Murray Church Finds Unique Way To Worship

Murray, Ky.–Murray First United Church in Murray, found a novel way to help worship leaders stay connected to the congregation during the COVID-19 crisis. They decorated the church pews with photos of members, smiley faces and sometimes with photos of celebrities to use during virtual worship services.

The church worship team was discussing how “extra draining” it is to conduct worship without a congregation with which to interact, explained Carrie Rudy, a member of the church and wife of Rev. Jeff Rudy, senior pastor.

After several weeks into exclusive virtual worship, she said she could tell the church’s worship leaders were “missing the congregation and needed a pick-me-up.”

Rudy and the church staff came up with ways to help worship leaders “see” the congregation:

• Church members were asked to submit (via email) pictures of themselves or their families. The pictures were printed and placed as close as possible to spots in pews where they usually sit. For what Carrie termed an “added bit of fun,” members had the option to submit pictures of their celebrity lookalikes. Church member names were written on the backs of the celebrity photos, allowing worship leaders to guess who they represented. Celebrities in attendance have included Prince Harry, Tiffani-Amber Theissen, Zooey Deschanel, Kathy Bates, Kristin Chenoweth, Luis Guzman, Dom DeLuise, Julie Walters and Joel Olsteen.
• For Mother’s Day, yellow emoji balloons were anchored to the pews to help fill the sanctuary with expressive faces. These included smiling faces, laughing faces and sleeping faces. “Jeff particularly enjoyed seeing faces laughing at his jokes and was humbled by the sleeping faces,” reported Carrie.

Another coronavirus activity outside of worship to help keep the church body connected was a congregation parade of 70 vehicles on May 3. “No one got out of their cars; we just loved seeing each other’s faces from a distance,” said Carrie.

Murray First United Methodist Church photos.