A Sampling of How a Number of Evangelical Free Churches in the United States Celebrated Easter Online in the Middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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. 

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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