'It makes you feel as if you're not missing God': Pewaukee church holds Easter sermon in a parking lot

Elizabeth Campbell came early to True Life Church in Pewaukee. Early enough to get a front-row seat for Easter services.

Social distancing for the service was measured by parking spots — 89 of them. Vehicle after vehicle arrived 50 minutes before services began, not quite filling them all.

Drive-in church was nearly on.

"It's a life saver," said Campbell, who shared her car with three others. "It makes you feel as if you're not missing God."

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"If the doors (to the church) had been closed it would have been devastating for me," said Campbell, a mask on her face and a coffee in the cupholder.

To help get his apostolic Pentecostal congregation through Easter in a coronavirus pandemic, Pastor Brandon Ball reached back four decades to televangelist Robert Schuller, who preached even in non-pandemic times, from a drive-in movie theater in Orange County, California. Schuller is best known for the Crystal Cathedral and creating the world’s first walk-in/drive-up church.

Easter was the fourth service Ball had given this way.

"They love it," said Ball, dressed in a gray suit and wearing a purple tie with flowers on it.  "I worry they won't want to go back to church."

It's possible. Kelly Steinbrecher of Waukesha, who parked her Ford Fusion with a cross hanging from the rearview mirror next to her parents' Ford Fusion, hoped to take some time to order breakfast from a nearby Denny's. She could walk from services to pick it up. 

She didn't end up leaving before communion, which was a packet similar to jelly you might get with breakfast from a restaurant. Grape juice was on the bottom separated from the communion wafer on top. Volunteers with masks and gloves handed them out as worshippers drove into the church lot.

Honk if you love Jesus

Before Ball came out to preach, music director Andy Harris directed the crowd to honk in affirmation and to take a "car selfie," share it online and tag the church. Two men walked through the lot holding signs. One said "He is risen." Another said "Honk if you're expecting great things." 

There was a lot of honking.

Sarah Dremsa of Waukesha wore her Easter bonnet to services. She stayed warm in the passenger seat of an SUV driven by Bradley Minger of Racine. Dremsa is part of the True Life congregation and she was happy to be there in person.

"I had been online streaming but this is more personal," said Dremsa, who waved her hand with the music and then the words that Ball or assistant pastor Ehizele Giwa-Agbomeirele spoke.

The service was also broadcast live through the church's Facebook page.

In church terms, the drive-in version could look like a free for all. 

A few people wandered from car to car, including a woman wearing bunny ears. At least one car opened its trunk to the service where a woman and her infant snuggled under a blanket. Someone else carried a 12-pack of Red Bull across the lot to leave it on the hood of another vehicle.

The band played. Hands waved from car windows in the 52-degree air. The sound of car horns pierced the air so many times one might have thought there was actual traffic on nearby I-94.

Ball addressed the congregation with scripture.

"Honk your horn if you're a sinner today," he said, his voice rising above the sound of car horns.

He promised them that when they got the OK to get back to sitting side-by-side in the church, he would have them wait a week and have one more drive-in service, but with a twist. 

He wanted to have a tailgate service in which everyone would bring a grill and some meat to cook.

"We're going to have a burnt offering for God," Ball said as a joke.

Contact Kathy at (414) 224-2974 or kathy.flanigan@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @katflanigan.