Local churches prepare for online Holy Week amid pandemic

In the coming week Christians are preparing to celebrate several days of significant importance to their faith — Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter.

Easter, in particular, typically means a large gathering, special sermons and getting together with loved ones, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This year is going to be a tad different.

Churches will not be able to gather their members together physically under the coronavirus shelter-in-place directive and will have to turn to virtual, online meetings.

However, for the last three weeks many churches across the Flathead Valley already have transitioned to broadcasting services online or over the radio, providing recordings of sermons and even hosting social hangouts via Zoom video chat rooms.

For a large organization such as Canvas Church, the transition to online service has been fairly straightforward. The church’s lead pastor, Kevin Geer, explained a small team goes to the church building and, while maintaining appropriate social distances, records the services ahead of time. He said his congregation has adapted well to the change and is finding ways to stay connected as a community.

“Honestly, for Canvas, we’re thriving in this time because church has never been about a building, it’s been about the people we are,” Geer said. “So it’s been pretty neat to see our people rally and connect with their neighbors during what could be a pretty difficult season.”

As Easter Sunday, April 12, approaches, Canvas will continue to prepare its worship in an online format and will broadcast it online once Saturday night, four times on Sunday and once on Monday night. The Easter message will be the conclusion of a four-week series titled “The Fog,” which Geer said was themed around this time of life being foggy and unclear. Easter’s message will specifically be about seeing light through the fog.

Another wrench thrown in Canvas’ plans for Easter is there will not be an egg hunt for the kids. Geer said the church has 25,000 eggs already prepared and filled with goodies. After talking with the local health department, the Canvas Church team plans to give them out the Thursday and Friday before Easter.

“We’re calling it, ‘You Just Got Egged,’” Geer said. “Cars can come through [the parking lot], we’ll have gloves on, masks on and we’ll just hand them eggs. So that’s something that we’re going to be doing for our community, just another way to try to spread a smile during the season.”

EASTER IS looking pretty different for many other churches as well.

Hope Church is preparing an online Easter celebration service featuring worship songs, creative video elements and a special message on the miracle of life, lead pastor Lance Dannic explained. The church is also having a unique Good Friday virtual worship on April 10 at 7 p.m.

Hope Church has also had to adapt to broadcasting services through its website and Facebook.

“This has definitely changed how we worship right now and we have made many adjustments to bring ‘church’ to people,” Dannic said.

At First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell, Pastor Glenn Burfeind said his church has been broadcasting over the radio on KGEZ since 1927 and since closing the church doors nearly three weeks ago they started providing audio recordings of the worship as well. This week they added scripture and prayer meetings using Zoom video chat rooms.

He also said they have established a “pandemic response team” to oversee the care ministry and periodically check in on members of the congregation during the stay at home order.

Easthaven Baptist Senior Pastor Daniel Lambert is glad his church quickly jumped on making the transition to an online-only church format as soon as the pandemic started. The organization’s virtual way to bring church to its members is called Church Without Walls.

“It’s a link on our website and basically it’s a resource page,” Lambert said. “Here’s our plan to keep us connected and active during the crisis.

“We were planning six services that [Easter] weekend,” he said. “Now because of the pandemic we’re going to record one service and we’ll show it for all regular service times as a broadcast media presentation. It will be a very different weekend this year.”

Lambert said his congregation is holding up well during this time of distancing and he’s amazed at everyone’s ability to keep in touch. He said the church is focusing on encouraging its members to be intentional with any extra time they have during this stay at home order.

“I think it’s honestly a time where we’re encouraging people not to waste their time at home in lockdown, but be more intentional in investing it in, not just spiritual growth but also certainly that, intentional family time and focusing on others,” Lambert said.

Lambert, and many other pastors of different churches in the valley, mentioned that although church members are far apart physically, the ministries are staying busy. Members are willing and wanting to help people in need at this time.

Easthaven Baptist has its own food bank within the church and also a specific fund to help those who may have lost jobs or are in financial need during this pandemic.

“It’s becoming really an interesting time for us to be able to help others in a way that we probably weren’t as effective as before,” Lambert said.

Reporter Whitney England may be reached at 758-4419 or wengland@dailyinterlake.com