Online Services—How To Still Be a Church Family

You’re a pastor and church is now cancelled for the foreseeable future. The US Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin just went on record that we should expect 10-12 weeks. So if we’re stuck meeting online anyway, can we do it better? Can we still function as a church?

Ironically, our context in the Philippines forced us to explore these questions sooner than most churches in the US. By trial and error, some churches found solutions that seem to work better than others. If you just survived your first Sunday online, take none of this as criticism —just ideas. I have been astounded by watching the creativity of smart pastors looking for ways to help their people. Our own church benefitted by seeing others people’s ideas. Let’s help each other and learn together.

So is it possible to still remain a church family even if we are stuck behind our screens? We do well to think twice about an important distinction between broadcasting and online meeting rooms.

Broadcasting vs. Online Meeting Rooms

The most well-known platform and the easiest to use is Facebook live and so this is the most common method churches are using. I would like to humbly offer an alternative method that has advantages—some of them critical for churches.

For simplicity, I will distinguish between tools like Facebook Live or YouTube (broadcasting) and Zoom or Google Hangouts (a private meeting room):

1. Broadcasting only allows everyone to see a single speaker, like watching a static video; meeting rooms allow you to know who you are watching with and to be part of a group.
2. Broadcasting allows anyone to stumble upon the meeting; meeting rooms are limited to the group you have invited (your church family).
3. Broadcasting is anonymous for the viewers—no one knows if you watched or not; meeting rooms make it immediately clear who is present or absent.

Why the Big Deal?

There are legitimate advantages and disadvantages to each type of platform. So why does any of this matter? For years, careful churches have rightly argued that the internet is no substitute for actually meeting together and holding one another accountable. Preaching and worship are more than a telecast.

COVID-19 changes none of that. Online services are better than nothing; that hardly means the stopgap measure is a viable, long-term substitute. We should return to physical, public gatherings as soon as it is possible. In my optimistic moments, I even dare to hope that during the quarantine, believers might miss each other and look forward to coming together again.

But there are still three specific ways that your choice of a meeting room over broadcasting might connect directly to our theology of church life:

1. Church is Not a Telecast.

Since the internet is all we have for now, we should be thinking carefully about our choice of technologies. When we only have one window through which to see each other, we do best to keep the glass clean and clear.

And there is an important difference here, because online church services don’t have to be a mere one-way telecast. Our church met this week (by necessity) in a way that allowed us to see each other, share testimonies and even sing. There are many technical details that went into getting all of this right—you can read more here. Turning the service into a non-interactive, single-speaker telecast is far better than nothing. But by definition, it also kills any concept of community. If possible, choose a technology option that allows members to truly be together.

2. Church is not a one-man show.

Wise pastors love nothing more than to see their individual members step up and contribute. If possible, it’s richly healthy to hear one person pray, another read Scripture, another lead in song and another preach. Similarly, there are times to hear testimonies, share prayer requests and simply participate in the life of the church together.

Last Sunday, we participated in two Filipino and two American church services. In each service, at least four people contributed; in several services we heard testimonies from various individual members. Broadcasting makes this difficult or impossible, but online meeting rooms are built for this sort of thing.

3. Not the Time to Go Church-Surfing

A parallel concern for me is what happens if I turn on my phone around church time. A huge number of churches that I love are all streaming simultaneously, but the unintended impression is that with a tap or two, there’s a buffet of church services on tap. The richness of options notwithstanding, our first commitment should be to the churches with whom we have covenanted together and with people we personally know and love. COVID-19 is not a chance to go church-surfing, whether the internet makes that easy or not. This is a real advantage of using something with a specific, internal link that you share with your members only.

4. Accountability

A final suggestion comes from another friend in Southeast Asia who has been under the lockdown for weeks. Noting that some church members have simply vanished during the quarantine, he began taking careful account of who joined the church in their Zoom services. If a member has been absent for several weeks, it’s an opportunity to reach out personally and offer help—just as a careful pastor would for local services.

During the sermon, the focus can turn from the group to our Pastor, Abet Tiangco.

Sounds nice, but too complicated.

The biggest question, however, is if this requires a tech degree or if members without computer skills can manage it. There are several things you should know:

1. Set up is incredibly easy.

I’ve helped three churches and two colleges move to Zoom. None of these were fancy groups with lots of tech skills—several were quite rural or included a lot of older members. If you have enough technical skills to share a video on Facebook, you can set up a Zoom meeting. If you managed to sign up for a Facebook account at some point in your life, you can join a meeting. The process is literally that easy.

2. There are lots of options.

An extra advantage of Zoom is that it’s possible to join a call through telephone. Meaning you just give someone a phone number. (Remember those land lines we used to use?) They dial the number and join the meeting by listening in over the phone.

3. Your Zoom meeting can stream to Facebook live.

Finally, your entire meeting—including your powerpoint, people’s various testimonies or comments, everything from the couple who share special music to the person who does the Scripture—all of it can be live streamed to  Facebook. So if some find the hurdles too difficult, you leave no one behind. It is, literally, the best of both worlds.

One final offer. If you represent a church that preaches the gospel, I will personally help you set up Zoom. I’m not afraid to make the offer because it’s that easy and that fast to set up. And because I want your church to enjoy what we enjoyed last Sunday.

Conclusion

God is not shaken by COVID-19; neither is His work; neither is the church. As always, there are many good responses. The challenge will be finding the ones that best fit our contexts and specific needs. Let’s love the church by  carefully giving time and attention to make the best choices.

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Phil. 1:9–11)