Find yourself engaged in some activities these days that you never would have imagined doing a year ago? Like becoming proficient in video chat software or greeting close friends solely with a socially distanced, air-only handshake?
After 43 years of pastoring Bloomingdale (Illinois) Alliance Church, I never would have imagined our congregation gathering in the parking lot for worship services every weekend for eight months.
A Pioneer Spirit
But we have. We met when the sun blazed at 98 degrees, when the rain poured, and when blustery Chicago winds blew the music stands, microphones, and nearly the pastor off the stage.
When we initially launched the outdoor church, it was different but more doable in the spring, summer and fall temperatures. Now winter is here with snowflakes banding together to redecorate our outdoor sanctuary floor from asphalt black to sparkling fresh white. Our warm, outdoor fellowship transitioned to most people staying in their vehicles, windows up with heaters and engines running, listening to the service through their radios. Some do step out of their vehicles to safely greet each other after service.
The winter freeze rules many weekends, but our outdoor service is still game-on. We even have a short children’s church outside in nearby open-door garages. A sort of pioneer spirit has blossomed—“We’ll overcome the elements together.”
Welcoming the Lost
The pandemic has pressed us to think outside the box of our sanctuary—literally. Our building remains closed to large gatherings. This year it certainly has been a challenge to stay connected as a church family, and an even bigger quest has been to keep reaching out to others with the gospel. But we continue to worship together safely.
We are also able to invite seekers to join us with designated parking spots for visitors. Numerous people who didn’t come when we invited them in the past have shown up in their vehicles for the drive-in church. Some of our neighbors who heard our music on the sound system have come. One woman even admitted that she eavesdropped on the service for weeks from her house before she eventually began attending in person.
As we worship together in the parking lot each week, our big brick building that we invested so much energy into now serves primarily as a convenient windbreaker for our scaffold-climbing worship team. It stands as a silent backdrop, not so subtly reminding us that the real Church is not a building at all. The Church is people joining together to proclaim the story of the cross.
In these times when an ugly pandemic has further disrupted our broken world, opportunities for good are still possible. We can accept the challenge to think and move outside the box (or the building) to bring God’s family together and introduce new friends to the Savior as well.
by David Riemenschneider, lead pastor of Bloomingdale Alliance Church