VALDOSTA — Churches around Lowndes County are starting to reopen their buildings after months of online-only operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Morningside Baptist Church plans to hold a “drive-through” service this Sunday, followed by a relaunch of in-person worship at the church’s 425 Connell Road building, Pastor Wayne Robertson said.

“It’s going to be just Sunday mornings for a while,” he said. 

Morningside’s online services during the pandemic have been going “really good,” Robertson said. The church picked up some online viewers who hadn’t been members of the church, he said.

All the same, many members were interested in returning to the building, the pastor said.

“We will be taking precautions,” Robertson said. “We will encourage the use of face masks, hand sanitizer will be available and we will reserve space for those who want to social distance.”

Morningside staff has also been paying attention to other churches which have already reopened their facilities to see how they have handled things, he said.

One of those churches which has already restarted live services is Calvary Connection Pentecostal Church, 3460 Knights Academy Road. Pastor Scott Smith said Calvary reopened its building three weeks ago.

“That was when (Gov. Brian Kemp) started easing up on some of the restrictions,” he said.

In an April interview, Smith said Calvary Connection had about 40-50 people attending services on a normal Sunday. Lately, attendance has been from 30-40, he said.

“Some people still feel the need to stay away,” Smith said.

He said people who feel ill should not come to the live services. Like Morningside, Calvary Connection offers sanitizer and space for people who want to keep social distancing, Smith said.

Calvary Connection has always streamed its services online, he said, but during the pandemic, a lot of people from as far away as Maine have been watching.

“One woman from Warner Robins liked what she saw so much she drove down here for services,” Smith said.

At Park Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church, live streams of services return this week to the church’s building, 2285 E. Park Ave., though actual meetings of the congregation there are still on hold, Pastor Marlin Seifert said.

Previously, live streaming had been carried out from home facilities, he said.

“We’re playing it by ear,” he said. “We originally had a plan to bring services back to the building in two weeks, but with recent spikes in coronavirus reports, we decided to wait.”

The church will allow very small prayer meeting groups back into the building starting next week, Seifert said.

“We’ll see how it works for a couple of weeks,” he said.

Park Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist is starting a “virtual Vacation Bible School,” offering craft and activity packages that parents can pick up via drive-through at the church, the pastor said. The packages can also be mailed, if desired. Online videos will offer instructions and lessons to accompany the home packages, he said.

At Morningside, one side effect of the online worship environment is many teens have discovered they miss coming to church, Robertson said.

“Sometimes you have to lose something to find out how good it is,” he said.

Smith said his congregation wants a return to normality.

“Some of the restrictions that were put in place were extreme measures,” he said. “We decided to just go ahead with our lives.”