NewsNuggets invited Brodie Philpott, head elder and Board chair of Littleton Seventh-day Adventist Church, to share his thoughts about worship during the pandemic and how church has changed in the new normal. We welcome pastors and leaders in our congregations to share their experiences with worship alternatives and innovative activities in their churches. Ed Barnett, RMC president, challenges us to consider “how we can do church better” This applies to opening up ourselves to the needs of the community and making our worship fresh, attractive, and inviting.
What is needed to thrive in 2020 is the ability to adapt quickly and pivot plans to fit the ever-changing realities of our situation.
I love plans–making plans, thinking about plans, executing well-thought-out plans, and looking back and seeing how well my plans worked out. This year, God has His own plans for us, which included some teachable moments regarding my plans and how insignificant they are. However, God has also shown that He has a way of showing up big.
In early March, the Rocky Mountain Conference appointed two new pastors to serve the church–Andy Nash, lead pastor, and Chris Morris, pastor of worship, youth, and visitation. They joined Alise Weber, who had been serving Littleton as pastor of families and children.
Nash began his ministry at Littleton on March 20, two days after in-person worship services were suspended throughout the Conference. Because of this, Nash didn’t have an opportunity to hold his first in-person service till late May.
Being innovative, we began the pandemic weeks by holding online services from home. The worship leader would sing songs from home and then transition over to Andy’s home where he would share a message. After a few weeks of this, we began holding the online services from the church.
This continued for several weeks till we pivoted to drive-in church (stay in your cars), outdoor church (both at our church and at Mile High Academy), and finally indoor church with two services, a first for us.
We recently ended a week-long Vacation Bible School with a return to outdoor church. Looking back, I realize that over the course of the past five months, we held church in six unique ways!
“Being adaptable in ministry in 2020 reminds me of how the early church also adapted their ministry, Pastor Nash said. “When they could no longer meet in synagogues, they met in homes. When they could no longer gather in Jerusalem, they scattered to all the world.
This adversity caused the disciples to depend more fully on Christ, and to bring the gospel to more people.”
Worship leader Russell Palmer III added, “We have definitely learned to be flexible as a worship team. One week we are in a parking lot, the next we are in a field behind the church, and the next we are doing two services inside the church. Two services is definitely a time commitment for everyone involved, but it is so worth it to be able to worship together as a corporate body again.”
“At first, it was sad for me to look out into the congregation during praise music and see everyone wearing a mask, but then I was encouraged and so blessed to hear our church singing through their masks as loud as they possibly could,” Palmer said.
In addition to the weekly services, we launched nightly family worship times online, something that we had never done before. A different family lead each night, allowing us to stay in contact with each other even though we were apart. We were able to involve many believers, including college students, worship leaders, elders, and others. I seem to recall someone wearing Mickey Mouse ears during one of the nightly gatherings.
We received hundreds of views each night, sometimes reaching 600 to 1,000 people. I was excited to see people commenting online that hadn’t been to church in years, and new people engaging with us. I mentioned to a fellow elder that we truly seem to be a church in diaspora. Although we are not being sent out physically during the stay-at-home lockdown, we were sent out digitally, and reached more people each week than would’ve physically visited our building.
As a final example of the creativity and fellowship involved, in April, during the worst of the pandemic, we held a wedding, limited to 10 people, inside the church. However, we invited members to drive to the parking lot and honk their horns as the newly-wedded couple came out of the church. What a blessing it was to be able to share this moment with the new couple.
God has been with us on this journey which we call the “new normal”, and there will be times that I will look back on fondly (although it may take some time).
I urge us to remember that the church is the Lord’s–not ours. He is in control and knows what He is doing. He has established His church, and nothing will prevail against it. Nothing will snatch us from His hands. My advice is to do your part, be flexible, and love everyone in His name.
“I don’t think our Littleton church family will ever forget the challenges of 2020, but as we’ve worshipped together in seemingly every possible way, I think we’ve become resilient and stronger for the future. After six different settings for worship, we’re ready for the seventh,” Nash said.
–RMCNews
