Churches find creative way to serve their communities during coronavirus pandemic

Churches across the nation are helping their neighbors by finding simple but creative ways to serve communities during the pandemic, according to Christianity Today.

Ed Stetzer, the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College, asked pastors and church members to share what their churches have been doing. The responses provide one small window into the work churches have been doing to serve through this coronavirus crisis.

Some churches have been giving out food to their communities. A member of a Green Bay, Wis., church said their church had purchased hundreds of boxes of cereal and handed them out to families as they drove through local schools to pick up meals for their children. Pastor Derwin Gray of Transformation Church in Charlotte shared that his church has committed to providing food boxes for 325 families.

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Volunteer Danielle Pingue packs boxes as part of the Grocery Plus senior program at the Capital Area Food Bank in the District. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

Other churches have looked for ways to serve communities during the pandemic by serving the elderly and immunocompromised. One church in Dallas has called everyone in their church over 70 and written down their grocery lists. Then they order the groceries and hand-deliver them so they never have to leave their homes. A church in Birmingham has been doing something similar by delivering groceries to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

Stetzer also reported that many churches have taken over discontinued social services in their areas, such as Meals on Wheels and school lunches. Two Georgia churches have served coffee and Chick-Fil-A to doctors, nurses and medical staff in local hospitals. A Nashville-area church has been paying childcare workers to keep the children of health-care workers, and a church in Chattanooga provided meals for first responders.

Pastor Josh Howerton of Lake Pointe Church, a multisite church near Dallas, shared how members of his church have reached out to their neighbors. Many of them have put signs in their yard that read, “Self-Isolating? I can help! Contact me.” Then the sign has the member’s name and phone number. Howerton told Stetzer that the church has also held a blood drive and provided food where programs have been shut down.

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice