Local church leaders say Christmas is a light in the darkness of 2020

It’s easy to focus on what isn’t happening this Christmas season.

Holiday pageants have been canceled, community potlucks called off and Christmas parades were taken off the schedule. And while nothing it seems, not even the holidays, are the same this year, the Christmas season has come as a welcome reprieve from a tumultuous year marked by grief and uncertainty.

By mid-November, locals were already hanging Christmas lights, getting a jumpstart on their holiday shopping and cranking up the Christmas carols. People were hungry for familiar traditions and something to smile about. The same could be said for the local religious community.

Area church leaders are working to keep the Christmas spirit alive by sharing messages of hope this Christmas Eve, despite the many changes and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pastor Eun-Sang Lee, of Lakeside Community Chapel, likened the Christmas holiday to a light in the darkness.

“There isn't enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one small candle. And that’s you. That’s each person. We carry that Christmas light into the world. The darker the world is, the brighter your light will be,” Lee said. “Each of us represents that Christmas hope.”

His classic message of hope will be delivered with a digital twist this year. Church-goers will be limited to 25 people inside the chapel, in line with a statewide mandate limiting gatherings that went into effect Nov. 20. The policy was adopted in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also issued warnings ahead of the holiday season encouraging people to stay at home, converse with family members virtually and to wear a mask in public spaces.

But the reception of these guidelines in the local religious community has varied. Lakeside Community Chapel is holding a small in-person service, with two additional buildings set up with broadcasting equipment for overflow guests. Lee has increased the space between the rows inside the worship hall and has encouraged parishioners to wear masks.

Associate Pastor Randy Passons at CrossRoads Christian Fellowship in Bigfork said a number of members were attending services online, but declined to specify whether or not they were actively enforcing the mask mandate. Pastor Joseph Fisher from Fellowship Alliance Church in Columbia Falls said he wasn’t in favor of turning folks away at the door, but noted they had a secondary worship area established in the church basement for attendees over the 25-person cap.

Passons explained that CrossRoads is holding a traditional candlelight service on Christmas Eve on the topic, “Hope Has a Name.” Attendees will be asked to socially distance for the in-person gathering and also noted that many members will likely be worshiping from home.

“We have a pretty good online presence so we’re expecting it to be less than normal, but a lot of people who are more comfortable staying home will watch online,” he said.

Connecting with church-goers outside of the Sunday service has changed, too.

Pastor Lee has made a handful of visits where both he and the parishioners wore masks, and has also reached out by phone and through Zoom. But interactions through screens aren’t quite the same as face-to-face communication.

“People miss the community. People miss coming together. Worshiping, fellowship. That's what they miss most,” Lee said. “The challenge has been how to provide that sense of community when we cannot really come together and sing together and dine together.”

It’s not all gloom — he said that the Lakeside Chapel community has been coping with the COVID-19 challenges well overall and even noted that he’s gotten to know his membership more intimately through one-on-one conversations in the past year.

In Pastor Joseph Fisher’s eyes, the pandemic has presented not only a test of faith, but a balancing act between social needs and personal safety.

“When people are choosing isolation and then isolation becomes the biggest problem, they have to find ways to stop isolating themselves, and that’s a difficult move for people to make this year,” Fisher explained. “People are closing their circles, which is appropriate, but you can stay connected by inviting those that are still in your circle to be part of your spiritual family. Do church together in your living room and watch the broadcast. We definitely still are promoting our small groups and have quite a few of them going.”

He’s also found that people have been more reticent to reach out for help than in years past.

“Most of the counseling that I have done has been more in the moment … people expressing the lack of connection that they feel and the isolation that they feel,” he said.

Those seeking connection may find comfort in Fisher’s Christmas Eve message this year.

“‘Jesus is the answer to everything’ is always the message — and will continue to be,” he said. “Christmas is our remembrance of the greatest gift ever given — Christ stepping out from his secure place in divinity to reach out to humanity. And we are completely lost without him. He’s always been our only hope — this year more than ever we can see that he is our only hope.”

He hopes that this Christmas people don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

“Our circumstances physically are not as important as our circumstances spiritually,” Fisher said. “I’m super grateful that we have Christ. We have hope in the future.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss can be reached at mreiss@dailyinterlake.com or (406) 758-4433.