The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought about many disruptions in people’s lives and one of the biggest changes has been to the way people celebrate their faith, especially during the season of Lent.

With the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation to avoid gathering in groups of 10 or more people, many in-person services in Fountain Hills have been canceled. To make up for not meeting in person churches have shifted focus onto recording their sermons.

“New Journey had already been recording the pastor’s sermon, so when we got the word from the Bishop encouraging us to halt in-person worship, we immediately planned on recording an abbreviated version of our worship,” New Journey Lutheran Pastor Adele Resmer said. “It is available on our website (njlc-fh.org) each week. Each week, we learn something about how to do a better job recording, and decisions about what to include with each service is evolving. The biggest challenge for us has been recording music.”

Resmer said that the response to these video services has been positive and people have actually asked them to continue filming sermons even after the pandemic is over.

Churches in town are also making an effort to stay in touch with their parishes to remind them even though they are social-distancing right now, they are not alone.

“We have done more live stuff on social media each day and keep reminding our life groups to stay connected and reach out to people,” Christ’s Church of Fountain Hills lead pastor Keith Pavia said. “The live devotions and Bible studies we are doing have gotten good views and we need to keep thinking of ways to connect and make people feel like they have a family there for them, even if it’s by video, call, Zoom; whatever that looks like.”