This area, along with the rest of America and the rest of the world for that matter, has never faced anything quite like this.
With quarantines, social distancing, and stay-at-home orders everything in life has become so uncertain lately. Businesses are closed, restaurants are only doing carry out, and churches have even closed their doors. The world doesn’t seem to know what to do with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though church buildings have physically closed their doors in Martin, members of the Martin Church of Christ, St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin and the First Baptist Church in Martin have still found many ways to keep their spiritual doors open.
“We have tried to make the service from the viewers standpoint look as if they were sitting in the church worshipping,” says Jarrod Bailey, campus minister for the Church of Christ Student Center at UTM.
Bailey, along with his wife, Janet, and their two adopted sons, Jeremiah and Jonathan, have ministered and worshipped at the Martin Church of Christ since July of 2017. During all of this time devoted to ministry, Bailey says he has never seen anything quite like this pandemic in his lifetime.
The Martin Church of Christ has stopped meeting in the physical church building per the government’s request. However, the church body has found many other ways to still have worship services and bible classes.
Broadcasting on the radio is something the Martin Church of Christ has always done, and it has really been useful during this pandemic, especially for elderly members who do not have access to the internet. The church has also begun to livestream through Facebook live, which seems to be the go-to for many churches. The college age group meets over Zoom meetings for devotionals and Bible classes.
“We still have our ministers and some elders show up to the building on Sunday morning to participate in leading the singing, prayer, sermon and Lord’s Supper. We even still do the announcements and we keep our number under ten,” Bailey says.
The St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin is also treading new waters within the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Even when the weather is bad, we’ve always offered Mass at the church. The only instance that I know of when Catholic churches have not offered Mass or other services is in countries that persecute the Church or the government has forbidden it,” says Rodney Freed, ordained Deacon at the St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin.
Freed has many other roles within his congregation. He is also the Campus Minister and the Master of Ceremonies for liturgies where the Bishop presides.
Freed, along with his wife. Stacy, and daughter, Ainsley, have attended the St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin for 23 years. Currently he is an instructor in the Department of Communications at UTM.
The St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin has also stopped meeting in person, but staff are recording and streaming Mass locally and offering devotionals online through their website and Facebook.
The church is also using a system called Flocknote to send emails and text messages out to everyone in order to stay connected. For elderly members who are not connected to the internet, they are sending them materials by regular mail and calling to check in with them. Their campus ministry is using GroupMe and Twitter to stay connected. The Diocese as a whole is offering Mass daily from different parish churches.
The First Baptist Church in Martin is another church that has been making some changes during this pandemic.
“Some churches have implemented ‘drive-in’ worship where people come to the church and sit in their cars while the service is taking place outside. However, our parking situation and the size of our congregation would not allow us to consider this option,” says Dr. Mike Sams, Senior Pastor.
Sams, along with his wife and three boys have attended the First Baptist Church in Martin for 11 years while he has been the pastor. Sams says he has never seen anything like this pandemic before.
The First Baptist Church in Martin has moved all of its worship services to online streaming through many different platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, its website and Zoom in order to adhere to the social distancing guidelines.
For their elderly members, they are identifying those who don’t have internet access and providing them with DVD copies of their services. In order to stay in contact with their college students, the church body is connecting through Facebook, Instagram Live, Zoom, email and text message.
Many people are wondering how churches will do their services for probably the most attended service of the year, Easter Sunday.
The Martin Church of Christ doesn’t do anything per say “special” for an Easter service. Although, their youth minister, Aaron Dodson, has reached out to many families in their congregation and will be hiding eggs in their yard. So essentially, he is bringing the annual egg hunt to them during this uncertain time.
The St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin is offering its streaming services for all liturgies during Holy Week.
The First Baptist Church in Martin will do something for Easter but will most likely plan a big celebration when everyone is able to be together again.
“In truth, Easter is about the resurrection of Christ. The celebration of His resurrection is not limited to a day on the calendar. We point to the cross and resurrection every time we gather,” Sams says about Easter.
Many people are also wondering how churches plan to continue if the COVID-19 crisis continues and what will be different afterward.
The elders and ministerial staff of Martin Church of Christ meet weekly to discuss the current situation in order to ensure their members’ needs are being met. For the time being, they plan to continue to meet via radio and Facebook Live until cleared by the government to meet back in their building.
Bailey says that he thinks that members will see the importance of being together on Sundays more than ever now. He also foresees the congregation continuing with live streaming their services.
As for the St. Jude Catholic Church in Martin, they say it is a work in progress. They assume they will look more closely into investing in a more permanent video streaming system. The leaders of the church evaluate every day to make sure they have the right online tools to keep everyone in touch.
“I think there will be changes for all churches after this is over. What all those will be is hard to predict at this point though,” Freed says.
The First Baptist Church in Martin is hopeful that things will ease up within the next month. They are planning to continue in the current situation through April and hope that by May they will be able to gather together again.
Sams hopes there will be a change in the church once all of this is over. He hopes everyone will rediscover what really matters, rearrange priorities, appreciate the good things God has given us and understand the importance of sharing the Gospel of Christ with the world.
One thing that all three churches have in common though during this time of uncertainty, is that each one of them really miss the fellowship with their members and church family and hope to be back together soon.
