LEXINGTON, Ky. — Despite Gov. Andy Beshear lifting COVID-19 restrictions in Kentucky a month ago, one Lexington church decided to keep its doors closed. But on Sunday, Shiloh Baptist welcomed back church goers for the first in-person church service since the pandemic began.

For Pastor Joseph Owens, it has been too long since worshippers at Shiloh Baptist Church have come together in person for service. 

“We are excited about it. It is just so great to see everyone be able to worship together and collectively in person," he said.

For the last year, worship at this church and so many others across the state looked very different. Both Rev. L. Clark Williams and Pastor Owens livestreamed every service with empty pews.

Now they're taking extra precautions to keep people safe.

“We are registering for contact tracing just to make sure that we can keep our numbers where they need to be," they said. "We have set it up today for 150 in-person worshippers, which is considerably fewer than what we typically would have.”

They also supplied church members with masks and hand sanitizer on arrival.

“We just want to always look at safety and recognize the fact that there's still COVID-19 that is pervasive in certain areas in certain communities," Owens said.

Sunday was a "trial run" to give the church an idea of what in-person services will look like in the near future when they resume permanently, Owens told Spectrum News 1.

“So do not get too excited, we are just doing this today to get a feel for how it is going," he said. “We also are excited about the fact that we still have our online virtual worship going on as well.”

Online worship will resume tentatively for the next few weeks until they feel permanent in-person services are safe to resume. To find more Shiloh Baptist services go to www.shilohlexington.com.