Today I was all set to write more on the Ten Commandments – yet I felt it was necessary to highlight the importance of church. It is Sunday after all!
We have all been forced to reassess how we do church since the outbreak of COVID-19. In the UK, the Church of England very quickly closed its buildings and many other major and minor denominations followed suit. Aside from this, government guidelines prohibited any large groups meeting together and so, church as we knew it was no longer possible.
Many have turned to live streaming and platforms like YouTube to record content and share it with their congregation. Has your church done something similar? Other churches have struggled to acclimatise to the newer technologies. They may only be able to record audio and others only able to use social media like Facebook to reach its people. Either way, it is a huge ministry challenge. It presents a number of opportunities also though.
For us as church members, we have something of a responsibility here. If you have skills which can help, then it is a great time to start sharing them. For example, you may have experience running social media pages or even with audio/visual techniques. Many ministers are not up on the latest technologies so may appreciate your help in putting online services together.
Even if you have no such skills, then you still have a responsibility as a member of the church. It takes a lot of time to prepare services, and even more so when recording them and having to edit and stitch them together. The least we can do is to sit down and watch them!
If your family is like mine, and consists of some younger members, then you may find it difficult to gather around the TV on a Sunday morning. We may think it easier than getting everyone up and dressed and settled into a pew by 10am, and in some ways it is. But on the other hand, keeping children interested in a live stream service for any length of time has its own challenges. In my experience, they find it all too easy to wander off or get distracted by nearby toys.
One risk of online church is that members no longer see the need to actually meet together. If your church offers an online option, then it can become a temptation to just watch from home or catch up at a later, more convenient time. I am referring to times when we are not all locked down! One church I read about somehow managed to put a geographical limit on their live streaming. If you lived within three miles of the church building, then you could not access the live stream. The implication is that if you are close enough, then there really is no excuse for not actually going to church. I hope they put in some kind of access points for those not physically able to go along.
That’s a risk for all of us to bear in mind. Hopefully the lockdown will soon end and our church buildings will be open for ministry once again. When that happens, I pray there is not a diminished congregation for those choosing to stay away and access content online.
Many committed members are not even considering this. For them, the idea of coming back to church is an exciting one. These members miss one another and cannot wait until they can fellowship in person once again.
Something which is both a risk and an opportunity is the fact that while at home, we are not restricted to any one single church. If many churches are now live streaming, then anyone can flip the channel as it were and tune in to another church’s service.
Perhaps you are someone who doesn’t normally attend church. This time offers you a great opportunity to see what church is about without actually setting foot in the door. We should not underestimate how difficult it can be for some to walk into a church for the first time. It can be very intimidating. At least YouTube or your platform of choice offers a window into the church world. We, as churches, need to be aware of this and consider how we can reach out to those “just looking.”
Whether now or normally, there is no one way to “do” church. There are many ways of expressing worship and meeting as a church family.
There are two important things to remember however:
- We must never dilute the message of the Gospel, no matter our style of church
- We must make sure that our expression of church really is church.
Taking each in turn, firstly we must not water down the message of Christ. There are different packages but the gift inside must never change. The Gospel is very clear, and we must not fail in presenting it. If our preferred flavour of church does not include the message about Jesus, then it is not really church at all.
The second point is not all that dissimilar to the first really. In fact, it may be the same point restated.
Many churches have experimented with cafe church, messy church or what some call bridging events designed to encourage those outside of the church to move toward the church.
There is nothing wrong with any of these models in and of themselves, but equally we must make sure these events are drawing people closer to Christ. If an event does not point us to Jesus, does not teach us more about God’s Word or does not lead us to worship together, then we have to ask what its purpose is.
So, how will you do church today? I hope this time of Coronavirus lockdown reminds us all how important church is, and encourages us all to want to flock back to fellowship as soon as we can.
Andy Brown 