Park and pray: Pandemic sparks drive-in worship

As the morning sun melts the last traces of snow in the surrounding farmland, the faithful, gathered to celebrate Christianity's holiest week, cheerfully honk out their hallelujahs and peace greetings.

"Our reason for gathering like this, whether it's in this COVID time, or any other time of the year, the relational side of our faith story is so very important," explains Pastor John Hanson. "It's the physical presence."

At the Sunday morning drive-in worship at Peace Lutheran Church in Baldwin, Wisconsin, more than 80 cars, minivans and pickups fan out around Pastor John Hanson, who's preaching and singing perched on a dump truck in the parking lot.

Congregants listen to the service from their car radios, occasionally singing along and waving palm fronds from their windows.

"We have a community of people here that need their time with pastor John on Sundays," says Bruce Ashlin, the President of the Executive Committee at Peace Lutheran Church. "This is what they long for."

A gloved volunteer had distributed the branches as cars drove into the parking lot, the line snaking across still barren fields.

With coronavirus prevention measures shuttering houses of worship, Hanson and other pastors across the country are using that ultimate tool of social distancing — cars — to safely bring their communities closer together.

"For some reason in person is more important to me," says parishioner and retired dairy farmer John Vrieze. "I kind of feel I need a tune up every week. And a tune up comes better in person than it does remotely on a TV."

Physical presence is no gimmick, but rather embodies the communion central to Christianity and other faiths. That's why Hanson and other religious leaders  are devising creative  and law-abiding ways to make socially distanced worship possible.

"He's doing everything he can to make worship worthwhile for people to, you know, spend time on Sundays with thought and prayer and stay connected through their faith," says Ashlin.