As local and state directives have shut down all public gatherings in South Snohomish County, local church pastors have had to adapt to reach their congregations. Many have taken to the internet, filming their weekly sermons from their pulpit or office and then posting the video on the internet.

In Mountlake Terrace, the preaching pastor of Calvary Fellowship is doing the same. But you won’t find Riley Taylor standing behind his pulpit as he presents his weekly messages — Taylor is having his preaching filmed out on the streets, in parking lots, at parks, even in the drive-thru lane of a local McDonald’s restaurant.

“I’m a filmmaker by trade, so it actually comes more naturally than the pulpit,” Taylor said of the unorthodox medium for teaching.

Taylor has been the lead pastor at the Mountlake Terrace church since May 2018, leading Sunday morning services with the similar modern worship and preaching found in evangelical churches throughout the area. But being able to go beyond traditional preaching from the pulpit and “present our teachings as short videos” has been a goal of Taylor’s for a while.

“I’ve been wanting to do this exact thing for close to two years, so the coronavirus pandemic sort of fast-tracked it,” Riley stated.

The video messages include traditional Biblical teaching (Taylor and the church are working their way through the Gospel of Mark right now) but presented in unusual settings: outdoors, in Taylor’s home or in his car; Taylor preached his April 19 message — one that departed from the Gospel of Mark and instead looked at the topical subject of social distancing and passages from I Thessalonians — from inside his father-in-law’s RV.

Taylor announced his intention to untether himself from the church pulpit, inject some wit and humor into the videos and film his sermons outside of the church during his March 22 message, a sermon that started inside the Calvary Fellowship sanctuary but ended up at Ballinger Park. 

“What am I doing here,” Taylor said early in his filmed message to a nearly empty church building. “I’m preaching to an empty room. This is sad. I don’t need to be here; I can go wherever I want … except restaurants, movie theaters and coffee shops. I’m outta here!”

The weekly filmed sermons are put together by Taylor and Ben Finley, a filmmaker and photographer who recently joined the Calvary Fellowship staff. “We literally just hired him as our part-time janitor,” Taylor said. “Haha, the time was perfect since we don’t need to clean the building anyway.”

Others assist Taylor and Finley with the filming and the posting of the messages on the Calvary Fellowship website and the YouTube channel “Pacific Parable,” a channel Taylor created to post church teaching videos.

After just a few weeks of the unique messages, Taylor is already hearing from members and attendees of the church. “People can tell that we’re having a ton of fun and trying to make the most of the season we’re in,” Taylor said. “Our people know that I went to school for filmmaking and love to make videos, so they either tolerate it, appreciate the creativity or outright love it. In fact, some of the greatest comments I’ve gotten have been from people who are really excited to share the messages with friends and family. That’s so rewarding to hear.”

“But the best feedback I get is from little kids, who love the physical humor and all the little gags — they are the true litmus test,” Taylor added.

After social distancing was made mandatory by local health departments and Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee last month, Taylor knew he would be joining other pastors with the only way to present weekly sermons — online. But the idea to have his messages standout with unusual settings and humor was concerning at first.

“I actually wrestled with the entire concept early on,” Taylor said. “I thought, will people understand what we’re trying to do? Maybe they’ll think it’s too silly and I should just stick to the pulpit. But I was assured by some close friends that it’s important to be yourself and speak with your own voice.”

“That said, our main goal is to bring out the truth of the message of Jesus in the most engaging way possible,” Taylor continued. “You’ll notice that there’s no jokes after about the halfway point in each of the videos — other than the first one. I believe that humor opens people up to the truth; but humor can sometimes distract from important moments in the message – in storytelling this is called ‘bathos.’”

“The key is to use humor on the surface, but keep the messages sincere at the heart,” Taylor said. “Hopefully that comes across.”

While trailblazing in online sermon messaging, Taylor hopes other pastors will join him and reshape their weekly sermon posts — with the help of those around them.

“Preachers are generally great at teaching and speaking, but few have a mind for the camera, editing, or the most important component, audio,” Taylor said. “However, learning this stuff is quite easy. And most young people can do it pretty naturally nowadays. Put them to work.”

Riley Taylor’s most recent video sermons can be found on the Calvary Fellowship website or click subsplash.com/calvaryfellowship/media/ms/+rxpmp24. 

— By Doug Petrowski