Pastor J.D. Crockrel was stewing.

He'd seen Gov. Andy Beshear call for churches to shut down services because of the coronavirus, and the Ashland, Kentucky, Pentecostal preacher, working his day job at a funeral home last week, couldn't stop thinking about it.

“Man, this isn’t sitting right with me,” the 29-year-old pastor recalled thinking. “If there was ever a time we needed church, it’s now.”

The answer came from God, or more accurately, Texas Roadhouse.

Watching people order the restaurant’s food for pickup in cars, he wondered, "Why can’t we do that?"

On Sunday, the pastor of Christ Temple Church, nestled in the northeast Kentucky city of Ashland along the Ohio River, held its first drive-in service.

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Outside the church that once housed the local high school, Crockrel set up speakers, and, backed by a church piano and a drum set, he preached before about 100 cars parked in lots, streets and yards.

During a rousing sermon, attendees honked their horns in place of "amens" and waved arms outside of their windows to his message about trusting God.

“It looked like a drive-in theater. People were honking their horns. It was amazing," said Sandy Radford, a church member. "I just kept shouting and waving. And there were people I’d never seen before. They just stopped on and pulled off along the street.”

It's just one reflection of how churches across the United States — struggling between the demands for social distancing and the needs of an anxiety-riddled population — have been forced to adapt.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended avoiding large gatherings of 50 or more for eight weeks.

While most U.S. churches have agreed to shut down, some reluctantly, a smaller number have refused. A Harris Poll for Axios last week found that 48% of Americans are not willing to attend church, up from 38% within just three days.

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In Kentucky, Beshear has called out churches for failing to curtail services. And in at least two Kentucky counties, as many as 200 church members have gone into quarantine for possible exposure and at least one churchgoer was reportedly infected.

Still, some were upset about the order, Crockrel said.

“Nobody wants to be told you can’t go to church,” he said Monday, citing the constitutional right to freedom of religion as well as needs both spiritual and practical. He realized the need to not hold services, but it made him worry.

“I’m not gonna lie. It made me nervous. As a pastor, my job is to give people hope and reassurance. And a church is like a business. If you don’t have any finances coming in, well, we’ve got to pay our bills, too.”

But his drive-in service turned out so well he plans to repeat it this Sunday. Covered by a local TV station, the drive-in service has been copied in cities in West Virginia and Ohio since being announced.

"I don't care if the malls close down! I don't care if the restaurants close down! I don't care if the business has got to shut their doors! The savior of the world still lives!" Crockrel preached outside his church on Sunday.

He said one church member told Crockrel that “when this is all over, promise me we can still do this every once in a while.”

His lesson? That no matter what, "We’ll find a way,” he said.

Related:Russell County church takes heat for holding services amid pandemic

Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at ckenning@gannett.com or on Twitter: @chris_kenning.