Continuing Online Church
by Mike Orr, Canon for Communications, the Episcopal Church in Colorado
Worship is largely about connecting to God and to one another in deep and meaningful ways. But there’s no one right way. Each church is different. Each church has its regular attenders and its mission field—people in your neighborhood, town, or city looking for ways to connect with your church.
As we move from Season I into Season II, a number of churches in the diocese continue to explore and build on options for “doing church” online. For example, livestreaming your worship service or alternative ways to meet people where they are, online—all the while remembering that personal connections, the connections we make individual to individual, remain essential.
The technical information—cameras and hardware, steady internet, lighting, audio equipment, streaming software, streaming platforms, and more—can be overwhelming. We know some churches are looking at the need for more volunteers for coordinating these efforts. Then there are the financial burdens involved. Equipment needs to be purchased. Volunteers have to be supported as they launch and maintain these endeavors.
This is where we need to take a step back and think about our mindset as we commit to doing church online. For example, I bet we started with an assumption that we would be livestreaming in-person gatherings in our church buildings. Right?
Over the past several months, in the scramble, churches have found ways to create deep connections with parishioners, livestreaming from clergy living rooms or lay leaders’ backyards. These moments have created an intimacy by altering distances for the worshiper who are viewing worship on their screen in their own home. For churches that utilized Zoom with multiple feeds from multiple locations, church members could see and interact with one another. This is a new way of doing worship. This challenged us—this IS challenging us—to use technology to help worship happen. The new practice has broken down barriers we didn’t know we even had!
Our way of doing church online over the past several months—in the context of a historic pandemic—is vastly different from livestreaming in-person gatherings inside our church buildings. Recognizing our new context is a first step as we move forward in offering meaningful worship experiences for our church members and our church explorers / future members.
In-Person Worship Livestreams from Our Church Buildings
In setting aside our initial assumptions—that we would be doing video livestreams of in-person gatherings in our church buildings—we can look to nondenominational and other Mainline churches for inspiration. They’ve invested considerable resources in these other ways of online worship—both in the quality of the equipment as well as relationally, with a deep bench of staff and volunteer talent. Drawing on these resources, they’re able to:
create screen graphics for participation in call-and-response and music,
facilitate interactive live prayer and chat rooms,
switch between multiple cameras,
provide broadcast-quality audio tailored for that livestream (different from audio for in-person worship space), and
provide ways for people to give online.
All these capabilities ensure that online worshippers can actively participate in worship.
These nondenominational and Mainline churches have invested time and money. And they are doing these in-person / online livestreams well. There is no one-size-fits-all technology package of video equipment / lighting equipment / software solution. Each church is different. Each church has different needs. The leadership is different, so is the physical space. The budget is different and so are the demographics of the community.
Church services are also designed around this in-person / online hybrid service; the livestream is not an add-on or an afterthought. The service is carefully constructed around engaging both those gathered in-person as well as online. When a service opens, a pastor or leader first welcomes those gathered in-person and then acknowledges those joining the service online. Leading into worship, a leader instructs those joining online on how to participate. During the offertory, a leader provides ways for those who gathered in-person as well as online to give back to the church community they call home. After a service, there are ways for those gathered online to participate in virtual small groups, bible studies, or social hours.
To explore the many options and solutions for livestreaming, please see the following curated resources:
Online-Only Worship Livestreams
For churches that have considered how they’ve engaged over the past several months and had great success in relationship-building through online-only gatherings, I’d recommend that you consider a dedicated online-only service separate from your in-person worship.
I imagine new church-building signs announcing your worship services as:
Sundays:
9:30 am—In-person worship here!
11:00 am—Online worship at stswithens.org/live!
Or possibly, if you already have two or three services on Sunday, adding an online worship service to a weeknight. Or having online morning prayer a couple days a week. Or having a regular compline and community time during an evening each week.
Utilizing Zoom (or online streaming platforms such as Facebook Live, YouTube live, Vimeo, or Twitch) for a dedicated service eliminates the complications involved in In-Person Worship Livestreams from Our Church Buildings. Worship leaders can utilize their own equipment: phones, tablets, computers. Built-in microphones to those devices auto-adjust for best audio quality. Lighting and backgrounds are easily adjusted based on the room setup.
Also, you may find that this online-only service creates a community within a community and has a different demographic than your in-person gatherings. You may find that this online community is an in-road for church explorers who want to dip their toes in the water before looking to be a part of an in-person gathering. You may find that some people prefer the different dynamic of this worship experience—preferring it over being a part of an in-person gathering.
Just as in-person worship requires volunteers and lay leadership, your virtual worship gathering has several of the same components to consider. Who is monitoring the ‘room’ and muting people who do not realize their background noise is an issue? Who is serving as a greeter and monitoring the chat functions of the service? Who is on tap to add graphics to the screen to facilitate participation in readings or music? Who is assisting with technology support to do screen sharing, host assignment, or helping people having issues with their own equipment?
New Ways
In this time of pandemic response, we are being called to utilize the different methods of communication to provide support and care to our congregations. Regardless of which path a church takes to continue to do online worship, these paths are not in a competition. Churches should not begin with the assumption that one way is better than another. Churches should consider all these factors when deciding how to move forward. Incorporating new and creative methods of gathering for worship may be new and challenging. These methods may push us to new limits that are outside our comfort zones. But they also bring opportunities for growth and renewal. We have learned that online gatherings are engaging people in new ways and are reaching new audiences with God’s Word. God is present and working in our faithful gatherings; both physically and virtually.
Holy Spirit, you blessed the first disciples with the power to spread God’s love throughout the world. Give us a new power to proclaim your word through the channels of technology and give us confidence in the face of change to embrace new things. Make us willing to receive that word as it enters our daily lives and immerse us in the power of your Providence. Guide those who send out the message and those who receive it, so that all people may come to know your truth and be renewed by your love. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.