Local churches will provide drive-in church

The Bridge Worship Service, a collaboration of Community Baptist Church and North Acres Baptist Church, is doing what many churches around the country are doing, adjusting to the recent pandemic of the Coronavirus.

“This is an interesting time for all us,” said Glen Cantrell, pastor of Community Baptist Church, “we’re social people who have to learn to be less social until this ends.”

The two churches joined together last year creating a new worship service called “The Bridge”. Now, like other churches, they are faced with closing the doors temporarily as a precaution to slow the spread of the virus.

“We have many older members in our congregations and we just can’t risk anyone getting infected.” said Cantrell.

So what does the church do when it can’t hold services? Get creative. For the next two weeks a worship service will be streamed on the Community Baptist Facebook page. If the threat of the Coronavirus goes more than two weeks they will provide a Drive-In service.

What’s a Drive-In service? “People will be able to drive into our parking lot, stay in their cars and worship with us. We can still see each other, wave and worship from our cars.”

The worship service will be outside on a stage so everyone can see from their cars. Those in attendance will either hear the service over the PA system or they will be able to tune their vehicles to an FM frequency and listen through the radio. When the service is over everyone can drive back home.

Cantrell says, “We think this helps solve the problem. We can still come together as the church and worship and feel safe. We think it’s a win/win.”

The Bridge Worship Service is Sunday mornings at 10:45 a.m. at North Acres Baptist Church, 202 Kennedy Drive in Sikeston.