Churches across the county have closed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Just because churches are closed, does not mean church has to end. There are many alternatives that still allow for the people to worship together.

One alternative is a drive-in church service. Montgomery Church held their service in their cars while their pastor was preaching on an FM transmitter. Even though the church was closed, 179 people were still present and ready to continue in their worship. Churches around the country are doing things like this to reach out to their parishioners.

That’s just one example. Crossview Church in Magnolia along with many other churches are live streaming Sunday services through their websites for people to watch at home. Not only are pastors continuing to connect the church through continuing Sunday services, student ministries are being accounted for as well. Crossview has set zoom face time calls to allow students to continue to connect with their youth group and their Sunday school leaders. For the children’s ministry, the pastor uploaded short videos that include a bible story, skit and a lesson for elementary school kids to watch.

How can people find out what their churches are doing to keep their congregations connected? Check out Twitter and Facebook. It is much easier for churches to update social media than a web page. The Ark has their March 22nd sermon posted on their Facebook. Willis’s First United Methodist Church also has sermons posted on Facebook to view. There are messages from pastors and youth ministers that pop up on Twitter or Facebook daily. For the next few weeks nothing much is certain except churches cannot follow their traditional schedules. When people cannot go to church, the churches will find ways to go to the people.

Even though churches have been closed, it is not stopping the people from worshiping. Corona is not getting in the way of people continuing to grow their faith.

Editor’s note: if any readers want to post their church information and how they are reaching people during this time, make a comment and wildkats.org will share the info. We know we just mentioned a few churches, and there are a lot more churches doing special things during this time for our community.