“Come As You Are But Stay In The Car”
Drive In Worship During the Pandemic
By Rev Dr Stephen Skuce
(From the October - December 2020 issue of VOX)
While churches across Ireland and Northern Ireland have been discovering the benefits of online worship, a number of Methodist churches in the North West District chose to organise “drive in” services in several northern counties. District Superintendent Rev Dr Stephen Skuce told VOX magazine how this came about and the new opportunities that have emerged.
The pandemic has been as horrible as you could possibly imagine for people across Ireland. Members of our church have died. Funerals have been terrible with only a handful of family members able to gather. But we realised that what we can do is to bring life and community. God is at work.
Instead of worrying about what we could not do, we found a way to look at what we could do. “Drive in” services offered an opportunity for inclusive worship - anyone with a car could come, no matter what their age or underlying health condition. Turning up in a car and hearing someone preach from a lorry platform has worked for such a time as this.
Specific legislation in Northern Ireland enabled “drive in” services to take place starting in May. A lot of work had to go in to preparing for each service. Most of our churches do not have suitable car parks so we had to find public venues such as sports fields, farmers’ marts, public car parks and even a caravan park.
We followed a host of safety protocols and enforced two-metre distancing. The process was much more collaborative than a normal Sunday service. You often need a team of up to 12 people to set up a “drive in” service and obtain permission from the local authorities. It was not always straightforward. Not everyone was thrilled with what we were doing and we did have some opposition in a small number of places so we had to go back to the Northern Ireland executive to clarify the legal situation.
At its peak in the North Western District of the Irish Methodist Church, we had 12 or 13 “drive in” services taking places each week from as few as 12 cars up to more than 100 cars. At times, we were attracting more people than would normally be in church on any given Sunday.
“People are curious; they can experience something of Christianity without taking the big step of entering a church building.”
We found that some people who had no connection with any Christian church were starting to come. It is extremely difficult to walk through the doors of a church for the first time, particularly in smaller communities where everyone knows each other. People are curious; they can experience something of Christianity without taking the big step of entering a church building.
At the first service where I preached on the first Sunday possible, 25 cars turned up. I noticed a very elderly lady sitting inside her car wearing a facemask and a visor. This was in May when the death rate was high and things were extremely difficult. Clearly she was concerned but I realised that she really wanted to worship with other people and she was able to do that as part of a drive in service.
“Drive In” services were particularly popular in the western counties of Northern Ireland. Most churches were doing stuff online but in rural communities many people do not “live” online as much as they might do in cities. So we found the “drive in” services were particularly popular, especially in parts of Fermanagh.
In Irvinestown, we have been meeting in a caravan park and found that we had a larger congregation than we would normally have meeting in our two churches in that area. In some cases people in the caravans were coming along, some who were on holiday and would normally go to church but others who would have no connection with a church.
Some of them would move their cars the night before and park them in the front row of where the service was going to take place. So we had people queuing up the night before to attend Methodist worship! For Methodism in Ireland, that is not our everyday experience. It has given us renewed confidence that God is at work. We stumbled across this opportunity and found that we are reaching out to others in the process.
Through online services the world is peering in through our windows but through our “drive in” services people are making an effort to be part of our worship physically. The Methodist church is currently not the most dynamic denomination in Ireland and yet in some places we have been leading the way with “Drive In” services. It has been an interesting opportunity that has given us renewed confidence that we can make a difference. Who knew?
Over 100 cars have been attending the Donaghcloney Together drive in services in county Down. This was a join initiative between the Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Elim churches in the village. The slogan for Sunday afternoons was, “Come as you are but stay in the car.” We met in the Presbyterian Church car park, which could have been designed for a drive in service - it was ideal.
In September and October, a number of our harvest services have been held as Drive Ins. Normally for a rural harvest service you decorate the church and invite people to come. We could not do that this year but what can we do is have a lorry decorated with harvest themes, invite others, share in the open air and celebrate God’s provision. It’s all about what we can do, not bemoaning what we can’t.
We could not mill around as we might do normally but we could invite people to share and celebrate God’s blessings to us in the midst of a global pandemic, recognising that God is still good. We could support one another. It was not just a pale version of a harvest service. We did something different that perhaps we will talk about for years to come.
Rev Dr Stephen Skuce is the Superintendent for the NW District of the Irish Methodist Church covering churches in Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and parts of Down as well as Donegal, Sligo, Monaghan, Cavan and Longford.
