March 13, 2020 - Do you remember where you were?

I was at a bowling alley in Temple with my family and my phone was blowing up with notifications. Major League Baseball was suspending spring training games. The NBA had already canceled their season. Disney World and Disneyland were preparing to close up shop. Even National Parks were putting locks on their gates. What was happening?

The word "unprecedented" is oft overused in today's parlance, but at a time in which governments the world over were simultaneously shutting down travel and commerce -- indeed, the world economy was about to go dark! -- it was as close to unprecedented as we could ever imagine!

It would be reckless to remember any one entity suffering under quarantine more than the next. Small businesses struggled to stay afloat. Schools moved to remote learning. And the Church, an institution built on fellowship, became an empty shell. The world was thrust into a new reality as we all struggled to find new ways to fulfill old mission statements.

How would First Baptist Church Killeen respond to this incredible challenge?

On Saturday, March 14, 2020, the deacons and staff of the church met for over three hours to discuss our response and thus began our shut down.

On the immediate horizon was Easter, the biggest weekend of the year in church life. One idea would have been to throw up our hands and bemoan the loss of normalcy as we headed into a lame duck Resurrection Sunday, but our church was unwilling to go quietly into the night!

The children's ministry adapted their regular Easter Egg Hunt into a drive-by experience on Good Friday, greeting kids after weeks of separation from each other. Later that night, the worship ministry partnered with musicians from Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen to present a combined livestream worship experience. And on Saturday, the student ministry gathered outdoors for an Easter picnic.

None of it was normal, but it was the ministry we were able to do.

One of the greatest blessings awaited the staff in the worship center on Easter Sunday morning. Earlier that weekend, with the help of Associate Pastor Tim McKeown, our Girls in Action had printed pictures of so many of your faces (taken from our recent church directory) and pinned them to the pews as if you were with us. Even writing this years later, it is tough to remember that moment without getting emotional. What a blessing it was during the pandemic to be able to look into your eyes, albeit virtually, and worship together on the most important day of celebration!

As the church gathered [remotely!] for worship that morning, the music ministry had one more trick up its sleeve! In kitchens and bedrooms, from couches and pianos, our musicians faithfully recorded their portion of our intended Easter anthem to be compiled into one collection for worship that Sunday morning!

You may have seen videos like this since. Virtual choirs became all the rage as the pandemic labored on, but our compilation was ready to go on April 12, less than a month after the shutdown began! In over twenty years of worship ministry, I don't know of a time that I have been more proud of our volunteers than this moment right here. Through a lot of hard work, we were able to lead worship as a choir! on Easter Sunday morning amid the quarantine.

I remember the Sunday we finally opened up our building and began meeting together again. As a staff, we thought we might need to take the hinges off the door for the stampede of members who would pour through our foyer, hungry to be together again at long last. In truth, it wasn't like that at all. Our first Sunday together had maybe two dozen people in the congregation.

But here we are three years later! After a season that was far longer than anyone could have predicted, in the midst of a darkness that seemed to never end, God brought us back and our church is thriving together as a testament of His enduring faithfulness.

Happy anniversary, FBC Killeen! May God see fit to make it another 150 years together!