The impact of the pandemic

By Rev. James Leonard

Spring Valley, Minn.

I worked for two summers in college as a commercial roofer. Those two summers were enough to leave me with two lasting impressions. The first, I was happy with my choice to go into the ministry. The second, the nickname “Bright Side” given to me by my coworkers because of my frustrating habit of seeing the bright side of every difficult day on a roof.  While the nickname didn’t last, the internal motivation to see the best in every situation has. Each day we read more about the difficulty of the COVID-19 crisis, I desire to see the bright side of what’s taking place in our society right now. 

In the past week, we have heard across our nation of distilleries converting to hand sanitizer plants. Clothing manufacturers have begun mass production of scrubs, gowns, and masks for the medical field. What we maybe haven’t heard a lot of is the resiliency of the local church during this crisis. 

Church services as we know them may be canceled, but the local church is resilient as it continues to meet the spiritual and physical needs of people in this crisis. As our President was preparing to announce a social gathering limitation of 10 people, the Spring Valley Area Ministerial Association (SVAMA), the Spring Valley Food Shelf, and the Kingsland Backpack Food Program were strategizing on meeting the upcoming food needs of people in our community. We realized early in this crisis, for many individuals and families, food will become a need as this crisis draws out. 

As a group, we also put into place a few contact numbers for those who cannot leave home to call to get assistance in picking up essentials like groceries and prescriptions. Our ministerial partnership in Spring Valley remains strong and committed to assisting people in their time of need. 

The resiliency goes beyond physical needs. The church hasn’t closed to meeting the spiritual needs of people either. Many churches for the first time began livestreaming services through Facebook or other social media. One local pastor is emailing manuscripts of his sermon to his congregation. 

The church I lead, Valley Christian Center, is trying to go beyond streaming services to finding ways to meet spiritual needs in a safe and socially distanced way. Wednesday and Saturday nights from 6-8 p.m. we have Drive-thru Prayer in our parking lot. We are making ourselves available to pray for anyone who drives in and has a need. We will do so, until this crisis passes. 

In addition to this, on Sunday mornings beginning March 29 we will hold Drive-in Church. Much like Drive-in theaters of the past, a person can experience church without leaving the safety of their car. We have purchased an FM transmitter and will broadcast live worship music and an encouraging message over the radio waves. Our musicians will remain indoors, but I will address the crowd from the bed of my F150. We believe this will honor our government leaders as they direct us in stopping the spread of COVID-19. We want to provide a safe way for people to gather and feel a sense of community while hearing a message of hope. 

With Easter fast approaching, the resiliency of the church will be on full display as pastors and congregations creatively find ways to spread a message of hope in this difficult time. It’s difficult to say what Easter will look like for most churches. For the first time in years many churches may have empty pews on Easter Sunday. Sadly, this looks like an unavoidable reality. Looking at the bright side, the local church hasn’t cancelled its services, the church has simply been redirected to a new path of bringing hope to a hopeless time.