Filling the digital pews

Story and photos by Katy O'Bryan

It’s a beautiful afternoon on Barbarosa Road, and driving with the windows down the silence is notable and calming. There are only cornfields between the century-old farmhouses, and it feels like they must stretch eternally. A bit further down the road, a lone building — Friedens United Church of Christ — emerges from the cornstalks. The church has been a pillar for the Geronimo community for 124 years, built not long after Geronimo’s small community was settled. Its current co-pastor residents — Sonja and Dave Phillips — traded the Florida beach for Friedens almost six years ago and never looked back, making it their mission to become full-fledged members of the Geronimo community. They spend most of their free time attending community events and supporting members of their congregation.

“When we moved here, we realized this is a beautiful old church out here literally in the middle of a cornfield,” Dave said. “When you’re here, and you get to know the community, you find it stretches a wide radius, and some people’s neighbors might be a mile away. We figured we can’t just sit here, so we attend everything we possibly can.”

It’s a no-brainer for the Phillipses to be involved in the community, for pastoral care and being active in their congregation’s lives has been a focus since joining the church. You can find them volunteering at Navarro Education Foundation’s annual Duck Fest, leading the prayer at the Veterans Day celebration, and supporting Friedens youth at the Guadalupe County Youth Livestock Show, along with countless other sporting events and fundraisers in the area.

“Navarro School District, we found, is the connecting point for this whole area. We just jumped in the first year we were here,” Dave said.

Sonja and Dave met at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, where they found each other while pursuing their Master of Divinity degrees. Their professional lives were not yet conjoined while Sonja focused on social work until they received an opportunity in Florida to co-pastor, something they had not yet explored together.

“It’s a part of a calling and is not for every couple and not for every church property either,” Dave said. “I think the challenges and things we face are not dissimilar than what a solo pastor faces; we just do it together. Sonja has her wonderful gifts and abilities and pastoral ministry that she uses, and I have some other ones. We go together and complement each other well.”

The Phillipses were introduced to a new way of reaching their congregation when the coronavirus made its way into Guadalupe County. Churches worldwide were forced to start using social media platforms to remain active in their community. Friedens was no exception. Although strikingly abnormal to preach into an empty church, Dave and Sonja still see community interaction in ways they never thought possible, including donations and viewers worldwide.

“We’ve reached some people that either used to come to church here, are new to the area, or don’t want to come to church,” Sonja said. “[This pandemic] really did push our church and other churches into this century and to use social media in these live streaming platforms like never before.”

Prior to the pandemic forcing congregants to stay home, some churches reached their audience through technology. Now it is something almost all churches are doing with ease, Dave said.

“It’s been a continual phase of adaptation for all of us,” he said. “I know [using social media] has been around for a while, but now most churches are discovering how easy it is. It doesn’t take that much, we used an iPhone at first and then got a camera and some software.”

Just as Sonja and Dave have adapted to this new way of reaching their congregation, they see their members changing. And while it may be a way to reach more people at ease, Dave said it does not come close to what is offered in their church’s walls.

“This will be around to stay because people will get used to it, and they’ll understand the convenience of it,” he said. “It doesn’t replace them, and I hope it will never replace in-person service because there’s something to be said about a full congregation.”

Despite the pandemic, they have remained active in their food collection efforts that benefit Panthers Feeding Panthers and the Christian Cupboard in Seguin. They have also matched young families in the congregation with elderly members as pen pals and organized Facebook Live music on Wednesdays to keep the community involved.

The Phillipses look ahead eagerly past the pandemic to continue some of their initiatives, including a group they lead that builds ramps for elderly residents, volunteering at Hope Hospice and preaching to a full congregation again that raises their voices up higher than the steeple that seemingly rises out of the fields; whenever that might be.