By Ben McKim, Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Clarinda
“If your church was shut down tomorrow, would your city notice?”
This is the question that many pastors, elders and congregants are wrestling with during this quarantine. How do we do church without meeting? How do we do social distancing without spiritually distancing? Here’s a few things the Lord has led our church to do in recent weeks. We pray it will be helpful and encouraging.
PRAYER DRIVE
Every road, every home, and every organization in our city and several surrounding communities were prayed for and prayed over. We truly believe that God is challenging His people to pray again. He’s the only one that can take this quarantine and use it for His glory. So we have cried out on behalf of our town, begging God to claim every home. This has allowed our people, including the ones that can’t walk well, to be activated and involved as we have interceded for our community and the small towns in our area.
HOSPITAL & FIRST RESPONDERS APPRECIATION SERVICE
Those on the frontline of this physical war need to know they have the support of those on the frontline of the spiritual war. With the FM transmitter we’ve been using for drive-in church, we have come to realize the blessing it bestows in our flexibility. We invited the community, the police, and the fire station to meet us at our local hospital to show our appreciation. Our people made paper hearts with verses and snacks for the hospital, as well as the police and fire department. We sang three songs, followed by a prayer and another song, and ended the night with a giant thank you. Sirens blared, horns honked, and lights flashed. Both the hospital and the police department have contacted us with stories of how the night blessed them and they even posted about it on their social media.
DRIVE-IN REVIVAL
One of the beautiful things about the quarantine is that everything is cancelled. No social events, kid’s sports, concerts, or plays to compete with. This allowed our church to hold an Easter drive-in revival without warring over calendar dates and schedules. The drive-in revival was a huge success for us and something we have decided to implement in other ways in the future.
Brothers and sisters, keep faithfully serving and know that God is doing a work in this time. We cannot fathom the work, but we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is good. Very good.
