How We’re Handling Worship During the Pandemic Now and In the Future

The Coronavirus pandemic changed our world in significant ways including how we worship. For people who may not already know, here’s how we’re being the church here at High Peak now and some thought about what the future holds.

Worship During the Pandemic

During the Coronavirus Pandemic we are presently worshipping together online and via drive-in worship services at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. You can find our services by going to our Facebook page. Like our page in order to get notifications when we go live on Sunday morning.

In addition to going live on Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m., we also do our Sunday school lessons on Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. also on Facebook. Find them at the same links above. Right now we’re studying Romans. Let us know if you need a Sunday school book. We’ll either mail you one or drop it off on your porch.

Using Facebook gives us a special kind of interaction with real time reaction and personal prayer needs. We take the prayer requests and praise reports and share them at the end of the service.

Thankfully, WCIS 760 AM graciously gave us an hour per week for us to broadcast our worship services to those who do not have access to our online worship service. Tune in at 9:00 a.m. each Sunday morning and you can hear the previous week’s worship or the Sunday school lesson, which we had to broadcast last Sunday and will again this Sunday due to technical problems.

Drive-in Worship Services

Tw weeks ago we started holding drive-in worship services in our side parking lot. We set up a portable sound system that we borrowed from the Catawba River Baptist Association. Peole come and park in the parking lot and roll down windows. We sing together, pray together, and hear a message together. We close with our prayer requests listed in the comments on Facebook.

Come join us this week. We will do it a little differently. We’re going to place the podium and sound equipment under the porch in the front and people can park along the sides and just in front of the porch and larger vehicles will park across the road.

When We Return to Gathering in Worship in Our Building

At some time int he next 30-60 days, we plan to start meeting again in our sanctuary. What might this look like?

In the next weeks our deacons and leaders will meet to discuss final plans for “reopening” our worship services. Here’s a few things that might look a little different, at least at first.

• We might begin with Wednesday night services first in the Sanctuary so we can socially distance from one another.
• When we gather on Sunday mornings we will sit far apart at least one pew between each row of people and only one family per pew.
• We will prop doors open so no one has to touch door handles.
• People will enter through one of our front doors and exit through the other front door and not use the back or side doors.
• There will be plenty of hand sanitizer in place.
• The choir will probably not lead in music since they can’t sit six feet apart.
• Children’s classes will likely not start meeting at first unless we can find a way to meet separate from one another, which is hard to do with small children especially.

What are Your Thoughts

Do you have any ideas. If you want to reach out to me or our deacons with ideas, concerns and suggestions, please do so this week.

One thing I hope to see this year – a time of worship and fellowship together like we used to enjoy. Hopefully that will happen by Homecoming October 1. My prayer was that we’d meet together in our building by Mother’s Day. That’s not impossible, since Mother’s Day happens this Sunday. But that’s less likely.

When we can, I hope to hold a worship service in our Sanctuary not worried about distance and viruses. We will celebrate with extra music and praise. Then we’ll have a wonderful fellowship meal together. Lord, may it come soon. Even better, may it come in heaven very soon.