Local churches see effects of winter weather

The snow and ice in mid-Missouri this winter has had a major impact on churches of all sizes in the area.

Many churches have canceled services several times as a result of the weather.

Rob Gaskin is the executive pastor at Karis Church in Columbia. He has been with the church since it was made up of a few members who gathered around someone’s table. Now, he said somewhere between 325 and 350 people attend the church regularly.

He said those who go to Karis Church have seen significant impacts from the weather, more so than in previous years.

“If the weather holds up, the forecast holds up for this weekend, we will probably have to cancel Sunday and that will be the third Sunday in maybe seven or eight weeks,” Gaskin said.

All of the snow also has had a major financial impact on the church.

He said the church spends anywhere between $500 and $1,000 during every storm to clear the parking lot and sidewalks on the property.

The snow and ice does not have as much of an impact on some churchs’ donations, as it used to.

Gaskin said he estimates less than 5 percent of Karis Church’s donations come from people at Sunday services because most people give money online.

In fact, Karis Church does not even pass around a basket for cash or checks.

Melanie Abernathy, ministry assistant at Forum Christian Church in Columbia said the same thing. Canceling services has not had a major impact on funds coming into the church.

She said Forum Christian Church partly benefited from the snow because it stayed open during one round, and many visitors attended because they were looking for any church that was still having services.

Gaskin said at Karis Church, the pastor team discusses as a group whether or not to cancel services. He said he often goes outside to actually take a look at conditions, but they also like to listen to the advice of those out on the roads like MoDOT, the police department or the sheriff’s department.

“When I hear my civic leaders to stay off the roads, I want to respect that. We’re not doing any favors to our civic leaders by adding congestion or adding the potential for accidents onto the road,” he said.

Gaskin said calling off service is not the difficult part. Instead it is getting the information out.

“It’s not like there’s this, you know, catch-all department-wide email that I can send and everybody’s, they’re notified,” he said. “I have to use virtually every means of communication possible. I send out emails, I update our website.”

He said the weather also affects those in the neighborhood, specifically those who utilize resources like the church’s food pantry.

“In the event of a storm we can’t get food or volunteers to the pantry,” he said. “It’s a minor tragedy that the church has an obligation to care for the marginalized and because of the weather we can’t.”

Gaskin said the church prepares for costly winters like this one by budgeting for unexpected events and having an emergency fund to dip into if the church comes across several unexpected expenses.

Father Francis Doyle, from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, said the weather has not had quite as large an impact on many of the Catholic churches in the area because they hardly ever cancel services.

“Typically, the Catholic church never cancels services because almost all the time, the priest lives at the parish,” he said.

He did say, however, he sees many fewer people come to services during winter weather.

“In fact, I was joking to the people last time we had that really bad weather, is that if there are many, many people on Saturday evening, that’s almost like a barometer that you know the forecast is going to be really bad the next day,” Doyle said.

He said a lot of times more people will come to service on Saturday nights if they plan on missing church Sunday.

Doyle said unlike other churches, Sacred Heart Catholic Church gets most of its donations in person, so it does see donations decrease during winter weather.