It is safe to say at this point that Covid-19 has created many difficulties across the world regarding all gatherings and group-related activities. Local Churches and Sunday activities are no exception to this.
Due to state mandates and a lack of general safety for their congregations, churches large and small, old and new have all had to adapt to the times and make difficult decisions regarding how to proceed with worship in the future. How can one conduct church in a way that brings the message of God to people without endangering their lives or breaking the law? As is expected, there have been many different churches with many different ideas.
Some churches have decided to go completely online having no in-person events at all. Platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, YouTube, and Facebook are commonly used to provide live or recorded ceremonies for congregation members to enjoy from the safety of their homes. This has forced many elder members of congregations to learn new platforms of technology that they would normally never have to use and adapt to them in order to continue worship. I know form personal experience that our pastor and the elders of our church back home have had to struggle, and still struggle, to deal with the needed tech on a daily basis. This is the most common and safest solution for churches to implement seeing as there is no risk, but can be very difficult for churches with a congregation of mostly seniors. Many older folks either do not have Facebook or have no idea how to use it or any of the other platforms and are less likely to stay connected with church proceedings.
Another solution that has been implemented is the idea of taking the congregation somewhere spacious enough to be socially distanced while attending, or to simply hold church outside in the fresh air where space is more abundant. Problems with this can be rainy or cold weather or the affect of being outside for too long on older congregation members. This solution would be easier for elderly members in that it requires less tech innovation, but could still be hard on the body.
Although it has been and still is difficult to adapt to less-than-ideal circumstances, these technological/worship innovations have made it possible to keep church congregations together and happily worshiping God during this difficult time.
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It has been wonderful to see churches adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year despite the numerous challenges. As people have now taken to doing church online through various platforms we are still able to meet and worship God even with all the problems. However, I do worry about the lack of care of those individuals who sit at home during church and how much they are truly putting into their faith. Yes we have adapted but is it going to hurt us more than help.