Zooming along

We've heard it often said that 'The church is the people and not the building'. We might know it to be true but the church buildings have played an important part in our lives and communities. 'Being Church' without attending a church building is a new concept to many of us and it is lovely to see our congregations adapting and discovering new ways of being in fellowship with each other and worshipping together. I don't know many people who actually like change, however, we find ourselves having to work with what we have got. I'll be honest, before the lockdown, I had never heard of 'Zoom' and now it seems that the world has gone 'Zooming mad'! With having smaller congregations, Zoom seems to work well for us and one of the highlights of my week is watching everyone greet each other at the beginning of the Sunday service on Zoom... it does my heart good!  I'm pleased to say that more people are joining us on a Sunday and we now record it each week and upload it to YouTube.

One of the phrases that I hear a lot is...'when things get back to normal.' We don't know how long that will take or even if they will ever go back to the way they were. And maybe they shouldn't. We need to learn from this episode in history. Although an online church service isn't everyone's first choice of worship, there are people out there who will prefer to be part of an online congregation. For a start, you can be anonymous and still engage with what's going on. 

Those of us who are regular church-goers forget what it is like to step over the threshold of an unfamiliar church building for the first time.  Just imagine that you have never been to church before...You pluck up the courage to go...on your own...you don't know a soul there...you might get a few quizzical looks...then someone thrusts a bunch of books and papers into your hands. Then there's the problem of where to sit. The back row seems best but people have taken that! Then, there's always the chance that you'll sit in someone else's seat and be asked to move! (That's happened to me on several occasions). So, you find a seat and feel eyes burning into your back...The service begins. The vicar wears strange clothes.  Ermm...which book to use? You look around but don't get any clues there because people are reciting words without even looking! One minute you're standing, the next you're sitting...and then there's something called the peace...which is anything but! You look around to catch someone's eye...it's excruciatingly embarrassing, with people hugging and shaking hands around you...and they all seem to know each other. You might even feel invisible at that point! The final hymn comes round and you breathe a sigh of relief. Just the cuppa afterwards to get through...hopefully you won't have to stand on your own!! I jest a bit but there are people out there who only ever go to one service...why is that?

By the time our church buildings are open again for worship, we will be in the swing of worshipping online. We must take this time of lockdown to consider our ongoing Mission strategy and that, I believe, must include an online worshipping presence. You may groan a little at that suggestion but mission is so much more than going to a church building on a Sunday morning. It is about reaching out with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Everyone has a right to know how much God loves them and we can't sit back and hope that they'll just figure things out on their own. That is down to each one of us and the times that we are living through brings it home to us...like no other time!

'And he said to them,
“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved;
but the one who does not believe will be condemned."

Mark 16:15-16