How Rural Churches Can Plan to Reopen

Currently, the largest debate in our country is whether or not — and how — to reopen our seemingly dormant communities. Colleges and schools are making plans for the fall, balancing a desire to return to normal operations with a desire for safety. Government leaders, meanwhile, are shaping policies for restaurants and businesses that encourage both safety and a desire to limit economic fallout.

Churches, too, are having to make plans to reopen. Already webinars and blogs are sharing helpful questions that churches should consider. Regional and denominational leaders are creating guidelines for churches in their areas. Likewise, the CDC has issued detailed guidance that congregations would do well to heed.

As always, though, context matters. When planning their next steps, rural churches should pay close attention to how rural communities have been impacted by COVID-19.

The reality is that for many rural communities, the worst of the pandemic has yet to hit. Because of their built-in physical distance, rural communities are usually spared the initial brunt of any virus. But this shield only lasts for so long. Once the virus enters, it can stretch the already thin health care in many rural places, overwhelming local hospitals. While the coronavirus spared rural America in March, April brought an eightfold increase of cases to rural America. Read More

Also See:
CDC Document Outlines Guidance for Reopening of Churches
Rural Towns Insulated From Coronavirus Now May Take A Harder Hit Later
Covid-19 Update: April Saw Rural America’s Infection Rate Increase 8-Fold

The county in which I live is largely rural--woods, farms, and small unincorporated communities. I live on the outskirts of its largest town which is also the county seat, the commercial center of the county, and the home of a state university. While the town has some light industry (Pell, Morning Star Foods), its largest employer is the state university. The town has its own independent school system, including a middle school and a high school, and the county's middle school and high school are located on its outskirts. In addition to being the site of the county hospital, the town has a nursing home, a hospice, and several retirement and assisted living communities. 

The university which has a sizable number of foreign exchange students and robust study abroad program was first to recognize the need to lock-down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Before the spring break it advised its students not to make any trips during the spring break but to stay in their homes and to stay away from other people. This advice received a mixed response from its students. Most followed the advice. An undetermined number, however, joined other university students on the beaches and in the bars in Florida. During the spring break the university moved its classes online. It also closed its residence halls except to a few students who had nowhere else to go. 

To date the county has forty-four confirmed cases and one death.

I have identified several ways that the virus may have spread to the county. They includes people traveling back and forth to Nashville and to communities across the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The town is within two and half hour drive from Nashville and a half an hour drive from the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Other possible sources of infection are students who live in the county but traveled during the spring break, people traveling back and forth to Paducah which is an hours drive away and which is across the Mississippi River from Missouri and across the Ohio River from Illinois, and visitors to the county. 

The first confirmed case was such a visitor who had been tested positive but ignored his doctor's advice to self-isolate and visited a relative in the county. He was not feeling sick so he saw no reason to postpone the visit. While visiting the relative, he attended the relative's church, exposing its congregation to the virus. At least 100 people attended the service which he attended. The second confirmed case was the relative whom he visited.

During the flu and cold seasons the university's student population is typically the epicenter of flue and cold outbreaks in the community. The students who live in the residence halls live together in close quarters. The students are also not known for receiving seasonal flu shots or observing recommended measures for the prevention of the spread of the flu or the cold coronavirus such as coughing or sneezing into a tissue and then disposing of the tissue, washing their hands, using hand sanitizer, wearing face masks, and not leaving their rooms when they are sick.

The university is planning to restart its in-person classes and reopen its residence halls in the fall.