Partly cloudy skies. Low 46F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy skies. Low 46F. Winds light and variable.
When Harmony Baptist Church launched its summer outdoor church service in 1962, a flatbed trailer served as the platform.
1960s-era cars are parked for outdoor church in front of one of the early stages erected at Harmony Baptist Church.
Before a sound system was added to Harmony Baptist Church's outdoor service, cars parked closer to the stage than they do now. This was the church's first outdoor church pavilion.
The parking lot is full for a Harmony Baptist Church outdoor service presented from the church’s current stage building.
Harmony Baptist Church will kick off its 2022 summer outdoor church series at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Harmony Baptist Church outdoor church stage is buttoned up, awaiting the start of the 2022 season.
When Harmony Baptist Church launched its summer outdoor church service in 1962, a flatbed trailer served as the platform.
1960s-era cars are parked for outdoor church in front of one of the early stages erected at Harmony Baptist Church.
The parking lot is full for a Harmony Baptist Church outdoor service presented from the church’s current stage building.
For nearly six decades, it was pretty much one of a kind.
Then, a couple years back, everybody started doing it.
But while most of the COVID-prompted newcomers have retreated back inside their churches to worship, Harmony Baptist Church soldiers on with its weekly outdoor summer service, marking the 60th anniversary of its first meeting in 1962.
Before a sound system was added to Harmony Baptist Church's outdoor service, cars parked closer to the stage than they do now. This was the church's first outdoor church pavilion.
The 2022 season kicks off at 7 p.m. Sunday behind the church located at 4103 Ellwood Road. Worshippers may remain in their cars, or they can bring lawn chairs to worship truly al fresco.
“The experience of doing outdoor church certainly did help us (when COVID-19 generated social distancing mandates),” said the Rev. Jeff Mackay, pastor since 2015. “We had the facility there, and when the pandemic hit, we got to thinking that we have this venue here, let’s make use of it.
When Harmony Baptist Church launched its summer outdoor church service in 1962, a flatbed trailer served as the platform.
1960s-era cars are parked for outdoor church in front of one of the early stages erected at Harmony Baptist Church.
Before a sound system was added to Harmony Baptist Church's outdoor service, cars parked closer to the stage than they do now. This was the church's first outdoor church pavilion.
The parking lot is full for a Harmony Baptist Church outdoor service presented from the church’s current stage building.
Harmony Baptist Church will kick off its 2022 summer outdoor church series at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Harmony Baptist Church outdoor church stage is buttoned up, awaiting the start of the 2022 season.
When Harmony Baptist Church launched its summer outdoor church service in 1962, a flatbed trailer served as the platform.
1960s-era cars are parked for outdoor church in front of one of the early stages erected at Harmony Baptist Church.
Before a sound system was added to Harmony Baptist Church's outdoor service, cars parked closer to the stage than they do now. This was the church's first outdoor church pavilion.
The parking lot is full for a Harmony Baptist Church outdoor service presented from the church’s current stage building.
Harmony Baptist Church will kick off its 2022 summer outdoor church series at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Harmony Baptist Church outdoor church stage is buttoned up, awaiting the start of the 2022 season.
“The big difference for us was the fact that normally when we do drive-in church, it’s warm and sunny. The first time we did it for the pandemic, it was 34 degrees. So for us on the platform, it was pretty chilly.”
Colder temperatures also meant that folks not only stayed inside their vehicles, but also kept their windows up. So one other adjustment was made.
“We used a little FM transmitter, which we don’t do during the summer,” Mackay said. “I know a lot of other people did that, too, but by God’s grace, we were already set up. We had the transmitter, we had everything, so that provided a seamless transition for us.”
Although the outdoor service was launched during the Kennedy administration, Mackay has been a part of it for just the last seven years. He admits to having needed a little time to wrap his head around it.
Harmony Baptist Church will kick off its 2022 summer outdoor church series at 5 p.m. Sunday.
“It was definitely unique, and I had not been familiar with it at all,” he said, noting that the parking lot is about 100 feet from the stage, and even those who sit in lawn chairs are much further removed from the platform than they would be indoors.
“I had never been exposed to anything like that. It was new to me to speak to that type of audience where I can’t really make eye contact with anyone. But I thought it was a unique opportunity, and it struck me that there were a lot of people who were not from our church who were a part of it. So it was something that allowed us to connect with a group of people that we otherwise weren’t connecting with.”
Both the venue and the service have evolved over 60 years.
“I believe for the first two years, their platform was a flatbed trailer,” the church’s Abbie Stewart said. “Then they built the first standing structure.”
That building has been revamped multiple times since then. It is now a completely enclosed pavilion, with a large, roll-up door that opens to reveal the stage for services.
“We really don’t know when they started using a sound system,” Mackay said, “but it does strike me, how did they do it before that so people could hear way back when?”
And the speakers that musical groups use now, Stewart said, “are like the size of lunch boxes, and you think, wow, we went from these huge things they had then to this.”
Another thing that has changed — or maybe not, depending on who you’re talking with — is the name of the service itself. Originally christened drive-in church in 1962, it is referred to as “outdoor church” on the Harmony Baptist website.
“The motto for it at one point was, ‘Come as you are, sit in your car,’” Stewart said. “So I’m guessing that’s where ‘drive-in church’ came from.
That name, Mackay said, stuck until about a decade ago.
“From what I understand, they started calling it ‘outdoor church’ in an attempt to help people have a mental shift of ‘This is still church,’” he said. “It wasn’t a drive-in-theater type of thing. There was a feeling that if it were called ‘outdoor church,’ it would have a different image.
“I’m not sure that successfully changed anything. For the most part now, we call it ‘outdoor,’ but I don’t really know that there’s a big reason to put it that way.”
Perhaps the biggest change, though, has been the program’s format, transitioning from that of a regular church service to more of a message-in-music kind of evening.
“It really started out as more of a church service, so they had some singing from different groups, some special music from someone in the church, then somebody would speak for a regular message, and it would be done,” Mackay said. “By the time I came, it was ‘OK, we’ve got a little bit of a message, but it’s more of a music ministry.”
That evolution also has prompted Harmony Baptist to expand its reach when seeking musical groups for the service. Although local performers are still key, “we’re finding that there are not as many local groups that are available to come and do a ministry of 45 minutes worth of song,” Mackay said. “So we’ve had to reach out further to other areas to get groups.”
Some, Stewart said, have come from as far away as Michigan and South Carolina.
The Harmony Baptist Church outdoor church stage is buttoned up, awaiting the start of the 2022 season.
“For a long time, it was primarily just local groups, and some are still local,” she said. “It kind of evolved into we’re seeing people from other states coming in and joining us.”
Despite the shift to a concert ministry, Mackay says the outdoor service is not to be mistaken for an evening of entertainment.
“We rely very heavily on the musicians to bring a message in song,” he said. “We really want it to be that the musicians bring a message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“We trust that they will organize their songs in such a way that they actually are bringing a message that they have from God that night, and that they’re able to share more than just an entertainment ministry.”
Dan Irwin is currently a reporter and page designer. He was most recently the editor. He started with The News in 1978 and spent 10 years as a sports writer. He's a '78 Slippery Rock University graduate with a B.A. in English.
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