Church service surviving amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, church services in Riverside, CA were left wondering how to continue to assemble. It was interesting how it all unfolded in the case of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church in Riverside, CA. Cautiously waiting to see what the best course of wisdom would be as many businesses and public gathering places started closing to prevent the rapid spread of the virus, on Friday March 13th, "County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser ordered the cancellation of public gatherings of 250 people or more in Riverside County." This prompted solidified the leadership's decision at CFBC to cancel all on-campus services and mid-week ministries. However, they were left with this lingering question, "what are we going to do for church this Sunday"?

It was Thursday evening, and I was filming Woodcrest Christian's theater production of The Little Mermaid when I felt an inclination to reach out via text to pastor Milton Vincent offering my service in helping produce a type of online church service. In the middle of manning 3 cameras simultaneously, I accidentally sent him an incomplete text at 8:30 that night saying, "If you need any ideas or help doing a produc". I realized this after the production was over. Whoops. The next morning I completed the thought, and he invited me to sit in on their emergency staff meeting where it was decided that we would attempt a livestream service via YouTube.

Recording

Come Saturday, I arrive at Cornerstone at 5pm to set up my Sony a7iii camera to record the worship band. Taking as many precautions as possible I brought a GoPro Hero 7 to capture a continuous wide angle shot for the duration of their set. By God's grace, things went off with out a hitch. The worship team arrived, rehearsed, and we successfully recorded their set.

At 8:30 we began recording the sermon. I set up my PC, connected my a7iii with the CamLink capture card, plugged in my Blue Yeti microphone, and hit record in OBS. We successfully recorded for about an hour and a half with minimal issues, and I then packed up my stuff to go home to edit.

Production

The editing process took the entirety of the night. Matching the mastered audio with voices and instruments, color correcting, adding slides, and rendering. There was a certain point in the wee hours of the morning that I felt a surreal peace come about me. With a substantial amount of work ahead of me, I felt assured that God cared for the people of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church so much that he was going to see the production process through and that His people would be watching a Sunday service in less than 5 hours.

I had a great deal of family and friends praying for me, and I can confidently say that this successful overnight production was purely a result of God answering the prayers of my family and friends. It was amazing to be right in the middle of it all. What an honor and privilege it was to serve in this capacity.