It is a way to worship and gather while also exercising social distancing.
Drive-ins don’t have to be limited to big-screen movies or fast-food restaurants. People are increasingly using drive-in church services to worship and maintain social distance. One church in San Antonio, Texas is doing this by holding services in their parking lot, while the pastor addresses the crowd from the roof.
Gateway Fellowship Church was the church that hosted its first drive-in Sunday service. A report by KENS 5, San Antonio states that hundreds of people filled the parking lot to hear and follow the activities. An interactive worship guide was created by the church to show various responses to vehicle functions. This included turning on the headlights for singing, activating the wipers to simulate worship, flashing high beams to shout “Amen!”
However, drive-in churches are not new. In August 2017, we wrote about the Daytona Beach Drive In Christian Church. This church has been serving the Florida coast since 1953. It still holds two Sunday services. all items drive-in may see increased popularity, as social distancing and quarantine measures are expected to be in effect across the U.S. through at least April 30.
Gateway Fellowship Church’s Twitter account states that there will be four Sunday services, starting at 9:00 AM and ending at 12:00 PM. The duration of the drive-in service is unknown. San Antonio closed all non-essential businesses on March 23rd amid ongoing crisis. According to San Antonio’s website, there were 157 confirmed cases and five deaths in Bexar County as of March 29. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there have been 2,552 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Texas.