LAURINBURG — Churches across the nation are working on new ways to reach members as COVID-19 precautions call for social distancing, from drive-up services to streaming online, and many are taking to this new form right as Easter services loom.

Across Scotland County, many churches will be going beyond its walls for Easter Sunday through various ways — live-stream, Facebook, Twitter and radio.

Trinity Presbyterian Church on Blues Farm Road in Laurinburg has held a spot on WLNC on Sunday and continues to do so.

“We’re going to continue broadcasting at 11 a.m.,” said Office Manager Shannon Hamilton. “Our Pastor Jim Morgan vowed that he is going to be live every Sunday as long as this goes on and he feels compelled to continue leading worship for the community so we can be together without being together.”

Hamilton also noted that, on the church’s website, www.trinitypreslbg.com, that there is a bulletin section for people to follow along with just like if they were in church. The website also allows for those who might not have a radio or who want to listen out of state as well.

“We have a lot of people who may not attend church every week but who come for the Easter service,” Hamilton said. “So we’re doing our on the radio and we want everyone to feel welcome even if they’ve never set foot in the church.”

Vineyard of Life Ministries on Oil Mill Road in Gibson has turned to live-streaming to allow members to attend service and will continue to do so for the Easter service.

“It wasn’t something we ever did before and it’s been difficult, but we’ve been calling this the new normal,” said Becky Lucas, the wife of Pastor Dean Lucas. “We are getting a lot more views online than we ever had in church so it’s good that more people are watching.”

Lucas said its been hard for her husband to preach to an empty audience, but that they’ll continue doing it until services can go back to normal.

While it may not be normal for many churches to be live-streaming or broadcasting services, the services are now reaching a larger audience of people from not just Scotland County.

“We’re starting an e-family because we’ve had people from Georgia and South Carolina who have been watching our services,” said Cross Pointe Pastor Michael Edds. “They’re in different states but they still want to be members of the church … God is using this as a way to get pastors out of its four walls and bring the gospel to people.”

Edds, like Vineyard of Life, said he has seen an increased amount of people watching the videos online and the number exceeds the number of people typically in church during a service seeing more than 900 people watch an entire service.

“This has brought our church family even closer with members calling and checking up on each other,” Edds said. “There’s something good coming out of this by bringing us all closer together.”

Egg hunt canceled

As churches will go live on Easter Sunday, many Easter traditions children look forward to having been canceled due to the social distancing order.

Scotland County Parks and Recreation will not be having its annual EGGstravaganza, but the department is looking for ways to get involved and have something for people to do while maintaining social distancing during this time.

Reach Katelin Gandee at [email protected].

Churches take services online

Katelin Gandee

Staff writer