Worries over coronavirus lead to changes for churches

DELMARVA – “It’s overwhelming just knowing that we can’t meet Sunday and we have to find creative ways and different ways to be able to that,” said Pastor Andy Ehlers at the High Tide Church.

Pastor Andy Ehlers in Frankford says the coronavirus pandemic is forcing congregations all across Delmarva to make significant changes to help contain the virus.

“We’ve canceled all our group meetings right now,” said Ehlers.

“Our Wednesday night programs, our small groups at homes,” said Ehlers.

Pastor Brian Moss in Salisbury says hundreds of people in the community depend on available space at the Oak Ridge Baptist Church every single day for things like counseling and recovering programs.

But Moss says, for now, church doors will remain closed.

“We just decided, we just need to go ahead and put everything on pause, put everything on hold for this temporary season just for the safety and well being of the folks in our community,” said Moss.

In order to keep their church services and group meetings alive, these pastors tell us, they will have to depend on things like social media and for many navigating through these changes has not come so easy.

“We think we’ve done a good job when we’ve communicated because we’ve communicated in about five different channels, but there’s always someone who isn’t getting their communication and that’s a big challenge for us,” said Moss.

“For some people, they’ll really struggle with it and some people love it, but those that struggle with it, it will be a chance for them to get together at some point and that’s important I think,” said Ehlers.

And with these new challenges pastors at both churches tell us they hope their congregations will join them online in prayer by streaming their Sunday services.

That way they can help keep their message of hope present in the community.

“The church was created to be the entirety of the people being the hands and feet of Jesus to all of the body in the community,” said Moss.

Both the High Tide Church in Frankford and the Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury will now be hosting online Sunday services on their Facebook pages.