There is a wooing taking place across the earth. I can hear it, I can feel it. A calling out for us to return to His heart. To come and worship. But now without Sundays as we’ve known them – how do we worship? How do we be the church? How do we navigate this new digital atmosphere? I don’t have all the answers. But I can’t stop asking the questions, or having the conversations. I see in our discomfort within this transference of church online how we have idolised what we have known, the countdowns, the dark room, the crowds vibe, the lighting just so, the way the band connected or how our body language on stage could lead a moment into awkward or amazing. We got comfortable. We got familiar. We found ourselves singing the words our hearts needed to hear. And here when it is all stripped away we are met with all the feelings and a deep sense of empty. We find ourselves with a longing we can’t seem to fill. Online church is hard. It’s different.
Maybe it’s that our routine is so out of whack, and I need anchor points. Maybe it’s I feel like I don’t like the idea of Church church, and what it has become for me over the years. Maybe I miss people and the physical presence of a group. Maybe I’ve always felt this way, the space just makes it clearer. Audible almost. This frustration and disconnection inviting me into a reconciliation, a reformation of what Church could look like as we navigate this liminal space called isolation. A reset.
So I ask the questions: why do we do what we do? What is the purpose of singing corporately? Can we just do this on our own? Do we need to replicate our gatherings identically online? What is worship really – when it doesn’t fit our ideal? These beautiful songs, poured out, recorded, captured and then recounted across the earth. These genuine moments before the Lord seemingly drawing us in for a brief but highly expectant encounter until then the lights turn up, we have our minute mingle and we are taken out of the feels and into the routine a service framework provides. What is church anyway? And why do we do it? I’ve been asking questions because something is stirring in me. Something isn’t quite right. And I’m really wrestling with an injustice I can’t fully articulate.
A large majority of the worship leaders I coach have been wrestling too with the way we’ve currently moved things online. Many are expressing difficulty when thrust into new spaces of communication, already grappling with their own insecurities around stage ministry… now add in a camera. How it feels to lead an empty room, how disingenuous this pre-record space seems. Flip it over and I hear congregants grieving the natural rubbing of shoulders in gathering. A loss of authentic connection. The hollows revealing services are lacking. Some authenticity, some are too long, some too quiet, and some simply unclear. We are all trying our best with what we have. In a season we don’t fully understand, in the ways we only know how. I suspect though our old ways won’t work in the new way we are trying to navigate.
I’ve been curious, “watching” church across the globe since online was the only option. We’re trying to recreate something in a season where we have an invitation to reinvent. There is a monumental shift occurring, our generation is called to pave the way forward. We are grasping at straws to adapt to our new environment whilst keeping some sense of “normal”. And it isn’t working. And let’s be honest, anything larger than a house church becomes difficult online. Church in its current form isn’t the same.
And of course… it simply can not be.
I’ve been looking for it. I can’t find it. I can’t even pinpoint the thing that needs to change. But something has to. Throughout church history we’ve pivoted to adapt, even in just the last thirty odd years church has adapted to remain relevant in a culture geared to cater to entertain, to be ‘seeker’ friendly, and to the online realm. But there’s something different here. This is a new moment in history. What an exciting opportunity for us to be invited to co-labour with Christ! How do we “be” the church? Instead of simply “doing” church?
Wait… is this actually a new struggle?? Are these new questions we’re asking? Or is it that we are simply being given the opportunity to see what we might have been missing, now we are on the other side in iso collectively? I struggle with online church mostly because I feel like a consumer. But I feel like maybe we have been consuming church for a while now – it’s just more evident from my lounge. Suddenly void of people contact we are all immersed into our new reality: the lounge room experience. It’s much harder to engage in community life, leaving comments on a youtube feed feels odd and disconnected. There’s new options now too, we can church hop across the globe to who ever presents online ‘best’ and has all the equipment, skills and perfection of a divine performance creating an even greater challenge for the smaller under-resourced or rural church down the road. Or we mass-group Zoom and we all know how that could go down. It’s challenging and it’s new and so of course with change will come the bemoaned grievance despite all the efforts people are going to to bring church to you. At home. In your lounge room. For you to experience God, somehow… whilst trying to unite us together. Kudos.
In all honesty we’re grieving. What once was, is no longer. The pivot point in history where technology made it possible for us to connect and yet it highlights how disconnected we’ve actually been. We are so fortunate to have these problems to work with. But tbh I’m tired of looking at screens, I want to disconnect – but yet I so want to be apart of our community but I still feel unsettled in my spirit. This new format of church online needs to be simplified, evaluated and reworked constantly. I see so many trying to simply transfer what we know, remaining in the familiar, the format and framework. It poses an important and valid question: in a season of iso how do we connect? And if this is an extended season, how will we genuinely meet with the people we serve week in, week out?
We are in a first time season. We haven’t done this before… isolation large scale. I think the thing to remember is this isn’t the first time people have been isolated. It’s just now affecting a larger majority than before. What is helpful for the young parent who has had no sleep and church timing doesn’t line up with the nap routine? What about those doing shift work or can only work on Sundays and can’t make the specified service time? What about those who are homebound, vulnerable, ill, disconnected, or on the fringe? These are the questions we should be asking, and continue asking…
Our services have previously provided a location for those who CAN connect physically within our four walls. This is a chance for us to reconnect with our community in fresh ways. It will be different from our regular services format and timings. This is our time to arise and shine, in an era where we can be innovative and where we can reach out to be His hands and feet. The heart of worship isn’t immersive, it’s an outpouring. It’s in living out the heart of heaven in our community, in our day to day and here we have a greater reach to be outside our four walls and BE the Church, rather than DO church. That’s an exciting, and yes daunting, invitation, but what do all these thought invoke in you?? What is God speaking to you as you read this? What do you see the Church looking like?
I see this season as an opportunity. I see there will be beauty come from this. I see we are birthing the future church model 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and beyond. It will be an evolving, an unfolding. We won’t get it right but that’s the beauty here. We can adapt, we can pivot again. And again, and again. I see more meals around tables, I see us reaching out instead of gathering in. I see hope arise and music not only move us, but mobilise us into action. I see a renewed depth in conversation and care for those on the outer, and the inner becoming deeply and authentically welcoming. I see a reaching out to those we would’ve previously walked past. I see a slowing down, a steadying of our pace, to not be all things to all people, but be some things to some ones. The beauty of the Bride is a reflection of the beauty we all carry. The heart of Heaven beats within you. Linger and lean in to hear from Him what He is calling us to, and then obediently step it out.
The future Bride is radiant, she is arising. Step up dear heart and fix your gaze. He is on the horizon, He awaits for you to take His hand and go into the unknown. A future only He can blueprint, a future He alone will calve out, a path we cannot see fully. Yet.
But He is here. Look up from your screens and see.