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Churches cope with losses of leaders to COVID-19

In this August 2021 photo provided by Impact Church, which has lost seven members to COVID-19 in the last few weeks. (Contributed photo)

LAKELAND, Fla. – Pastor Richard Counts was not in his pulpit at First Baptist Church of Alturas on Sept. 19. Instead, he sat among the congregation at a Lakeland church led by his son-in-law.

Rather than hearing his wife, Lora, playing piano during a service, as he had for eight years at his church in Alturas, Counts heard recorded music. Lora, leader of the youth program and women’s ministry at the Alturas church, had died two days earlier of COVID-19 at age 60.

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Counts said he didn’t think he would be able to handle preaching that Sunday morning. But he didn’t want to be absent from church. So he listened as his son-in-law, Gavin Croft, pastor at Webster Memorial Baptist Church, delivered a sermon.

“It was very emotional, but my wife would have wanted me there,” Counts said. “She’d be there playing the piano, if the tables were turned.”

First Baptist of Alturas is one of several Polk County churches that have endured losses of pastors or leaders during the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic fueled by the emergence of the delta variant.

At the Revolution Church of Lakeland, two sons of Lead Pastor Rusty Herrington will be leading services following their father’s death in late August.

The congregation of First Baptist Church of Lucerne Park in Winter Haven is trying to carry on after the death of their pastor, Rev. Charles Chatman, on Aug. 29.

At Calvary Baptist Church in Winter Haven, Pastor Ed Roberts delivered a sermon last Sunday titled, “What To Do When the Bottom Falls Out,” less than seven weeks after the death of Pastor Wayne Roberts at age 58.

Michael Petty, Mission Director for the Ridge Baptist Association in Winter Haven, said COVID-19 has inflicted great suffering on his organization’s churches.

“We’ve had other pastors who we thought might be on that list, but they have recovered and are in the process of recovering,” Petty said. “So it’s hit pretty hard.”

Counts was busy on Friday preparing a memorial service to be held Monday for Lora. The program will include the playing of her favorite hymn, “In the Garden,” and the Lauren Daigle song “Trust in You,” which contains these lines:

Richard Counts, 61, said his wife had decided not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination before she became sick

“She did not get a shot,” Counts said. “I got a shot and got COVID — the same day she was diagnosed, I was diagnosed, and I did OK and she didn’t. She was up in the air because, of course, all the media — ‘This is bad for you; this is good for you’ — and she just wasn’t sure. And so we hadn’t convinced her to get it yet, but she was considering it. So she wasn’t dead-set against it, but she hadn’t gotten it yet.”

Counts said he and his wife both fell ill in late August. He doesn’t think she contracted the virus at any church event but instead at family gatherings following the death of her granddaughter, Lily Johnson, in a vehicle crash Aug. 18 in Lakeland.

Lora Counts entered Winter Haven Hospital in early September and died after two weeks of treatment, Richard Counts said.

Lora Counts is shown with her husband, Richard Counts, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Alturas. Lora Counts died recently of COVID-19 at age 60. She was the church’s pianist and led its women’s ministry.

“Her preexisting conditions exacerbated it,” he said. “She had really severe adult asthma. Her lungs had a lot of issues from previous pneumonias and stuff like that. So she had quite a bit of scarring in her lungs, and then when she got the COVID it was way too much for her to handle.”

Croft will perform the memorial service Monday for Lora Counts.

Lora’s death added to existing grief for her family, still coping with Johnson’s death at age 20.

Jackie Johnson, one of the Countses’ seven children, lost both her daughter and her mother within a month and will now raise Lily’s two infant children.

Colleague succumbs

Richard Counts knows that his is not the only local church enduring a COVID-related death. He said the virus recently claimed two members of Croft’s congregation at Webster Memorial Baptist Church.

Counts said First Baptist of Alturas has seen attendance drop from about 45 before the pandemic to 15 or 20 in recent weeks. He said his church has taken the threat of COVID-19 seriously.

“We have hand sanitizer at the front door, masks and hand sanitizer, and we put it (health guidance) in our church bulletin, but you do have occasional people that won’t wear a mask,” he said. “I can’t kick them out of church; I don’t’ think it’s what the Lord would do. The Lord went to the sinners – the tax collector, the prostitutes. I’m not sure he would kick out somebody that didn’t wear a mask.”

Chatman, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Lucerne Park, contracted COVID-19 over the summer and had actually been released from the hospital, Petty said. He planned to resume preaching three weeks later, but church deacons suggested taking a little longer to recover.

While recuperating at home, Chatman apparently suffered a blood clot and died on Aug. 29. Blood clots are a common complication of COVID-19.

Even local churches that haven’t sustained deaths have been badly weakened by the effects of COVID, Petty said. Ridge Baptist Association encompassed 63 churches before the pandemic, he said.

“We have some churches that have not reopened, and there could be a possibility that some churches may never reopen,” he said. “So in that respect, it’s taken a toll.”

Petty said some churches have lost their sites amid COVID restrictions. He cited SURV Church, which is no longer able to meet in the cafeteria at Winter Haven Christian School.

“The attendance on the churches that have reopened has been hit pretty hard,” Petty said. “Even with protocols in place — we’ve had churches that have had a completely separate room, a chapel or something, set up, masks mandatory, tight restrictions on social distancing, and even then people have been reluctant to return.”

Family’s ordeal

On Aug. 19, Rusty Herrington posted on the church’s Facebook page: “Due to uncontrollable circumstances The Revolution Church will be closed for two weeks.”

Several members of Herrington’s family have contracted COVID, including his wife, Angel Herrington, according to posts on the church’s Facebook page. In a series of posts, Herrington’s grown daughter, Nikki Herrington-Poe, provided updates on her father, her mother, Angel Herrington, and her aunt, Virginia Meggers, as all three were hospitalized.

At least one of Rusty Herrington’s sons, Phillip Herrington, also required hospital treatment, according to Herrington-Poe’s Facebook posts.

One day before Rusty Herrington’s death, his daughter seemed hopeful about a recovery. A post from Aug. 27 included a video of Herrington sitting up in a hospital bed, wearing an oxygen mask and visibly depleted, his eyes drooping.

“Today his oxygen is staying between 87 and 94,” Herrington-Poe wrote. “It’s still low BUT it’s more stable. Baby steps. The doctor said his (signs) yesterday were excellent, his breathing is better, and he is coughing up the junk! He is in good spirits today but tired.”

Rusty Herrington was 59, according to public records. When Herrington-Poe reported her father’s death the next day, she wrote that her mother was in the hospital and not allowed visitors.

Three days later, she posted a video showing her mother arriving home after being discharged from the hospital. Three days after that, on Sept. 4, Herrington-Poe wrote that Meggers, her aunt, had succumbed. She was 69.

None of the social media posts indicated whether any family members had been vaccinated.

Sons take over

Russell Harwell, president of the church’s board of trustees, posted a video statement on the Facebook page on Sept. 2. He said the church would remain closed for the following Sunday but would resume services on Sept. 12.

“Rusty was a great friend, mentor and leader to us all,” said Harwell, whose wife, Cara, is listed as worship pastor. “He leaves a void that’s going to be hard to fill. He won’t be replicated.”

Harwell added: “There is still a lot of healing taking place and some that are still sick. I would ask that you would please continue to lift this family up in your prayers and remember those that are still battling this terrible virus.”

A celebration of life for Rusty Herrington is scheduled for Oct. 2 at the church. Herrington entered the ministry in 1988 and was ordained five years later by the South Florida Baptist Association, a biography on the church’s website says. He became lead pastor at the Revolution Church in 2014.

Photos on the church’s Facebook page show Herrington posing on a parked motorcycle at Deals Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A GoFundMe campaign has been created with the heading “Help for the Herrington Family” with a goal of raising $10,000. As of Friday afternoon, $5,051 had been donated.

The Revolution Church is part of the Primitive Methodist Church of the USA, a small denomination with only three churches in Florida. Pastor Fred Perkins of New River Church in Wesley Chapel, the leader of the district that includes Florida, said he has been meeting with trustees at the Revolution Church to determine a path forward. He said the church has about 50 congregants.

A guest pastor handled services after they resumed, but Perkins said Herrington’s sons, Phillip and Ryan, plan to become co-pastors. He expects the brothers to enroll in training with the denomination. Ryan has previously served as youth pastor, Perkins said.


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