Story by Mark Peterson. Photos by Taylor Murphy
(New Galilee, PA) Drive-in movies and car cruises are two of the things that make the nicer weather months enjoyable in Western Pennsylvania. Add in the attraction of an outdoor concert, and a very good motivational speaker, and it’s easy to guess that an event with all of those would easily become very popular. This is true especially in this current day and age when PA Governor Tom Wolfe’s “stay at home” and “social distancing” orders are in place. That’s exactly what happened yesterday in Galilee. For the third week in a row, Pastor Andy Russell from the New Galilee Church Of The Nazarene, played the role of cruise master, concert promoter, planning the feature presentation, and coordinated a radio broadcast of his outdoor drive in church service on 1230 WBVP, 1460 WMBA and 99.3 F.M.
Once again, many people attended Russell’s newfangled outdoor drive church service/radio broadcast held in the parking lots of New Galilee Church Of The Nazarene and the lot belonging to the neighboring Lombardia Mutual Benefit Society club. A nice crowd showed up once again even though it was no longer Palm Sunday or Easter, which coincidentally were the first two weeks that Russell tried his hand at this new method of spreading the gospel.
If there is a benefit of all the churches being closed, it’s that there are plenty of very talented musicians available to invite to perform each week at New Galilee Church Of The Nazarene’s outdoor venue. The all star line up continued on Sunday when Kevin and Kenna Jenkins, who normally lead worship at Chippewa United Methodist Church, sang popular worship and praise tunes that were received with choruses of honking horns.
In just the third week of acting as a combination preacher/radio host, Pastor Andy Russell seemed to be settling into his new dual role pretty comfortably yesterday afternoon. At one point in time during his sermon, when the cars were a little late honking their horns when Russell hit an obvious point that called for an “Amen” confirmation, he mused that under the circumstance, he couldn’t be sure if the congregation wasn’t paying attention, or if the slow response was due to the fact that the radio broadcast is delayed by a second or two.
During his message, Pastor Russell mentioned that the service radio broadcast on Beaver County Radio continues to be very popular , and this past week, he received well wishes from people tuning in online via the station’s website from places as far away as Sarasota, FL. Support for the broadcasts continues to be strong as well, he added, with financial contributions coming in at a rate that even seemed to surprise him to underwrite the weekly programs. So, it appears for the short term, once again, this article will conclude with a phrase often used at the end of a popular television show or movie presentation, “same time, same channel next week”.