District by district online worship opportunities

April 02, 2020
With COVID-19 temporarily changing – virtually overnight – how our churches are doing worship, we have compiled a list of how some are doing it. (Hat tip to John Denham, the Conference’s Lay Leader, and his team for helping to gather this information. If your church isn’t represented here, or if your plan has been updated, please reach out to Cathy Bruce in Conference Communications at cbruce@kyumc.org.)

In his email to lay leaders, Denham referred “bottom-up ministry ideas”:

“Please share your ideas!” he wrote. “We are sharing new ministries and different ways of connecting in spite of the quarantine. Churches, pastors, youth pastors and district lay leaders have ideas for small groups, Sunday school classes and youth groups ... from Zoom calls, to Google Talk, to FaceTime. Small churches are calling the elderly, the shut in, the nursing homes …  and not just in their congregation but other friends and neighbors. Please share your ways of connecting!”

A district-by-district breakdown of how we’re doing worship:

Bluegrass
District Superintendent Mark Gibbons pointed us to the district web page, where Communications Coordinator Abigail Blosser has been listing the churches doing Facebook Live broadcasts on Sundays.  Heartland
District Superintendent John Hatton provided this list of churches that are streaming Sunday services:  
Kentucky East District
The district reports that several churches are using Facebook Live. 
  • Pikeville First UMC, which streamed Pastor Willard Knipp this past Sunday and posted the church bulletin on Facebook for congregants to follow the service.
    https://www.facebook.com/PikevilleKyUmc
 
Lexington District
Northern Kentucky District
The district’s Facebook page has been posting a list of churches using Facebook Live, Superintendent Susan Jinnett-Sack said.
  • Immanual UMC, one of the Conference’s largest, is offering these opportunities on Sunday: blended worship, 11:15 a.m., kids’ message, 10 a.m., youth message, 5 p.m. Weekdays, it is offering: Wednesday kids’ message, 5 p.m., Wednesday Bible study and worship, 6:30 p.m., small group/Sunday school lessons Friday at noon, and daily devotional content posted by various staff members. https://www.facebook.com/787387661446488/posts/1519341971584383/?d=n
     
  • Washington: Live streaming morning worship service at 11 a.m. www.wumcky.org/live  It will also be on the church Facebook page. www.facebook.com/Washingtonumchurch
These churches are doing Sunday Facebook Live worship:
Owensboro District
Superintendent Dan Huck sent us the following on what Rev. Greg Shannon is doing at Hardinsburg UMC:  “I’m working on ways to enhance our Livestream worship. I set up an email today specially to address prayer concerns in our community that I will check every day. The email address is humcprayerconerns@gmail.com  I posted it on Facebook and emailed it to all my congregation.”

Here is an easy way to get to their live stream worship service. Just to click on the link below or paste it in your web browser.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvT4LIal0H41pjYFUom07Q

Shannon also said he has established a Congregational Care Team to call older members without family close by to check on them two or three times a week. He concluded: “My mind is working all the time trying to figure out how to pastor in this crazy new world.” 

Pennyrile District
We received this information on Sunday services:
South Central District
South East District
We received the following information for online Sunday worship opportunities on Facebook Live:  
If your church isn't able to offer online worship opportunities please feel free to join any of the above-listed services. They will be happy to have you!
Compiled by Alan Wild and Cathy Bruce