COVID-19

Hope Community Church in Riverside, Calif., has been hosting parking lot worship services, with the help of an FM transmitter, in order to stay connected in person while maintaining a healthy distance.

Like a scratched record album, her life is stuck on “repeat” and can only move forward when the needle is bumped, and we remind her of the events of the past.

Bethel CRC and Wolf Creek Community Church, two Christian Reformed congregations in Lacombe, Alta., hosted a one-day immersive Bible story experience to replace their usual Vacation Bible School during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the Grand Rapids Public Schools opened with only online learning for the first nine weeks of this academic year, First Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., decided to support students in their community with an in-person daily homework club.

Things were a little different this year.

While closed church buildings affected the typical distribution of print material in this COVID-19 time, one northern B.C. pastor had a solution. As an avid cyclist, Joel Ringma decided to deliver the magazines himself.

Knowing that worship leaders and churches would be scrambling to meet the needs of their congregants, the group tabled its agenda and began to create resources.

Instead of singing to fans on European stages this spring and summer, singer Ann Vriend in Edmonton, Alta., is building community from her front-porch stage every Sunday afternoon.

Following Jesus during the time of COVID is discombobulating. 

Our current moment in history has laid bare my insecurities, deficiencies, and anxieties of being a pastor.

Members of the Neland Stitchers group at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, in Grand Rapids, Mich., are sewing and sharing face masks for use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Surveying pastors in the United States in April and July, LifeWay Research found an increase in the reporting of disagreement and conflict as high pressure points in ministry.

Amid concerns of “how the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic crisis have continued to destroy lives and livelihood around the world,” four Christian organizations propose economic changes for consideration at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November 2020.

As community health responses to COVID-19 impose restrictions on gatherings and border crossings, three examples from Christian Reformed Churches in British Columbia show how pastors have been a ministry of presence to families needing a different kind of memorial.

Churches blessed with families welcoming a new baby at this time have had to consider how to enfold the new child into community.

No camp? No problem. Two Christian Reformed churches and a Christian university share how they made meaningful connections for kids this summer.

The question isn’t just simply about what is “safe” or “not safe.”

Michelle DePooter-Francis, a commissioned pastor with the CRC and chaplain to the Ministry to Seafarers in the Port of Montreal, describes changes in the ministry and difficulties faced by those who work at sea.

As people deal with the impacts of the pandemic and civil unrest, many Christian leaders, organizations and churches are providing resources to care for members’ mental, as well as spiritual and physical, health.

Youth Unlimited adapted its annual summer mission trips due to the COVID-19 pandemic. About half the usual number of churches signed up for SERVE@Home, but even some of those plans had to change.

Two pastors in Ontario and one in Wisconsin talk about the experience of reopening their churches for in-person worship after widespread closures to keep people socially distanced during COVID-19.

Immanuel CRC members Mike Earls and Gerry Gysbers in Hamilton, Ont., often take their band Deservedly So into local nursing homes to perform for residents. During COVID-19, they’ve kept the sing-along going with an online concert.