RAYTOWN, Mo. — The road conditions forced about 120 churches around the metro to cancel their Sunday morning services, which was a tough call to make since it was the last Sunday before Christmas.
Churches around the metro had to make some tough calls on Sunday morning. In an effort to find out how they make the call to stay open or to close during inclement weather, FOX 4’s Loren Halifax asked the associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Raytown, Mo., Clay Withers, how his church makes decisions on balancing people’s safety while also serving their spiritual needs.
“When you have bad weather, you want it not only convenient, you want it safe,” said Withers. “You kind of have to have a plan. So we started talking about that plan. But nothing expedites that process like the weather.”
First Baptist Church usually offers several service times, and broadcasts those services online on the website. The online live stream is popular with young families.
“Because it’s difficult, lots of things to get ready to get your children ready to go and sometimes they’re not really ready to come, so they’ll watch it online and then come to our five o’clock service,” said Withers.
So with snow and ice covered roads, they cut back to one service. They scheduled it for later in the morning. That way, crews could clear more of the roads, and their own crews, mostly volunteers, could clear their parking lot.
“They just, they become an army. And they get it done,” Withers said about the volunteers.
Then they braced themselves, in case no one showed up.
“We were prepared to just have those of us on the platform to produce a service for the webcast, but a lot of people came,” said Withers.
In fact, in the end nearly 1,000 people came out to the church service. Members of the church told FOX 4 they like the diversity, the message, the history of the church and also weighed in on what made them brave the icy roads and bad weather in order to get to the service.
“I love the congregation. We have some loving people in the congregation and I just enjoy the church here,” said Janise Bartee, a new member of the congregation.
“The people here are loving and open and warm and I just like the whole atmosphere,” said Mario Bartee, another new member of the church.
And they see the choice to show up, as a way to live out the lessons they learn here.
“If you can go to work and do everything else you need to do, and go shopping, why can’t you come out and go to church and worship the lord? That’s a beautiful thing,” said Mario Bartee.
