Ministerial Alliance Offers Hope
The Ministerial Alliance (M.A.) is an important group of pastors in Olney, Texas. This statement remained true this past week as several members of the M.A. got together to answer questions on Facebook live for the community and the surrounding areas.
The group met at First Baptist Church of Olney at 1 p.m. this past Friday, answering questions that the community members have been asking for several weeks now. Members of the M.A. who participated in the live panel discussion included: Rodney Nantz with the Olney Christian Community Center/The Refuge, David Carpenter, pastor of Cumberland Presbyterian church, Brian Wadley, pastor of Olney Family Worship Center, Sean Reeves, pastor of Saint Luke Lutheran Church, Louis Golden, pastor of Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church and Chad Edgington, pastor of First Baptist Church of Olney.
Pastor Reeves began the discussion by addressing what is on the minds of many church members throughout the community, county and state—about the difficulty of making the decision to halt all church activities for the time being. “For all pastors, it was a hard decision because you are balancing what God’s word tells us about this and making sure that lines up with what the government is telling us, and what is good for people. I think we all prayed about it, wrestled with it and had to think it through multiple times; and for us, we know the word of God will still be in the lives of people even more so,” Reeves said.
Rodney Nantz, servant of Olney Christian Community Center/The Refuge, had to shut their doors as well. “It is very hard to shut the doors,” Nantz said. “We long to seek and support the churches, the local community [and] the schools. We just sought to follow suit with the churches and to watch the school district very closely; With so many students coming in, we did not want to do anything that would side step what the school is trying to do to slow down this virus,” Nantz added.
“It is important that we grow closer to God during this time,” Pastor Wadley said. Wadley adds that now is a perfect time for the fathers of each Christian household, to follow God’s word and worship him daily. “As it relates to leaders of different churches, I believe that this is a time that God has called us to do what He has called us to do, which is to serve.
“To serve the community, instead of being behind a podium, in a building; it calls us to go outside now and to go house-to-house; wherever we can to still spread the gospel,” Pastor Golden said.
Pastor Reeves ends the discussion of what was deemed a “difficult decision” by saying that we can all agree that the Word of God is important as everyone’s life, and regardless of whether you are a Christian or not, this holds true to everyone.
“I was really proud of our church on March 15,” Pastor Carpenter said. Carpenter explained that attendance had gone up during that week of church, before having to cancel beginning on the 22nd and beyond. “It was an excruciating decision not to meet and [to] suspend all church activities,” Carpenter added.
Pastor Edgington explained that the decision was not difficult to cancel church on March 22, but rather March 15, explaining that church was down at FBCO by around 100 or so, but still going ahead with church before direction was given for the following week. “If anybody does need prayer or needs somebody to talk to, if you would like to leave a comment in the comment section on the Facebook video, we would love to pray for you, counsel with you and be a blessing to our community since we are finding unique ways to minister,” Edgington added.
The panel discussed their plans for Easter.
“I’ve been thinking about that for the last several weeks,” David Carpenter said. “We need to be together on Easter and it would just not be right. But I am not going to defy any orders or proclamations. I have an idea of me standing out in the parking lot by the door, with everyone else in their cars. That might be what we [must] do because Easter is a huge day in the life of the church,” Carpenter furthered.
Pastor Golden explained, “The traditions and the norms have been broken down, and we still need to continue to function. That is all we need to do. If your church has a special tradition for Easter, continue to do it but do it in a different way”.
Pastor Edgington said if they can’t meet on Easter in the traditional way, an FM transmitter could be used where he could preach from a flat- bed truck. That way everyone can tune in on the radio station with their car, covering the entire FBC parking lot.
Several churches in Olney, as well as many churches being represented by the alliance, will keep the community informed as the situation continues. For the time being, several churches in Olney are now live-streaming church as a result of suspension of in-person activities.
Olney Enterprise would like to thank each individual who attended this Facebook live (Enterprise Live) Ministerial Alliance panel discussion and is looking forward to receiving for more information in the future, regarding both the virus and future church activities.