Churches reopen for in-person services

Churches in Quay County reopened this weekend to in-person services for the first time since mid-March after being shuttered because the coronavirus pandemic.

The example of First Baptist Church of Tucumcari, one of the first to announce an in-person service after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she would amend her public health order to allow 25% occupancy for churches, indicates houses of worship may undergo a complicated and lengthy slog before returning to normalcy.

Several First Baptist security personnel on Sunday morning made sure people who entered wore protective masks. The church sent text messages to members reminding them of the mask rule. Several people who showed up at the front doors without masks went back home, Pastor John Hinze said. He also said the church would use a touchless thermometer next week to screen churchgoers for fever.

Messages on the church's projection screens asked congregants to refrain from shaking hands or hugging. Every other pew was roped off to maintain social distancing. Instead of passing around plates for the offering, buckets were stationed near the exits where attendees could drop in their checks and cash.

Hinze said during his opening remarks Sunday the church would observe the governor's health order, citing the verse "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" from the book of Matthew.

"If government said we can't have church ever again, I can tell you we would not honor that," he added.

Hinze said the main motivation for the church to obey the health order was so members could stay alive and pass along the word of Jesus Christ to the unsaved. He said an estimated 155,000 people around the world die daily "without Christ in their heart."

"If we do our part with social distancing and all of those things and not spread the disease, my prayer is someone will have another opportunity to hear Christ's call in their life. That's the only reason we're doing what we're doing," he said.

During a prayer, Hinze asked God to bestow wisdom to state and national leaders who'd "never done anything like this, either."

He said First Baptist would not host Sunday evening or Wednesday evening services, nor Vacation Bible School and children's services, because they would violate the state's public-gatherings ban.

The new health order would have allowed up to 100 people in First Baptist Church, and Hinze said it considered a live television feed to in an adjoining fellowship hall if more people than that showed up Sunday.

As it turns out, only about 30 people sat in the pews Sunday. Hinze speculated some members didn't get the word Lujan Grisham had changed the occupancy limit for churches from 10% Wednesday to 25% Friday and instead stayed home to watch the service over the internet.

"I expected a crowd like this because there's still a lot of fear out there," he added.

Hinze said he anticipates attendance to rise in the coming weeks. If a service draws more than its cap of 100 people, First Baptist will host a second service.

He said he also wants to host an Easter service on Father's Day, which is June 21, after mandated closings kept churches across the state from holding one in April.

He said if members felt ill or scared, they should stay home. He urged churchgoers who had problems while wearing masks to go outside for a few minutes of fresh air.

Hinze said after the service it felt "great" to deliver a sermon to an actual audience in his church again.

"It's just a blessing to be able to come back, just to hear people laugh and share," he said.

That said, Hinze said First Baptist Church would continue to livestream its services indefinitely. He said the church had found a substantial audience on the internet, including nearly 600 viewers one recent Sunday.

He said First Baptist also had "weathered very well" a drop in revenue from of its weeks-long closure. Other Southern Baptist churches hadn't done as well; some pastors hadn't been paid because of more severe shortfalls.

"We were ahead of the curve; we already had online giving set up," Hinze said. "We didn't have to scramble to get that in place. Our online giving has increased by almost threefold from what it was. Our staff, even though they're not working, they've gotten their salaries. We've been able to keep doing that; we're blessed."