By Ethan Foster
HAMILTON, Miss. (Take 30 News) ---- In response to the advised quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak, a local church by the name of Center Hill Baptist has moved its weekly sermons to a live broadcast format so that members and others alike can access the church services from their homes.
Pastor Terry Edwards said that from the beginning, Center Hill wanted to take action.
“When this all started, of course, very early on, the first Sunday, we were one of the first ones to go, ‘No, we’re not gonna call everybody together,’” Edwards said.
After that decision, next came the process of how the church would continue to hold its services.
“We decided that, um, we didn’t want to put anybody at risk,” Edwards noted. “So, we went ahead and did Facebook Live that morning.”
With the new setup, Edwards uses his smartphone to preach a sermon live from his home and has received what he believes to be good feedback.
“The three services we’ve already done has had more views than ever-anyone coming, ya know, to our church. Over 500 every Sunday,” Edwards remarked.
For the rest of the church operations, things have slowed down from what Center Hill is used to. Church Secretary Cherie Foster commented on the amount of people that have stopped visiting the church during its weekly working hours.
“Everybody’s afraid to come by,” Foster said. “They’re trying to keep distance and so we don’t have as many people to stop by and chit-chat. Or, ya know, talk about their problems and stuff.”
Foster started working at the church in August of 1985 and said that out of the crises she’s witnessed, the corona virus pandemic has been unlike any other.
“I’ve never seen anything that has effected, ya know, our church like this has. Our daily functions and our weekly services,” Foster said.
As a man of faith, Edwards expressed that with so many deaths predicted for the United States, the situation doesn’t offer any peace. But for him, and as he hopes, many others, solitude comes from someplace else.
“So, the only place there’s peace - the only place there’s any comfort – it comes from the Lord. And I hope some folks find Him that don’t know Him, ya know, in this opportunity of being at home.”