Mississippi churches reflect on how COVID-19 advanced technology use in their congregations

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Subsequent month will mark the three-year anniversary of Mississippi’s first case of COVID-19. The pandemic pressured us to alter our habits in nearly each facet of our day-to-day life, together with how we go to church.

Church buildings across the metro mentioned whereas they had been using some types of know-how earlier than the pandemic, the time away from their congregations in 2020 pushed them to take a more in-depth take a look at how they might use it extra.

“We’ve bought to have the ability to attain the misplaced in any respect prices, and a part of that’s by with the ability to maximize know-how,” Pastor Antoine Barlow of South Liberty Baptist Church in Canton mentioned.

On March 11, 2020, the primary COVID-19 case was present in Mississippi. Three days later, pastors in every single place had been pressured to adapt to verify their sermons might be heard.

“It began with our minister, Tim West, with simply his iPhone in his home, after which utilizing him and his household to broadcast providers. So we saved asking the query, ‘Properly, what else do we’d like to have the ability to use again on the constructing, and have a significantly better service and significantly better supply,’” I.T. Director at North Brandon Church of Christ Kevin Knuckles mentioned.

1000’s of pastors took to social media to proceed holding providers and bible research for weeks. However they didn’t cease there.

From determining how of us might give:

“We started to analysis software program that will help us in with the ability to nonetheless enable folks to offer and to do these issues that they actually needed to do,” Pastor Barlow mentioned.

To determining what number of had been attending:

“Someone scan the QR code, [and] it takes them to a Google kind in order that they’ll report on their attendance, whether or not they had been right here, simply them or what number of different relations had been right here,” Knuckles mentioned.

Church buildings made positive they had been reaching their congregation and extra.

“Additional attain all out to completely different international locations, you realize, whether or not or not it’s Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Philippines, a number of different international locations the place folks had been watching,” Knuckles mentioned.

Even after the hardship, pastors mentioned they’ve grown from it.

“Christianity itself was fashioned by way of not the crucible of comfort however the crucible of chaos. So we’ve discovered that each one of these items have been good for us. They provide us a chance to actually converse to the life that our individuals are dwelling,” Pastor Barlow defined.

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