Goshen church follows social distancing rules with drive-thru Easter service, baptisms online

GOSHEN, Ind. - With Easter Sunday just two days away, churches are getting prepared for their services, but this year it will look a little different.

Because of social distancing recommendations and coronavirus legislation, most church buildings are closed. So, you may be seeing your pastor online or even from your car.

“It’s changed everything, I mean when it started hitting, we got all of our staff together to navigate how we do church from here,” Tim Fisher, the lead pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Goshen said.

As most churches have taken to online platforms like Facebook to broadcast services, Crossroads took it a bit further, by holding drive-thru services.

“Even though you don’t get to interact physically with people, you see them through the car windows and they’re all waving and excited. It brings a certain sense of normalcy to what’s happening right now and everything we’re experiencing,” he said.

All you do is drive up and park like a drive-in movie, tune in to a radio station and watch the pastor on a large screen.

“You’re just able to listen and watch the whole experience right in the parking lot and never leave the comfort and the safety of your car,” he said.

Easter is no different.

“We’re expecting a great turnout,” he said.

But something new for even crossroads is the ability to baptize virtually.

“We are actually baptizing people, we are celebrating changed lives and we are able to do that through video and through personal families baptizing family members in the safety of their homes and recording that,” he said. “So we have 15 people who are baptized this week and are going to celebrate changed lives on Easter Sunday.”

On Thursday, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box reminded Hoosiers across the state that if you are attending a parking lot church service this weekend, it’s important to stay in your car the whole time and don’t get out until you’re back home to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.