MIDWAY, Ky. — With the number of COVID-19 cases rising in Kentucky, a church in Midway has decided to cancel in-person services until further notice to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

Evan Rowe, the pastor at Midway Baptist Church says that being a close church community, there’s a responsibility in his title as the pastor to make the church a safe place for others. 

“We’ve learned the more we’ve been convinced that our duty to care for neighbors means we need to be intentional about bringing people back and trying to provide a safe environment as we can,” Rowe said.

The church says they will continue to closely watch the number of cases in Woodford County every month so they can decide when they will welcome the church members back inside. 

“You might imagine in a church like this a small, a small town and you know, rural Kentucky. We have several old — elderly members. And so I think about them a lot. And what it would mean to me if somebody came and got sick, not because they were in church but because this was just one more chance that they had to be exposed.” Rowe said.

For right now, the Midway Baptist Church is streaming their services through Facebook Live but plans on continuing the online streaming on multiple different platforms when they do decide it is safe to go back to in-person services.