Victory Church on Main Street has grown so much since reopening in July that, to ensure congregants remain safe, it has decided to add a third service on Sunday mornings.
The organization was forced to close its doors in March due to the pandemic, similar to other faith-based organizations, and continued to offer services online. It reopened its doors in July, but since it was limited in space, it began offering “hybrid services” where people could attend online or in person.
Based on its physical size, the worship area can accommodate 150 people per service, but the two services are full each time. So, to ensure it can follow the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s safety guidelines and invite more people, it has added a third service on Sundays.
New service times are now 8:45 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. People who wish to attend in person must pre-register at victorymj.com/reopen.
“We’re excited about it,” laughed Pastor Dan Godard. “It will mean a lot of work for our teams, but we’re excited to make more space for more people to come.”
Victory Church will offer as many services as required to ensure people can attend safely, he continued. It has taken a little while for people to start coming back to church, but services throughout July and August were usually full.
What has been interesting is more people attend church online than in person, Godard pointed out. This has created a new reality for the organization since it has a new opportunity to care for people differently. One way it does this is by interacting with the online congregation during the in-person services.
The church has a team of 30 to 40 people who provide support during each service. This includes tech support, cleaning staff, musicians and children’s ministry leaders. Godard acknowledged that the church had to increase its volunteer team to ensure its services run smoothly.
Sunday, Sept. 13 is the first Sunday that Victory Church plans to start offering three in-person services.
“We’re excited to be able to welcome people every single Sunday,” Godard added. “We want to be able to do that in a way that’s safe and meets the health guidelines that the Saskatchewan government has given us. So we’re making sure we go over and above what the Saskatchewan government asks for places of worship.”
