Getting a grant from a COVID-19 emergency fund established by the Florida United Methodist Foundation and Florida Conference did more than ease the financial stress at cash-strapped churches.
For many, it was a boost to their confidence that they could survive difficult times.
“This was a God-sent gift,” said the Rev. Chris Tabone, pastor at First United Methodist Church in Port St. John. “Because of the pandemic, things were very challenging, so this grant showed that the conference believed in us and we would get through this. It was an investment into our future and a huge confidence builder.”
Tabone’s Brevard County church is one of 36 that received a grant through the partnership. The foundation kicked in $250,000 and the conference provided $350,000, totaling $600,000 in funds distributed to conference churches with specific needs triggered by the pandemic.
Churches had to apply for the grant and explain how the funds would be used. Then it was up to district superintendents to make recommendation about recipients. The distributed amounts ranged from $3,000 to $40,000.
“The last thing our churches expected was a pandemic, and especially one that took this long,” said the Rev. Mark Becker, the foundation’s president. “It hit some harder than others. We wanted to ease that pain a little to help some of those congregations get over the hump to a better, more secure place.”
Tech rules
The 38-year-old Tabone likes to joke that he’s about 20 years younger than the average age of his congregants. He knew technology would enhance the church’s hybrid worship experience, but a limited budget prevented the big overhaul needed. And the congregation was already behind in its technology improvements before the pandemic.
COVID’s arrival forced quick action and a substantial investment to keep members connected during the initial lockdown. Tabone believes he was the right person at the right time for the challenge.
“I’m fluent in tech and created a roadmap for the church,” he said. “I shot for the moon and hoped to get a star.”
His goal was to make the tech experience — which was new for some of the nearly 200 members — as user-friendly as possible. The church’s equipment also needed an upgrade to make the transition possible.
“We had old computers held together with prayer and duct tape,” he said.
Prior to the announcement about the relief fund, Tabone and his staff consulted with another church on moving from analog to digital services. His entrepreneur wife put her online bakery business on hold to update the church’s outdated website. And Tabone added online giving to the site, hoping to keep members engaged with their financial support while in-church attendance was suspended. That’s a practice he and other pastors see as a permanent fixture of church life moving forward.
The $20,900 emergency grant First, Port St. John, received made the biggest impact, Tabone said. The church was able to invest in cameras, a soundboard and computers that paved the way for an enhanced online and in-person worship experience.
Coping with the pandemic has been tough, Tabone says, but it has made both staff and members look at things differently.
“I see a new spirit of being willing to try new things,” he said. “The grant gave us a moment of hope and allowed us to concentrate on short-term victories, rather than worry about 10 years down the road.”
Reinventing ministry
One of the biggest challenges churches faced was how to maintain outreach ministries and keep members engaged with fewer resources.
“The important thing is finding the right balance,” says the Rev. Ginger Medley, pastor at Fulford United Methodist Church in North Miami Beach. “If you have limited funds, what are the most important needs.”
The $10,000 grant Medley’s church received gave her the green light to move the church forward after months of COVID-19 fatigue and having no permanent leader. Medley became Fulford’s pastor in February 2021 — three months before the church resumed in-person worship
Fulford devoted half the grant to missions and outreach, such as the church’s Thanksgiving Community Lunch, grocery items for a local food bank, and a monetary gift and Christmas toy drive for children with cancer, AIDS patients and two nonprofits.
The church also launched a benevolence program providing members and residents with emergency assistance, such as bus tickets, food gift cards and rent money. Each person who qualifies can receive up to $200 a year.
Medley would like to devote the rest of the grant toward a project involving children and youth, such as a community garden. She believes that population took the biggest hit during the pandemic.
“We’ve got a preschool here, but we don’t connect enough with the families of our students for the worship and church experience,” she said. “Our youth group hasn’t met in person in two years. And we just started back with our children’s church, but we don’t have the volunteers or even the children at this point. So I know however we spend that money, it will be invested in our future, which is the younger generation.”
“We have to be careful about saying ‘go back to normal.’ We are now at a point where we have to rethink church. It doesn’t always have to be Sunday worship inside a sanctuary.” — Rev. Kandace Brooks
Before COVID-19, Fulford averaged about 200 people at its two Sunday services. That number has shrunk to about 100 in-person worshippers, with others choosing the live streaming service.
“We have to be honest about this. Some people are never coming back to the Sunday experience as we used to know it,” Medley said. “So we have to be intentional in what we offer to keep people connected and in our outreach work. It’s time to reinvent how we do things.”
Adapting and adjusting
The Rev. Kandace Brooks, pastor at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Tallahassee and another grant recipient, agrees with Medley.
Like Fulford, her congregation of 700 has been reluctant to return to in-person worship, with about half attending the two Sunday services. Others are content with the online alternative.
“We have to be careful about saying ‘go back to normal.’ We are now at a point where we have to rethink church,” she said. “It doesn’t always have to be Sunday worship inside a sanctuary.”
On the plus side, Brooks says the congregation learned about the power of community by starting small neighborhood groups and providing DVR players to homebound members who relied on weekly worship recordings on DVDs.
And like both Fulford and First, Port St. John, the $40,000 emergency grant St. Paul’s received will help upgrade its older technology and provide funds for multiple outreach programs that could have been suspended due to budget cutbacks and fewer volunteers.
“When you’re in the middle of a pandemic, the instinct is to close ranks and shut down,” Brooks said. “I think our congregation had a good lesson about taking risks and trying something new.”
The church has an impressive array of outreach ministries and increased the number of programs it offers.
Among them is a partnership with Elder Care Services that first met immediate pandemic needs and now provides sustainable assistance, such as fans and heaters. The church also runs Kids@Arts, which explores faith, decision-making, visual arts, dance and music therapy for at-risk kids. And there’s Family&Me classes, which help children with language development. The sessions are led by a music therapist and include both the kids and their parents.
St. Paul’s also sponsors Circle of Support, a postpartum support group that gives mothers a safe space to talk about the challenges of having a new baby and how to deal with sometimes overwhelming responsibilities.
Brooks is grateful for the emergency funding. She says it enabled the church to survive difficult months and emerge even stronger.
“It’s all about adapting and adjusting. In the end, this learning curve has transformed our congregation,” she said. “What I’ve told them is if we can do this well in pandemic times, we can do it even better when this is all behind us.”
Becker says the grants offered an additional runway for churches needing some peace of mind when the odds seemed overwhelming. It also allowed some congregations to continue with the all-important ministries that promote God’s kingdom outside the church walls.
“There’s a silver lining in all of this,” he said. “We want our churches to be self-sufficient and act like independent franchises, but when possible, we are here to help.”