Posted on 03/31/2020 2:59:51 AM PDT by Libloather
When pastor Frank Carl delivers a sermon at Genoa Church in Westerville, Ohio, he typically hears a chorus of “amens.” On Sunday, he instead heard a deafening blast of honks.
And Carl wasn’t at the pulpit—he was about 25 feet off the ground on a scissor lift. “It’s not what I had in mind when I accepted a higher calling,” he told TIME of the experience, laughing.
**SNIP**
To continue providing services, churches have employed a variety of digital alternatives like livestreams, apps and YouTube videos. But over the past week, an increasing number of pastors have turned instead to a seemingly old-fashioned option to gather their flock: the drive-in. Churchgoers are driving into church parking lots, pulling up a respectable distance away from the next car, and tuning into their radio to hear their pastor speak from the church steps. Meanwhile, drive-in theaters that aren’t allowed to show movies are instead opening up their gates to local churches. These makeshift sessions have left audiences feeling invigorated.
**SNIP**
But the drive-in church service may not be a lasting solution, as a rising number of states issue stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders. There’s a lot of grey area involved: states have varied in deciding whether religious ceremonies are essential services; infectious disease experts have different opinions about the risks involved; and it’s unclear whether a phalanx of people in cars meets CDC regulations for social distancing. As Easter rapidly approaches, pastors across the country are scrambling to figure out how they might be able to continue to preach for their honking steel-and-glass congregations.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I can’t wait to mention this to my SIL.
we just did this in Greenville, SC.
And we will next week, too.
And a couple times this week, it is revival week.
There are still drive-in theaters in America?
Thought they had all gone the way of the shopping mall.
Ah, fogged up windows in the last row and "What was the movie?" - "I dunno, who cares?"
I know of a few.
There is a drive-in church in Tucson that has been going for many years. Last I heard (about 10 years ago) it was still in business with about 10-15 people.
Turns out that there was this huge parking lot of cars with drive-in style boxes where members could attend without leaving the comfort and isolation of their cars.
I tried it one Sunday, but concluded it is not for me. I miss the social interaction with fellow believers which is not possible in this arrangement.
It would be really hard to kneel and stand as required in an Orthodox mass....
We do this in TN...the pastor is inside the church and we listen on a closed circuit radio station that only reaches out to the street...
it works great !!!
The church I grew up in did this for an early device in the summmers back in the 1980s. Come as you are and sit in your car. I think Robert Schuller started out in a drive-in.
I know of one too. Still great.
Better to live stream services. Just wait until someone has a fender bender and all hell breaks loose. Those vehicles full of people will need to go to the public restroom and then they’ll pass someone they know and have to stop to chat. Then they’ll need to pick up lunch and cough on the drive thru window person. Then they’ll need to get gas and touch an infected pump handle and go inside to get snacks and get infected.
People, just stay home.
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