New Life's Pastor turns to live streaming to make sure his Biddeford church members can see the service while being safe during coronavirus, COVID-19 concerns

BIDDEFORD, Maine — In the wake of closures due to the coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak, one local church has figured out a way to hold its service, without gathering all in one spot.

Pastor Justin Sweeney had to make the difficult decision yesterday, to not hold service in the New Life church building, because of state recommendations to practice 'social distancing.'

Sweeney told NEWS CENTER Maine the decision was made to protect not only the congregation but the surrounding community.

"We have a responsibility for the at-risk people in our church community. We pull from like 50 different zip codes, and so that last thing that I would want is to provide an opportunity for our church to be the epicenter of a spread for our community," Sweeney explained.

FULL INTERVIEW

One of the Pastor's goals through this tough time is to combat fear, and continuing to gather his congregation, though it may be online, gives him that opportunity.

"In this time right now, we're at an unprecedented and uncertain time, and I think that the greatest asset that we have as a church. To not just our people, but to our community, is that we want to be prudent and we want to take precautions to protect ourselves and our family. But how do we walk in that without letting fear infect us and control everything that we do," Sweeney asked.

For more information about the online service, New Life's website has all the info, you'll need plus a countdown to the start of service. New Life's Website

At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus

NEWS CENTER Maine Coronavirus Coverage