Picture this: it’s just past half ten on a Sunday morning. You grab your fresh home brew, find a comfy spot on the sofa, and open your device of choice to watch as the church livestream begins. This was the reality for many of us during lockdown. In a time of uncertainty and loneliness, it was a blessing to have the means to continue to attend church in the virtual realm.
As part of my local church’s audio/visual team, I had the opportunity to serve during that season. I remember sitting in our empty church building, just my pastor and I in the room. Though we were aware that our church family was watching from home, it didn’t make preaching the sermon to an abandoned building any easier. We longed for the church to be filled with voices of rejoicing and praise again.
Coming out of the pandemic, many of us were pleased to leave those quiet Sunday mornings behind. Yet our rapid adaptation to online ministry was a feature that remained. For many churches across the country, the pandemic became a catalyst for creating greater accessibility for every member of the local church. Audio and visual systems were improved, and online access to livestreams became easier and more dependable. Today, for church members who cannot attend our meetings in person, we are grateful for the benefits of recent technology. From the elderly and infirm to families with unwell children, these platforms are a great aid.
At our home church in Aberystwyth, the building is over 150 years old and has no disabled access. While we wait on the LORD for the funds for our building project, we continue to be thankful that the service is relayed to the accessible building next door.
Through digital access, the reach of the church has stretched further than we could have imagined, not only to long-time members but also to prospective seekers. Those who have not yet been saved are now only a click away from hearing the gospel. Those who are unsure about visiting a church can see what it is like before attending in person. Our desire to give everybody the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel is strengthened through these means.
But are all these advancements necessarily to the benefit of the church?
Rooted in local church life
I have worked alongside university students as part of UCCF for the past 5 years. My role is not only to support them as they reach their peers evangelistically, but also to disciple them as they lay their foundations of faith. I am constantly reminded that in our Christian Unions we are preparing future members, ministers and even missionaries of the global church. Therefore, one of our priorities at the start of the academic year is to see them rooted in local church life; not only attending but serving.
Only in recent years has it become an issue that students are able to attend their home churches online while at university. Others, too, for varied reasons, may choose to connect to a church virtually outside of their local area. Whilst it is understandable to want to remain connected to your home church family, this can distort our understanding of what God has given the church to be.
In seeking a virtual church, many are pursuing good teaching and theology. Yet that hunger to be fed spiritually can too easily turn us to view the church as consumers, shopping around for what will benefit us, rather than seeking opportunities to serve. Listening to John Piper or John Mark Comer will edify greatly, but far more so will the shepherding pastor that God has placed to teach me as part of his flock.
There may be some justifiable reasons why Christians may pursue a pattern of Sunday worship that includes logging on to a livestream. Yet, what’s at stake here is the ecclesiology of a new generation, our understanding of the church’s function. Though we can watch the most gifted speakers from around the world, church is so much more than merely getting the best teaching out there. It is God’s Ekklesia; by definition, it is where we gather together as an assembly of believers.
God blessed us with the church so that we would love, encourage, and admonish one another. Where two or more are gathered, the Spirit is present as iron sharpens iron. It is also where we meet with God at the communion table, partaking in fellowship with others as we eat and drink in remembrance of Christ’s death in our place.
More than a Sunday service
We can also forget that church life is so much more than a Sunday service. The church, as we see in its beginnings in Acts 2, should seek to meet as regularly as possible: at prayer meetings, in house groups, serving in youth clubs, practising hospitality by opening our homes and visiting each other, and walking alongside one another as we live out our faith.
Let us continue, then, in making all of church life as accessible as possible to everyone. But let’s also invite people not only to listen from afar, but to enter the sanctuary and meet with Christ through his body. Not only feasting in exegesis, but ensuring that spiritual food becomes spiritual fuel, shaping all that we think, say, and do.
