Separated by pandemic, church is still together in faith

By SCOTT BORKGREN

Staff Writer

When Brother Ron Robinson of First Baptist Church of Van Buren gives his Easter Sermon this Sunday, he’ll be standing in a movie projection room above a congregation of cars.

Amidst a pandemic that prevented any kind of traditional church service, Robinson contacted the owners of the 21 Drive In Theater to see if he might be able to use its lot for temporary services. It was important to Robinson to keep people coming together, not just for the church but to spread the word of God.

The response has been overwhelming and likely to change the way First Baptist Church performs its ministry for the foreseeable future.

The cars came from Van Buren, Ellington, Redford, Ellsinore, Poplar Bluff, Centerville, Mountain View and others. Robinson estimates there were 70-75 cars on a recent Sunday.

“A lot of people who have never stepped in the church have come out there,” Robinson said. “I think it is going to change how all churches do ministry from this point forward ... who knows where it’s going to take us.”

Both the church and the drive in checked with Reynolds County, Carter County and the necessary health departments to see if using the drive in was OK. It was, so long as everyone stays in their car, there’s no concessions and no restrooms. The closest anybody gets is when some people roll down their windows to raise their arms in devotion or to sing along with the rest of the cars, led in unison by a husband and wife instead of a choir.

“We try to lead them from that little box that we’re in,” Robinson said, adding he encourages people to roll down their windows and sing as loud as they can. “There’s a real concern by CDC and others with choirs meeting and so forth. So we’ve had to scale back our music program, which would be a big time of the year at Easter.”

Lana Hager has photographed and live streamed the two Sunday services so far on Facebook and said another 70 people will watch live. She says people aren’t just attending for the novelty of church at a drive in, but the atmosphere is great for those who don’t want to dress up for church, don’t want to be socially interactive, sit in the middle of a large crowd of potential strangers. If you want, you can just sit in your car with the windows up, listen to the service on your radio, and go home.

“About half of the crowd are our own people and half are people we don’t even know,” Hager said. “I now worry if we go back to church, how many people we’ll lose.”

The first week, the first car showed up at 9 a.m. for the 10:30 a.m. service, concerned they needed to beat the crowd.

Jeff Riggs, owner of the drive in, said the biggest show they’ve ever had was for Toy Story 4 when the drive in had about 500 cars. The capacity of the First Baptist Church is 200 people. Riggs added that he was contacted by other churches wanting to use the drive in for the same reason, but Robinson was first.

The church also performs bible study and devotions through Facebook as it searches for creative ways to keep people connected after they lost their building to the flood a few years back and got a new building in December 2019.

“It’ll be documented in our church history forever,” Hager said. “The only thing better would be if Brother Ron could be on the big screen.”