LITTLE ROCK, Ark — Three years into the pandemic, churches have had to adjust to keep members safe, especially among spikes in cases. Local churches are going back virtual and or implementing COVID protocols again amid the spike of omicron cases.
At St. Mark Baptist Church, you can find Pastor Phillip L. Pointer preaching to an empty church as his congregation tunes in virtually.
"Our virtual services, they're never going away. They're a part of who we are now as a church and as a ministry," said Pointer.
He said his congregation has had to adjust for the last two years off and on during the pandemic.
"We have a mask mandate on campus right now and so masks are required to be on our campus. When we're in person, we are distancing. We enter one way. There's a registration process where temperatures were taken," said Pointer.
It's the reality that plenty of pastors across central Arkansas are used to by now.
St. James United Methodist Church sent out their COVID-19 update for members online, stating:
Personally, I was hoping that I would not have to write another one of these letters. I long for the day in which we all feel comfortable to fill the Worship Center and Sanctuary, to gather in mission to the least and the lost, and to grow in faith in small group discipleship.
My hope and prayer is that our communities will continue to increase in the number of vaccinations given and that we can return to our new normal lives. This hope is bound in the truth of who God is: love, strength, compassion.
"With recent rise in cases with omicron variant, we are going back to mask required for all activities inside the church. We canceled children's Sunday school for the next two Sundays," Michael McMurray, with Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church.
He says the church had a time of being "normal" for two months only before bringing back stricter COVID protocols for their members.
"We just want to encourage people to be safe to their own comfort level. You can watch services online, as well as we just encourage people to get vaccinated and boosted," said McMurray.