Easter in the United States was changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As states from California to New York and Louisiana among others grappled with a national pandemic many states asked Christians to stay home and practice social distancing. From an overview it appears as if the EFCA followed the guidelines imposed by state and local health authorities. This blog would like to say thank you to the EFCA for doing its part to stay at home and helping to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This post is a look at how a number of EFCA churches around the United States celebrated Easter. From outside Seattle, Washington to Tampa, Florida. From Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Thousand Oaks, California this is how a number of churches inside the EFCA celebrated Easter during a challenging time.
“The True Church can never fail. For it is based upon a rock.”
T.S. Elliot
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
Luke 9:23-24 NIV
In the COVID-19 era here is how a number of EFCA churches from around the United States celebrated Easter. It was online through Facebook, or YouTube. In the midst of a national crisis and pandemic I decided to select a few EFCA churches and insert their Easter services into a post. Each one has an interesting take on virtual online worship. Two that stuck out for me are Dawson Lange’s Mountainside Community Church in Reno, Nevada and Bryan Lair’s Trinity City Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Dawson started the service with a moving silent message as to how he misses people and the challenges they are facing. Bryan Lair talked about dealing with stage four Hodgkin Lymphoma in October of 2019 and looking forward to Easter only to have this pandemic hit and cancel much of what he was looking forward to. In addition to the services below a lot of EFCA churches also met through Zoom this morning. This blog hopes people had a safe time and thanks those who were responsible and followed the requests of governing authorities to stay home in a pandemic.Social distancing is important and is what will help end the pandemic and save lives. This blog is hoping that a Jonas Salk for our generation will come forward and find a vaccine as well. Below are some samples of how some EFCA churches around the United States reacted to COVID-19 and how they celebrated Easter during a pandemic.
Josh Black’s First Evangelical Free in Wichita, Kansas
James Waldon’s Riverside Community Church in Columbia, South Carolina
Darin Anderson’s Oakwood Church in Tampa, Florida
Doug Theun’s Sparta Evangelical Free in Sparta, New Jersey
Benjamin Vrbicek’s Community Evangelical Free Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Justin Evans Stone Oak Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas
Zack McCoy Redemption Church in Houston, Texas
Matt Larson’s Anthem Church in Thousand Oaks, California
Tony Chute’s Northpoint Church in Corona, California
David Lyndon’s Redeemer Evangelical Free Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Gary Zachariah’s Terrace Shores Evangelical Free in Markesan, Wisconsin
Christ Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas area.
Bryan Lair’s Trinity City Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Ty Spenst’s Trinity Evangelical Free in Plainview, Minnesota
Evangelical Free Church of Bozeman, Montana which is currently looking for a senior pastor
Dr. Ross Holtz’s The Summit Evangelical Free in Enumclaw, Washington
Dawson Lange’s Mountainside Community Church of Reno, Nevada.
Jud Judsen’s Evangelical Free Church of Chico, California.
Ryan Kwon’s Resonate Church in Freemont, California
Tell the “pastors” who defy the law, that they do not believe their own Bibles! Reread Romans! By infecting the larger community, you will bring down wrath on ALL Christians for spreading the virus. These so-called pastors are self-serving and dangerous to their community. Fine them for their gross stupidity “under the collar of the law”.
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Deeply agree with you. Those who don’t follow the law are harming people in the end and hurting neighborhoods and communities.
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