Faith groups findways to study during COVID
Drive-in and Zoom used to teach congregants after pandemic limited gatherings and closed houses ofworship
When the pandemic restricted how many people could gather and eventually closed houses of worship for several weeks, First Montgomery Baptist Church in Montgomery was not deterred. Technically, church never stopped. It just moved outside.
Church leadership set up a stage in the parking lot and made services a drive-in event. Members tune it to a specific station and can hear the sermon and the church band. When it came to adapting Bible study, the concept was replicated.
For several weeks, the church did not offer Bible study classes as it decided how best to adapt them. In August, classes returned in several different formats.
The church holds Bible study Sunday and Wednesday, and it has a special drive-in class Wednesday, which is more lecture-based than discussion-based. But the real investment from the church into these changes was technology.
“On Sunday morning, all of our classes are now Zoom enabled,” said Chris Gober, senior pastor of First Baptist. “So, we had to upgrade all of our classrooms with televisions and iPads and technology upgrades to make that all happen. Even internet, we had to upgrade to be able to stream all of that at the same time.”
Gober estimates that the church spent around $6,000 on technology to enable members to participate from home. He estimates that around 10 percent of participants are Zooming in, while the rest are in person. The choice to wear masks is decided by each class, but Gober said the classes socially distance and disinfect between classes.
“It was definitely something that they were missing when it was shut down,” Gober said of his church members. “As soon as we were able to open that back up, there was definitely people wanting to come back.”
Religious education for the Dawoodi Bohra community, a branch of the Shiite sect of Islam, never really stopped. Madresa school for the children of the Dawoodi Bohra is vital to teach them the language of the religion, Lisan Ud Dawat, and the lessons of the religious text. Classes are held Saturdays, and when mosques had to close, classes were quickly moved online.
The curriculum is the same across the U.S. for the Dawoodi Bohra students to make sure that the education remains consistent. There was no way that Madresa school wasn’t going to happen.
“That was never an option,” Sabrina Yamani, public relations lead for the Dawoodi Bohra community in The Woodlands, said of canceling classes. “There’s a strong importance in this because the children are learning about our culture. They’re learning the language, they’re learning moral values, they’re learning how to do things.”
Now, instead of driving all the way to Katy, they turn on Zoom in their living room.
In the long run, Yamani believes this could be beneficial for the Dawoodi Bohra community nationwide. Now, members of the religion whomay live in an area without amosque canmore easily continue their religious education.
But while it has made getting to class easier, it’s still tough for the children.
“I think they miss it more than they miss going to regular school, now,” Yamani said. “They’re not seeing their friends that are from different parts of the city.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints inadvertently has been preparing for church at home for over a year. In 2018, the leaders of the church decided that the religious education aspect of being a member of the church would move to a “home-centered, church-supported” program. The curriculum for the new program was disseminated in 2019.
The Church of Latter Day Saints, like all houses of worship, was closed for several weeks early in the pandemic. Services and classes were canceled in the building, along with the youth activity programs, and everything went online.
“It wasn’t something completely new, but it was still an adjustment,” said Craig Sorensen, president for The Woodlands stake of the church.
During the summer, services were allowed to start with small groups, and the church held Sunday school over Zoom. Starting in September, the church brought classes back in the church. Twice a week, the youth in the church do early morning seminary online. Three days a week, they meet at the church for socially distanced classes, while wearing masks. Students still have the option to do just online schooling as well.