virus-related challenges, this phase will be pushed back,” Karner wrote to his members May 1.

Ideally, First Baptist in Laredo hopes to enter Phase 3 as early as June 7. At that point, the church will resume children’s ministries. Rather than individual small-group meetings, one large adult Bible study will be offered in the worship center and a youth Bible study will be held in the fellowship hall to maintain physical distancing requirements.

“We’ll be looking at the hard data from the county judge, looking particularly for any community spike in confirmed cases” of COVID-19, Karner said.

Church leaders also will seek to determine the comfort level of worshippers. In looking at his church members’ posts on social media, Karner noted, their opinions about how open or how cautious Texas should be span the spectrum.

In his May 1 letter to the congregation, Karner wrote about the need to act “according to wisdom in obedience to the commands of God while also being civically minded.”

“There are no safe solutions,” he acknowledged. “Life does not work that way. However, we cannot be paralyzed by our fears and anxieties. We are a community of faith, and we will move in faith and wisdom knowing our future is secure in Jesus Christ.”

College Station  church ‘Moving Forward’ step by step

As leaders of First Baptist Church in College Station made plans to return to on-site, in-person worship services, they set May 10 as the starting date for Phase One.

They posted a document—“Moving Forward”—online to explain the comprehensive plan for resuming public gatherings.

“We will not be opening everything all at once,” the plan states. “We want to take a very measured approach to ensure the health and safety of our church.”

On May 10, the church plans to offer three identical family services at 8:30 a.m., 9:45 a.m. and 11 a.m.

“We’re not able to offer Sunday School as we have known it at this point. So, we decided to pull that off the table for now and recapture that hour for worship,” Allen said in a phone interview.

Each worship service will be condensed to about 45 minutes, allowing 30 minutes to sanitize the sanctuary between services, he noted. Since the sanctuary has movable pews, every other row of seats will be removed before May 10 to allow proper social distancing, and everything from the pew racks will be taken out to facilitate cleaning of surface areas.

“Assess and evaluate every week’

First Baptist in College Station hopes to move to Phase Two—on-site Bible studies in some of the larger rooms in the church’s facility—after May 31, but that will be determined by what state and local officials recommend at that point.

If all goes well, the church hopes it may be able to implement Phase Three—the congregation’s familiar schedule of Sunday worship services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., with Sunday school at 9:45—sometime in July.

“We will assess and evaluate every week,” Allen said.

Even after the church enters Phase Three, livestreaming of worship services will continue, no “meet-and-greet” time will be part of the worship services, and online giving will be encouraged.

Allen acknowledged the challenges in trying to maintain social distancing and limiting contact—particularly when church members have been separated from close friends for several weeks.

“We’re kind of big on our freedom as Baptists. Adults are going to do what they want to do,” he said. “We’ll just remind them and encourage them.”

Corpus Christi church commits to ‘love our people well’

Leaders of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi began in April making plans how to resume on-site worship.

“We wanted to make sure safety precautions were in place and that we had an opportunity to train ushers and greeters,” Pastor Brian Hill said.

Hill posted a video on the church’s Facebook page on April 28 announcing plans to begin “regathering” for worship on May 10, stressing that “the church never closed” and ministries continued.

“The driving principle for us as a church, and for me as your pastor, is that we need to love our people well,” Hill said in the video.

Discipleship and fellowship occur best in person, he said, but the church did not want to rush into resumed worship gatherings without first taking necessary precautions—training personnel, installing hand sanitizer dispensers, and making adjustments regarding seating in the worship center.

The church’s sanctuary normally can seat about 800. Keeping every other pew vacant for social distancing immediately reduces the seating capacity to 400. To provide six feet between worshippers who do not live in the same household, the church will seek to limit the number of on-site worshippers to 200.

First Baptist in Corpus Christi will offer one on-site blended worship service at 9 a.m. on May 10.

“We are going to encourage our members to show love for the person next to them,” Hill said in a phone interview. He noted he will do everything possible to remind worshippers to show grace to others who may not have the same comfort level in terms of physical distance.

By Memorial Day weekend, Hill hopes his church might be ready to return to two Sunday morning services with distinct worship styles.

While churches are in uncharted waters as they learn how to return to some sense of normalcy after a pandemic, Hill noted the benefit of “a collective brain trust,” as church leaders learn best practices from each other.

Coordinated effort in Magnolia

In Magnolia—about 45 miles northwest of downtown Houston—pastors who had been part of a monthly breakfast meeting saw value in seeking to coordinate the timing of when their churches would resume on-site worship.

While some churches in hierarchal denominations had to receive the approval of superintendents or bishops, about a dozen evangelical churches in Magnolia set May 24 as the tentative target day for resumed in-person worship.

“We decided there are certain triggers that will tell us when to start,” said Ed Seay, pastor of First Baptist Church in Magnolia.

One statewide metric will be the transition from Phase One to Phase Two of the governor’s “open Texas” initiative. A more definitive measure will be the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Montgomery County.

“We probably will not know for certain until the week before the go-ahead date,” Seay said.

When on-site services resume, First Baptist in Magnolia will offer three styles of worship in five English-language services at two venues, and Primera Iglesia Bautista will meet twice in the First Baptist’s chapel. In each worship venue, individuals will be seated with members of their own households in groups of chairs spaced six feet from other groups.

Seay will preach live in two of the English-language services each week on a rotating schedule. At the other services, worshippers will view a recorded sermon from the online worship service.

Guided by school district schedule

Worshippers will be directed where to enter and how to exit each service, and a particular traffic flow will be required to facilitate social distancing and limit contact between individuals attending the varied services.

“I probably will do an online tour the week before we come back, just to walk through it and show what it will be like,” Seay said.

Services will be scheduled 30 minutes apart to allow time for chairs and other surfaces to be sanitized before the next group of worshippers arrives.

For the most part, individual Sunday school classes were offered options about how they want to proceed, Seay noted.

“Most are going with a hybrid of online classes and some in person,” he said.

First Baptist in Magnolia anticipates returning to its pre-COVID-19 worship schedule and activities when students in the Magnolia Independent School District are allowed to return to school.

“When the school district believes it is medically safe for students to return, then we will be comfortable offering age-graded ministries and other on-site programs,” Seay said.

However, he added, some aspects of church life during the pandemic likely will continue.

The church significantly enhanced its online presence in the last six weeks, Seay said, “and I don’t see that going away.”