Doing Church During a Pandemic: An Interview with Gail Hill
Members of Chico First Baptist Church in Chico, CA. Gail Hill is in the front row seated four from the left.
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by Rubén David Bonilla Ramos
from Baptist Peacemaker, Volume 40 No 3
Editor’s note: In our planning session for this issue of Baptist Peacemaker, the BPFNA editorial team decided that we should include reflections from a pastor about how church life has changed since the pandemic reached our hemisphere. My fellow Peacemaker editor, Rubén David Bonilla Ramos, interviewed Rev. Gail Hill, president of the BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz Board of Directors. Gail is pastor of Chico First Baptist Church in Chico, CA. —Katie
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Solo en inglés.
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How would you describe a typical Sunday service at your church before COVID-19? What was the attendance like?
Our service is traditional in style with hymns, scripture readings, a choral anthem, the doxology sung in praise of offerings given and received, a children’s time, a sermon message and blessing. We follow the church calendar and lectionary. Attendance is 35-40 weekly.
When did you first started thinking about making changes to your services due to COVID-19?
I started thinking about it on the flight home to Chico, CA, Tuesday, March 17, from the Baptist Peace Fellowship board meeting in San Juan, PR. That evening I consulted resources from our ABC Evergreen region and found that the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) MinistrElife was providing Zoom rooms for a nominal monthly amount. I purchased a Zoom room on Wednesday. And on Thursday, our Governor enforced a shelter-in-place plan, so with a Zoom room in place, we held our first online service that Sunday, March 22.
Did you have a meeting with the church board about changing services? What was that meeting like?
There was no meeting. Fortunately, with a small congregation, we are nimble and swift. In the last three years, we have responded to floods, fires and now pandemics! I consulted our church moderator, property manager and chair of deacons with the decision to close in-person worship and use Zoom as our place of worship. Upon their unanimous agreement, I sent out an email to the congregation explaining our decision and use of Zoom, and made calls to those without email access. We set up practice times Thursday through Saturday to allow people to learn how to get on Zoom and interact. At our first service on March 22, we had 27 participants.
What is your service like now? Is it still virtual? What platforms do you use to keep the church operating and membership engaged?
We continue to use Zoom each Sunday morning for worship, simplifying the service to key elements: greeting and check-in with everyone, prayer, music, scripture reading and reflection. Zoom was preferred over Facebook live or pre-recorded types of online offerings, because we value the opportunity to share with each other. Many in our congregation live alone, so the ability to see and connect with one another is essential to our well being. Also there is an intimacy in seeing all of us in our living spaces, allowing a peek into our homes with pictures on the wall and décor that is remarked about and shared. Each week, we learn something new about one another.
Has anything changed with your preaching and sermons? If so, what is different?
While I have not changed my preparation and writing style, I have sought to shorten the sermon just a bit. I appreciate this question because I have noticed something as I preach. In the sanctuary, I was able to engage with the collective presence of the people all at once while speaking. There is a collective spirit that affirms and sometimes challenges. I sense when we are one, at peace, or when we are together in our sorrow or anxiety, or even when we feel unsure. But this is lost to me on Zoom. While I can see everyone at once in squares, I miss being able to interpret the “responsive feel of our togetherness” relative to the message reflection. I realize how significant the presence of the Holy Spirit is with her generosity and abundance when we are physically together. Community is home with the Holy Spirit.
Having said that, I have experienced a couple of times during Zoom worship when there was a hush among all of us (yes; I mute the group) but this was a different hush that made us feel that God’s hand was upon us and our gratitude was beyond our ability to describe it. I notice we find it difficult to make the shift from worship to Zoom chat afterwards. The challenge is: How do we invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit on Zoom?
How has the membership responded to these changes? What is the engagement like, compared to attendance on a regular Sunday service before COVID-19?
There is a good response overall. Attendance over the past nine weeks has averaged 30 folks, a little less than our sanctuary numbers before COVID-19. Another insight I have noticed is that we find ourselves continually engaged together. When we were at our physical site, different folks would bunch together before and after church in the narthex to chat, whereas now, on Zoom, when someone shares, we all hear it. For our online services, we have a time before worship when we chat and check in with one another, and after our worship time, we visit. Now we all get to be in the same circle!
What is the engagement like with the youth and kids with this new virtual church format?
It is non-existent with children. We lost our children, even though we had planned to continue our children’s program. We found that they are “Zoomed” out, after having school daily on Zoom. So the last thing they want to do is Zoom on their weekends.
How has the older generation responded to the changes, and how do you engage them during this time of “virtual church”?
While our young ones are tired of Zoom, our seniors are just discovering and learning this new technology. The motivating factor is seeing and hearing each other in community, and they are delighted to participate! This was the challenging part, as our congregation is predominantly older. However, Tom (my husband and chair of deacons) and I took each person in our church family and worked individually with them to set up their virtual home connection. I donned gloves and mask and entered into seniors’ homes/rooms with permission from family members and care centers in some cases, to put stickers on monitors, pre-program laptops and print large instructions with Sharpie markers. We are in the process of purchasing chrome books for others who want access. One of our church members said, “This year for my 80th birthday, I’m asking for a iPad.”
What about offerings? How do you deal with this issue during social distancing and virtual services?
Easily. We asked our church family and friends to mail in their tithe to the church office address. There are three of us who check the mail at church at different times of the week and sort the mail, putting tithes in the Financial Secretary’s box.
What about pastoral counseling during quarantine? How has it changed?
The obvious change is that I am using the phone more often than being physically together. But one change I note is that, usually, when I am caring for our congregation members, I am listening and praying with someone due to a situation of illness or grief from loss or something specific. I am walking alongside someone during their crisis or disorientation. During this pandemic, I find I am in the same shoes as others with mutual understanding in our shelter-in-place situation!
How has COVID-19 affected your day-to-day work as a pastor-preacher and leader? What are the negative and positive outcomes?
A positive outcome is the freedom to be away from the church building. I know this statement probably sounds odd, but I feel that we spend too much time and energy focusing on the building rather than in the community. Another positive for me is the ease with which worship is conducted, less formal with lots of experimentation (from YouTube videos to our musicians submitting music for use each week).
Do you think churches will need to keep developing new and ingenious ways to engage with their membership due to the rapid changes developing globally?
Yes, and this has been true regardless of the pandemic. At a recent ministers’ council, one pastor talked about the difficulty of choosing whether we address our local congregation in our weekly services; or focus more globally as people are participating from all geographic places. My approach has been to continue being who we are in our faith community. And should our worship and witness to Jesus’ teaching be found nurturing to another who is visiting, then we have authentically shared the Good News as the Spirit has given it to us.
What would you say are the biggest challenges churches will face once this pandemic crisis is over?
Returning to a large sanctuary with our small group. We’ve become more intimate seeing each other in our home settings. We have let go of some of the old traditions, in order to prioritize prayer, scripture reading and reflection and blessing. We are focused more on being the hands and feet of Christ than on whether or not we stand to sing the hymn or prayer.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Thank you for asking me this set of questions. Since March 17, I have not taken time to reflect upon these past two months. We went from Lent to Eastertide online and now we’re looking forward to Pentecost! Our congregants were asked to all wear red that morning. It will be a Red Sea of Zoom squares! I wonder what we will encounter next.
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