Church, online? I
guess it’s the new normal, at least for the foreseeable future.
My church is one of many who have decided to take Sunday
services online in order to do our part to help contain the corona virus. The technology to do this is a tremendous
blessing in a time like this, but how will it affect our sense of connection, fellowship
and worship?
For a few in front of the camera, I imagine it might be like
being on display in a fishbowl, never really being sure who is looking in. For most behind the camera and in front of a
screen, it can be like looking in on a fishbowl from the outside, never really
being a part of the world inside. Either
way, I mourn the loss of being in the moment, of two-way communication with God
and his people without distraction and self-consciousness.
This doesn’t happen only online. I was talking with a young man named Josh at
the coffeeshop, now an agnostic atheist, who was at one time heavily involved
in his church youth group and performing as a Christian rapper. He told me how he lost interest in church
when his father, a rambunctious biker type, was released after several years in
prison. From the way he described it, Josh
suddenly became self-conscious and critical of his church activities, and they began
to seem hollow and meaningless to him as more and more he looked at them from
the outside in. I theorized that this had
a lot to do with his father coming back into the picture, and that Josh
suddenly began looking at his church activities through his father’s eyes and
wondering and worrying what his father would think of him.
This idea of being an outsider looking in reminds me of how
Michal, wife of King David, felt when her husband the king danced before Israel
with all his might in worship. She said “How
distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to
the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!” Michal was embarrassed at what the servant
girls might think, rather than pleased at the worship of the Lord.
But we know from the worship he expressed in the Psalms and
the intimacy with God he expressed there that David wasn’t doing anything in
public that he didn’t already do in private.
And that, I think, is the key to avoiding the self-awareness and
self-criticism that can be so debilitating to our worship. If we don’t have a private place to pray like
Jesus taught, we will begin to be like the religious leaders Jesus criticized
who “for a show make lengthy prayers.”
It can be difficult in front of a camera, but the majority
of people in online church are behind the camera, hiding in the shadows as it
were, where the danger won’t be what we do in public but what we do or fail to
do in private. Church has always been
meant as a time devoted to the Lord. Its
not a place for the multitasking so many of us do the rest of the week. It is sacred time, not common time. We need to approach it with reverence and respect,
even if it is online. Maybe we even need
to dress up a bit, and sit at attention rather than lounging in our
pajamas. After all, the same Audience of
One will be watching us worship and honored or dishonored whether we are in a
church sanctuary or sitting in front of a computer screen in our home.
I look forward to once again meeting as a church family,
physically present and living in the moment rather than looking from the
outside in. In the meantime, maybe even
more so now than ever, the authenticity of what takes place online, in public,
depends on what we do and who we are with God in private, when no one in the
world is watching, that really matters.
Thanks, Josh, for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be seen HERE, at https://youtu.be/9KF0y9DHzvI
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