OKC Churches Prepare For Empty Chapels On Easter Sunday

As Christians across Oklahoma City prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday, metro churches remain empty amid COVID-19.

“Our Easter services will look different than last year,” Crossings Community Church Senior Pastor Marty Grubbs said. “We've been thinking and praying, ‘How do we provide a meaningful experience for people that are in the isolation of their own home?’”

What would have been one of the busiest Sundays at one of the metro’s largest churches will instead be streamed online without a choir and orchestra.

Grubbs said the virus has hit close to the church. The virus claimed the lives of two church members and more were hospitalized.

“We haven't really been able to live in the reality of their absence,” Grubbs said. “We haven't had a funeral or a gravesite. I think the reality for me will hit when I'm coming up the chapel hallway on Sundays, the lady that was always standing there is not going to be there.”

In times like these, Grubbs said, faith shines through.

“Jesus was very clear when he said, ‘In this world, we’ll have trials of many kinds.’” Grubbs said. “I think a lot of people wonder, ‘Where is God in all of this mess?’ He's where He told us He would be.”

While Easter lilies won’t line the stage of packed venues this year, some things will not change.

“Easter, for me, is really a time you find out really what you believe,” Grubbs said. “If we have faith in God that he's sees all of this, He saw it coming, He knows how it's going to end. If I really believe that, and I do, then this is a moment that I have to lock into that and go, ‘I’m going to quit worrying about things that I cannot control and the things I don't know or understand.'”

Crossings Easter services begin Saturday evening and run through Sunday night.

“For probably 50 years, I’ve been a follower of Jesus. It's more real than it's ever been,” Grubbs said. “But I think, in these moments, you'll find out what you really believe in and what really matters.”