SAN LUIS VALLEY - Easter will be different this year for families, and churches all across America. With the coronavirus making it dangerous to gather in groups, many churches are making their Easter services viewable online. Several around the San Luis Valley will be posting their sermons every week on Facebook Live including, Alamosa Christian Reformed Church, Trinity Lutheran, Feed Store Church and many others.
Calvary Baptist will be hosting a drive up communion on Good Friday. They will have an awning set up with communion trays under it. Someone will be there with a mask and gloves. Cars will pull up and someone will say a short prayer with them then they will be handed the communion wafer and grape juice. After they take communion the people manning the station will throw away their cups and then switch their gloves and go on to the next car. “It’s just a chance for people to connect and exercise their faith and we’re going to try to do it in the safest possible way,” said Calvary Baptist Pastor Bob Galey.
Living Water Bible Fellowship will have their sermons accessible on their website, YouTube and Facebook page. “As pastors we’ve been talking about how terrible this could be for our community and praying that it’s not. But also how this crisis is probably also forcing everyone to evaluate what is most important. What had become the center of one’s life has likely been revealed as secondary or even nonessential when it comes to what really matters,” commented Living Water’s lead pastor Jeron Parkins adding, “For instance sports and athletic activities can be great and even beneficial to families, but should they have commanded as much time, energy, and money as they did before their cancellation? There are likely a lot of things that are neutral or good that can be raised up to become idols in our lives, taking the place of God or taking the place of essential relationships. So while we’re in the midst of a very heavy and difficult challenge that our community has to get through first, we’re hoping that this will also be a time of reevaluating and seeking out what makes life truly meaningful. We’re hopeful that for many God will once again be worshipped and placed at the center of family, marriages and businesses. Tough times come and go, but in the long run if the Lord Jesus is at the center of our lives, everything runs much smoother (Matthew 6:33).”
On Easter Calvary Baptist will be joining the Nazarene Church and the United Methodist Church at Movie Manor drive in theater at 11 a.m. “We’ll be doing livestreaming on Facebook Live, we’ll also be doing it on the radio so as people come into the drive in theater, they’ll tune their cars to 95.3. Bob Richards from the radio station is going to bring all of his equipment and do a live remote. We’re going to be on a flatbed trailer,” said Galey, “We’ll just let everybody sit in their cars, and if they want to say amen, they can flash their lights or honk their horns.”
Galey also shared how Monday-Friday at noon he does a live devotion on the church’s Facebook page. On Saturday mornings he also does a “Man up,” bible study at 8 a.m. “I miss my congregation and I miss seeing them. At least if I’m on the air everyday with them they know that I’m still there and I’m still thinking about them and I think that helps,” said Galey.