Jefferson County churches are gearing up for a return to in-person services now that the state and county have lifted stay-at-home orders that had been in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.
During the pandemic, churches have been holding online services rather than public gatherings, but many local church leaders plan to resume services this month, some as early as this weekend.
While the church leaders say public services will resume over the next few weeks, they will follow social-distancing guidelines and won’t hold other church activities.
First Baptist Church of De Soto
First Baptist Church of De Soto will resume in-person services Sunday (May 10), which is Mother’s Day.
“For this week, we will have one service at 9:30 a.m. We will consider adding services next week, depending on this week’s turnout,” said Next Generation Pastor Colton Strother.
He said the congregation will follow health and governmental recommendations for social distancing.
“All of our rows are set 6 feet apart,” Strother said. “Families may sit together.”
Other than those who live together, everyone else must stay 6 feet from one another, Strother said.
He said the church typically has seating for 750 people, but with the social-distancing regulations, there will be seating for about 200.
Strother said the Sunday services are the only in-person gatherings the church will allow for the time being.
“We’re not doing Sunday classes or other groups at church,” Strother said. “We’re starting off with just the services.”
First Baptist Church of Arnold
Senior Pastor Kenny Qualls of the First Baptist Church of Arnold said his congregation will return to in-person services the following week, on Sunday (May 17). There will be four one-hour services at: 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. that day.
“We will follow all directives for safety, sanitation and distancing,” he said. “With the distancing requirements, we are asking our people who plan to attend to sign up online or call us.
“You can have a family of five who are living together sit together. Everyone else must keep the 6-foot separations.”
Qualls said even with the huge sanctuary at First Baptist Church of Arnold, which can accommodate up to 1,400 people, it is difficult for him to predict how many will be at the May 17 services.
He said First Baptist of Arnold offered online services long before the coronavirus pandemic emerged, and the church will continue to offer them for those unable to attend or hesitant to attend because of health concerns.
“We’ve probably been live streaming for three or four years,” he said. “It’s nothing new to us.”
The church campus has been used for a few community events, like food distributions and a Red Cross blood drive, during the pandemic. Otherwise, the buildings have been closed to the public, and no activities other than the Sunday services are planned at this time, including use of the gym, Qualls said.
“Everything else is closed until the end of May, other than the four Sunday worship services,” he said.
Our Lady Queen of Peace Church
On May 7, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson announced that all parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis will be permitted to resume in-person Masses on Monday (May 18), “at the discretion of each parish pastor.”
Father Dennis Schmidt, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in House Springs, said he intends to resume in-person Masses that day.
He added, however, that he is awaiting guidelines from the Archdiocese about how services are to be conducted and when other activities may resume at the church.
“The guidelines from the Archdiocese are coming next week (the week of May 11). Everything is sort of in flux.”
He said his parish has been and will continue live streaming Masses on Facebook.
Selma American Baptist Church
Leslie Limbaugh, pastor of Selma American Baptist Church south of Festus, said her congregation will not meet in person until at least the end of May.
“Our deacons met and we are not yet ready to meet in our church,” she said. “The deacons will reassess at the end of May. Church members have been participating in church services via Zoom on Sunday mornings. We’ll continue to do that the rest of the month. We are not doing anything in the church building.”
Limbaugh, who’s also president of the Twin City Ministerial Alliance, said the group, which is made up of ministers from churches in Pevely, Herculaneum, Crystal City and Festus, has not been holding in-person activities during the pandemic, although it took part in the National Day of Prayer on Thursday (May 7).
“We did it online,” Limbaugh said. “We posted it online live as it happened on Facebook. It was a prayer service. It’s still available on Facebook.”
