O'FALLON, Ill. — This Sunday's service looks a little different as congregants pull into New Life In Christ Interdenominational Church in O'Fallon, Illinois.
Cars stretched down the street, winding their way up to a drive-thru coronavirus testing site.
"It just made sense. Why were we away? The virus," Bishop Geoffrey Dudley Sr. said.
Dudley and his church staff partnered with the state of Illinois for free coronavirus testing, exceeding expectations before the lightning forced organizers to close early.
"They came prepared to do 250. I think we did very close if not a little above 200," he said.
Church leaders organized this site as they welcomed back parishioners for the first since March, though services were scheduled to be held with social distancing measures and congregants in their cars.
Bringing people back into the sanctuary will be a long process. Drive-up services continue for the next two Sundays, after which they will try two weekends with leadership-only in the pews.
With a sanctuary that holds 1,000 people, Dudley says they have enough room to spread out the total 750 worshipers during their two services.
Dudley says the caution is essential because — looking at the makeup of his own congregation — the statistics are not on their side.
"We are a diverse congregation, but we are majority African-American," Dudley said, adding, "And — as we know — this virus seems to have hit the African-American community especially hard."
But the crowds coming through on the cloudy Sunday morning, aren't specific to the New Life flock. Neighbors walked over to find out their own status, and Dudley says that was a part of the mission.
"It makes us feel 'assignment accomplished,'" Dudley said. "It's a place for the community. If you are only serving those that are within the four walls, then you don't plan on being open long."
Dudley says the New Life site tested twice as many people as similar pop-up operations, so he hopes the state's workers will come for another event in August.
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