Five weeks after a pastor in the Netherlands started what seemed like a fairly ordinary church service, that service is still underway, a sort of pious filibuster relay that involves hundreds of people and shows no sign of stopping.

Bethel Church in The Hague is trying to prevent the deportation of an Armenian family that was denied asylum after almost nine years in the Netherlands, despite claims that they would be in danger if they returned to their homeland.

The church and its parent denomination, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, are taking advantage of a Dutch law that, under most circumstances, prevents the authorities from conducting operations in a place where a religious service is being held. Their strategy is deceptively simple: Shelter the immigrant family in the church, and make sure a service is always being held.

At the outset, doing so was a serious logistical challenge, with a handful of people organizing things and asking clergy members to take shifts and plug holes in the schedule. But as the effort has captured the nation’s attention, it has also become steadily easier to manage.