MILTON-FREEWATER — Easter Sunday is going to be business as unusual here, at least twice.

A group of local churches is offering a “COVID-19-compliant” worship services at a nontraditional venue — the M-F Drive-In Theater.

Although Jesus will not make an appearance on the big screen — given the morning light and all — everything about the event will be a departure from what most people think of as church, organizers say.

“This is a unique situation, and the drive-in is a unique business,” said M-F Drive-In Theater owner Mike Spiess.

Spies has long been part of the family tradition of running the outdoor theater. Built in 1953, his dad, Dick Spiess, and his uncle purchased the drive-in in 1961, Mike Spiess said.

There are 400-something drive-ins left in the nation, and just a handful in Oregon, he said.

“And I think we’re the only one open full time during the summer.”

Mike Spiess said he can’t recall the venue ever being used for church proper, although groups have screened faith-based movies there on occasion.

When the coronavirus pandemic began infiltrating more and more of Washington and Oregon life, churches joined other organizations in closing their doors to encourage social distancing.

Early on, officials advised people to stay at least 6 feet apart as one way to help limit close contact and reduce the spread of the virus.

That’s a difficult ask of folks used to gathering together to worship God as one body, said Steve Lyons, pastor of First Christian Church.

Christians are relational, he said. “We need each other,” Lyons said.

Still, most congregations complied with government orders, moving sermons and music to livestreaming or recorded messages, Lyons said.

Eventually he and others heard about at least one church planning an Easter service at a drive-in. And while Milton-Freewater can’t offer a lot of amenities, it does boast a nearly famous drive-in.

First Christian has a contribution, too — church member Bob Moon.

Nearly every Christmas, Moon turns his Milton-Freewater home and yard into a multidimensional, interactive display of angels and snowmen and bells and sleighs and baby Jesus in a manger, for weeks at a time.

People from the Walla Walla Valley and beyond drive to watch the synchronized show, complete with holiday carols transmitting over the car radio of everyone tuned to the right station.

Just like the way people hear a drive-in movie.

With Moon working with Mike Spiess and others, having an Easter service got a lot closer to coming true, Lyons said.

It’s important, however, to every church leader involved to keep this venture safe for all.

“We’re asking people to be prepared that the (drive-in) bathrooms are for emergency use only and to try and stay in your cars. No contact,” he said.

Those involved have pondered if they are putting anyone at extra risk, Lyons said.

“We’re not trying to test God or play games, but to compliantly, respectfully worship and observe together. … This is one of the ways we are affirming faith and gathering together in a trying time,” Lyons said.

The whole concept of church at the drive-in is … novel, Owen Frost said with a chuckle.

Frost is the pastor of Stateline Community Church and supplier of Sunday’s praise band.

Like elsewhere, his congregants have gone a month without a traditional Sunday service, and they are especially lonesome for going to church, Frost said.

But hard times call for trying harder, he said.

That includes livestreaming Stateline’s Sunday services, which are now pulling in about 1,500 viewers, up nearly 600 from before quarantine measures were in place, Frost said.

It’s a taste of what’s to come, he believes.

“Church is changing, but the church needed to be changing. Every other sector has been changing rapidly with the internet, but the church has been a little slow on the uptake,” he said. “This crisis lit a fire under areas we needed to develop.”

Frost said he’s not nervous about how many carloads of families show up. Two services are scheduled, and who knows what will happen after that, he said.

Mike Spiess is thinking along that same line, he said last week.

“We’ll just see who shows up. … What if someone is driving by on the highway,” he said, “and he’s really struggling in that moment, and he wants to come in?”

He is fairly confident 300 cars can park at once in the drive-in on Highway 11 and still keep people safely isolated.

“Social distancing is not a problem in cars,” he said.

The drive-in was scheduled to open early this month, as it has for nearly 60 years. And the state of Oregon was telling him and his wife, Lorie, that with some modifications — like bathroom attendants — they could begin their season.

After talking to other Oregon drive-in owners, though, the family is willing to wait.

“We just decided it’s not the right thing to do yet. We certainly don’t want to do anything to compromise anyone’s safety,” Mike Spiess said.

As well, Oregon’s edict to clean restrooms between each use and have a restroom monitor on site makes it an easier choice to stay closed for now, he said.

Instead of showing a movie, the Spiesses chose to open the concession stand last weekend for takeout goodies.

People were eager for the drive-in’s renowned pizza and for movie popcorn, Mike Spiess said.

“We probably sold about 110 pizzas in eight hours over two nights.”

One family later told him that after buying concession food, they put their TV in the garage, backed their car to the raised door, opened the back of the rig up and watched a movie while chowing down on the drive-in dinner.

He said there have been a few delayed drive-in seasons before, like when the windstorm of 2008 demolished the big screen and again when the well had to be replaced.

In any case, movie studios are not releasing fresh material to commercial theaters right now, Mike Spiess said.

“We’re taking it day by day. ‘Patience’ is what Lorie and I keep telling ourselves.”