First Cumberland Presbyterian Church recently upgraded its internet service.
The goal: Make it strong enough to pierce through its cinder block walls and reach the parking lot and possibly the front lawn with free Wi-Fi for anyone who needs it.
“Offering them internet service is just another way to show what I like to call ‘holy hospitality,’ ” said the Rev. Joy Warren, the Murfreesboro church’s associate pastor.
One of the groups she hopes it can be of use to is area students in need of reliable internet for their schoolwork.
As classes resume in person and remotely across the state, it is clear the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus in Tennessee has created new challenges to learning and exacerbated existing issues.
Churches and members of other religious traditions are stepping up where they can to try to plug some of the holes that have emerged or grown bigger in this current education environment.
The pandemic has made the digital divide among students more pronounced. Nearly half a million Tennesseans do not have internet speeds fast enough to support most online learning, a recent Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry report found.
Devices are also needed for distance learning. Without them, students would not have the option to learn from home during the ongoing outbreak.
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Warren said Murfreesboro City Schools board member David Settles tapped her to lead a technology drive to find computers for students who needed them.
“It’s really amazing to hand a new Chromebook to a student and tell them they don’t have to give it back to anybody,” Warren said. “It can be life changing for a family to have a device in their home and also to not have a device in their home.”
The group of community leaders who sourced devices with Warren knew they were working on only one half of the problem, but they hoped their efforts would generate interest among others to figure out how to expand internet access, she said.
Warren, who leads Christian education and outreach at First Cumberland Presbyterian, has considered making the church a community hot spot for several years. When schools closed in the spring due to COVID-19, she started puzzling out how to do so safely.
The church, which drew about 85 to 100 people for Sunday worship before the outbreak, was in need of better internet service, especially since a home-schooling group also uses its space.
Although it meant taking on a bigger expense, the church went ahead with the upgrade and created the free guest Wi-Fi network, said Warren, who relies on donations from the congregation and the community to bring her outreach ideas to fruition.
The church, located on East Main Street, is spreading the word on social media and through signs posted on its property and its picnic tables. The Wi-Fi is available every day except before 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays when the home-schooling group is on site. Social distancing and mask wearing are encouraged.
While some, like First Cumberland Presbyterian, are taking on new endeavors to meet the needs of students, parents and teachers, others are figuring out how to pivot existing efforts during the pandemic.
Beech Creek Ministries in Nashville’s Bordeaux neighborhood is continuing its long-running Center for Imagination after-school program.
Supported by the Nashville After Zone Alliance, the free secular program aims to build students’ self-esteem, expand their worldviews and grow their life skills, said John Garnett, the nonprofit’s director.
But instead of students flooding into the fellowship hall at Beech Creek Missionary Baptist Church on weekdays for homework help and further enrichment, they will gather virtually for now, Garnett said. Daily meals and program supplies will be delivered to the students, he said.
He knows it will be a challenge given that many of the children they hope to serve will also be spending all day in an online learning environment. But Garnett is optimistic.
“We’re trying to do some normal things in an abnormal situation,” Garnett said.
Murfreesboro Muslim Youth, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for young people to serve their community, holds a back-to-school drive every year to support public school students and teachers.
This year, in addition to the more traditional school supplies, members of the group collected and raised money for thousands of face masks, too.
Their aim is to help provide a better and safer educational environment for students, including those whose parents want them to attend school remotely but do not have the financial means to do so, said Abdou Kattih, founder and board member for the organization.
And their faith motivates them.
“Helping kids seek education, helping educators, safety — it’s critical in our faith,” Kattih said. “Us supporting them, regardless of who’s being supported, is considered an act of worship.”
A new opportunity to help out Nashville public school students and their parents fell into the laps of the staff at Glendale United Methodist Church.
This school year the church is playing host to a learning pod, the Rev. Steph Dodge said.
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“Especially during this time of COVID, our building isn’t really being utilized that much so to be able to put it in use in a good way is definitely something that we love to do,” Dodge said.
Five days a week, four fourth grade students from Glendale Elementary School are dropped off at the church for virtual learning as well as social engagement, said Matthew Charlton, a church member and the parent of one of the students.
“We’re all convinced that the best way to educate the kids is to have in-school, but we’re all also, as far as I know, supportive of the direction Metro Schools has taken,” Charlton said.
Due to the coronavirus, most all of Metro Nashville Public Schools students are attending classes remotely at least through the end of fall break in early October.
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Instead of going it alone, the families of the four students decided to pool their resources. They hired mentors to guide their children through the virtual learning process, found the space and agreed on the best coronavirus precautions to implement.
“I think we’ve done the very best we can with the situation that we have to create an opportunity for these kids to learn together even as they learn separately in their digital environment,” Charlton said.
Glendale United Methodist Church and others that are stepping up in similar ways are providing a valuable service to their communities by filling a specific need during such a strange time, said Charlton, who also is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.
“In terms of churches being available to their communities, that strikes me as just part of the DNA of religious communities generally. They’re oriented around service,” Charlton said. “I think this is just an opportunity to continue to live in that tradition.”
Reach Holly Meyer at [email protected] or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.
