{"id":17185,"date":"2021-05-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/a-christian-buddhist-dialogue-on-suffering-2\/"},"modified":"2023-04-04T03:49:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T03:49:35","slug":"creating-meaningful-engagement-and-connection-in-online-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/mission-guide\/creating-meaningful-engagement-and-connection-in-online-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Criando envolvimento significativo e conex\u00e3o no culto online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In early 2020, our church \u2013 Kowloon International Baptist Church (Hong Kong) \u2013 began to experience the shocks of an epidemic that was quickly spreading throughout Asia. By late February, we had to close our doors to comply with local social distancing[1]<\/sup><\/a> regulations. Like many other churches, we were unprepared for virtual worship services, so we cobbled together a self-guided worship order each week and attempted to ramp up communication through social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we realized that COVID-19 was becoming a global issue that would not quickly recede, we invested in equipment and training so our church family could worship together using live stream technology. Over the ensuing months, we learned much about the importance of connecting with one another and how to instill a sense of community among our people, even in the midst of physical separation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, we saw the necessity of adopting language that represented our goal in online worship: engagement. We made an effort to avoid terminology such as \u201cwatching the service\u201d or \u201cviewing the videos.\u201d Instead, we invited people to \u201cjoin together online\u201d and \u201cparticipate\u201d in times of singing, reading Scripture, praying, and studying God\u2019s Word. We emphasized that \u201cwe are the church,\u201d and that the church is not merely a building or physical location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, to help people have a more concrete understanding of how to fully participate in an online gathering, we assembled a \u201cWorship at Home\u201d guide. [Resource link included below<\/em>.] Practical suggestions included establishing a particular space and time for worship in the home, removing potential distractions, putting mobile devices on silent, and preparing materials beforehand (a Bible, a note-taking device, online giving of tithes and offerings, and Lord\u2019s Supper elements). We reiterated that singing helps us internalize the message and acknowledged that the sound of the voice was less important than the condition of the heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For families with young children, our worship guide offered suggestions for kids, such as using blocks or toys to build something they learned about in a Bible story or providing coloring pages and pictures with Scripture verses or blank paper for drawing. During times of singing, kids can play an instrument, dance, clap, or move around the room. As hands-on learners, children need the opportunity to express their understanding of God in age-specific ways. Online worship at home is, in fact, a unique opportunity to teach children what it means to join with a community of believers in praising God and studying the Bible. Little ones who would ordinarily be \u201ctoo wiggly\u201d to sit through an in-the-building service can especially benefit from this time of family-friendly worship in the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our worship guide encouraged families with older children or youth to interact with one another through conversation and discussion. A live stream worship service can be paused to address questions, or parents can create a time of dialogue during a meal or outing later in the day. The shared time of online worship lends itself to finding common ground with family members of different ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those in our church family who live alone or who live in households without other Christians, our worship guide listed such suggestions as gathering in pairs or small groups to participate in the service together (when appropriate and safe). Connections through online social platforms also give opportunity for individuals to join in a worship service with other believers in real-time, even while physically separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirdly, while trying to facilitate meaningful live stream worship services, we recognized a deep sense of disconnection among our people. One way we addressed this feeling of isolation was to include familiar faces in our online worship times. We invited people to send us photos of their at-home worship, and \u2013 with their permission \u2013 we incorporated these pictures into weekly online services. Our virtual community felt enriched when we could see one another engaging in these same live stream worship experiences: a middle-aged couple sitting on a sofa, a young family with kids spread around the den, a dancing child, a mother holding the family dog, a group of friends sitting outside on a park bench, young adults connected on a Zoom call while joining the online service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also made a deliberate effort to incorporate various members of our church community into the live stream worship services. The local social distancing regulations often allowed only a few people to be present in our building on a Sunday morning, so we pre-recorded individuals reading Scripture, praying, or sharing a testimony. Stories from church members who faced similar struggles or who experienced God\u2019s help in a specific way brought inspiration and reassurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children, in particular, were eager to participate. During a sermon series focused on hope, we asked kids to record themselves reciting a Bible verse about the hope we have in Christ. At Christmas, we invited kids to share their favorite part of the story of the birth of Jesus. As a church family, we loved seeing the faces of children taking part in worship, and we marveled at how much they had grown since we last saw them in person. These video clips, when added to our live stream worship times, gave new energy and encouragement to our church community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, in addition to providing at-home worship services on Sundays, we established a twice-monthly online worship experience called \u201cRefresh.\u201d Every other Friday evening, volunteers from our worship leadership team produced a 10-15-minute time featuring prayer, Scripture reading, and worship music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flexibility of this schedule and format allowed us to focus on different themes in various ways. Sometimes we included pre-recorded interviews with members of our church as we addressed faith-related topics. On other occasions, we introduced new songs, looked deeper into the meaning of favorite worship songs, explored ways of enriching our family worship times, or experienced moments of laughter. In December, we held a special live Christmas carol sing-along online, which gave our people a chance to sing Christmas songs that were especially meaningful to our community. Throughout 2020, our ongoing Friday evening online gatherings gave us another opportunity to engage with one another and worship together during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As our church family continues to walk through COVID-related struggles and social distancing requirements, we keep seeking more ways to connect, to engage in meaningful worship times together as the body of Christ, and to encourage each other as followers of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> i.e. Physical distancing. We recognize that the terms \u201csocial distancing\u201d and \u201cphysical distancing\u201d are interchangeable, but that depending on the country, people group and language, one term may be used over another in the local context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A PRAYER FOR THE FUTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear God, in times of uncertainty and chaos \u2013 both within and around us \u2013 teach us to build and strengthen connections with one another. Show us how to create times and places for interaction with others from our church communities. Help us see opportunities instead of roadblocks as we face extraordinary challenges related to COVID-19. May we find our hope in you, and may we encourage one another \u2013 and all the more as we see the Day approaching. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESOURCE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download<\/a> a sample “Worship at Home” Guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Reflection and Discussion<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. What are some ways we can increase a sense of community in corporate worship online, despite physical separation?<\/li>
  2. How can our personal stories of God\u2019s provision be utilized to bring hope to others in our community?<\/li>
  3. What practical ideas would help us \u2013 and individuals and families in our church \u2013 fully engage in a live stream worship service?<\/li>
  4. How can we encourage families to teach and model for their children what it means to participate in corporate worship?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    Angela French compartilha formas como sua igreja tem se empenhado para se engajar em adora\u00e7\u00e3o significativa e para inspirar conex\u00e3o durante a pandemia.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"\n

    For those of us in the Baptist way of being church, three key words of ecclesiology are: covenant, fellowship and body. I want to explore the form that these are taking virtually, in our experience today of lock-downs, quarantines and self-isolation, and with our use of such networking programmes as Zoom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Covenant<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    This is a special word for Baptists, and it has been since our earliest days. Churches, we have believed, are gathered by covenant, whether written down or not. Covenant is an agreement in two dimensions: a vertical commitment to God in Christ in the power of the Spirit, and a horizontal commitment to each other. In our gathering together we make actual in time and space the eternal covenant of God for the redeeming of all creation. The one who makes and mediates this covenant is the risen Christ. So, in covenant we do not just choose to gather together, as one option among others; we believe that we are being gathered by Christ. Gathering is not a merely voluntary matter, but a question of obedience and discipleship.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In days of lock-down, we are still being gathered by Christ. It is a matter of covenant responsibility to each other to gather in whatever way we can. A zoom ecclesiology based on covenant relationship means that we don\u2019t just choose to use social media, if we have it, to gather \u2013 whether by laptop, tablet or phone. We are being called by Christ to be faithful to each other. And if we have members who have no means of digital communication, or who cannot use it, we are under the compulsion of covenant to find an alternative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We will shortly be in a period of mixed format for doing church, when some members of the congregation will feel it safe to gather in a building, but others will still prefer to gather at home, using the internet. This makes it all the more important for members of a congregation to be faithful to each other in meeting for worship by whatever media it can use. This means, I suggest, a commitment regardless of the efficiency or the professionalism of the product. I mean that once we are into the media game, choice often takes over. We look for the most attractive product, perhaps the most entertaining material. We may ask \u2013 who\u2019s offering the best YouTube worship-service or televised service? Who\u2019s got the best music, the best videos, the best preachers? The local church product may inevitably look less attractive than other offerings freely available to us into which large costs and huge resources have been poured. But I believe that whatever the form of presentation of a local church, we are committed to be involved, committed to be there with the fellow-believers with whom we have been drawn into covenant. I believe it\u2019s not a matter of choice, it\u2019s not a voluntary principle \u2014 it\u2019s covenant commitment to God and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fellowship<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    If we now turn our minds to the second term, \u201cfellowship\u201d, it is easy to shrink the idea into meeting together in one place (church or chapel) for worship or more socially for tea, coffee and conversation\u2014all of which is valuable in itself, while difficult to achieve now. But I want to say that our fellowship is more than either local or even human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In prayer and worship we are being drawn more deeply into the eternal fellowship, the koinonia of the triune God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit\u2014a communion of inexhaustible life and love. In that fellowship, embraced in the flowing currents of love and justice in God, is a vast community: God is making room for all within God\u2019s own self. I mean people of all ages, in all places, present and past. There are people there who are inside and outside the visible church. The Trinity, we might say, is God\u2019s own Zoom programme. It is the largest social network there can be, a web far greater than the internet.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, this is\u2014of course\u2014an encouragement to us. We are actually never alone, however self-isolated we are, but held in God\u2019s social media. When we pray for others, we are adding our love to God\u2019s own love for them. As we pray for others, God is communicating our care and concern to them because they are held in God\u2019s network of relations. God is making our love for them a part of God\u2019s own love. So our prayers under lock-down should be more than local, as they tend to become. We should have the confidence to have the widest vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This fellowship also calls us to make an effort to open up the circle of our fellowship to other people\u2019s social circles. This period when many more people are using the internet offers an opportunity to share links to our particular fellowship, to invite others to connect. In this connection we must be open to hearing the stories of others, and then we will learn a great deal more about what our own faith means. We shall learn more about what God is doing in the world, and we shall learn more about our Christ who is out there in the world. You could call this widening of fellowship mission, but it is of course God\u2019s mission, missio dei, not ours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Body<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    In the New Testament, the phrase \u201cthe body of Christ\u201d is not just a figure of speech, or a metaphor. Today we might say of medical staff that they are \u201ca fine body of women and men\u201d, and that\u2019s a helpful image. But \u201cbody of Christ\u201d means even more than this; it means that Christ is using human bodies and even materials of the natural world to become visible in our world, to offer himself to be met and touched as people could do during his earthly life on the dusty roads of Galilee or in the streets of its towns.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is why \u201cbody of Christ\u201d in the New Testament has three meanings: it is the glorious risen body of Christ, the communion bread and the church. These are not three different meanings. They fuse together: the risen body of Christ becomes present through the breaking of bread in the community of believers. So, as we look around a congregation in a church building, the face of Christ takes form and shape as we look at the many faces of those gathered there. Like an identikit picture, the features of Christ come together through the many faces, and the face of Christ stands out and can be seen, not in one person alone, but in fellowship together.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yet we often can\u2019t see each other\u2019s faces when we are gathered in a building like a chapel. Here our gathering online through technology like \u201cZoom\u201d gives a special opportunity for \u2018re-membering\u2019 (putting together) the body of Christ. The screen offers a new possibility for the face of Christ to be \u2018re-membered\u2019 in the faces on display there, combined with the voices of those who are engaging with us by phone. There are, of course, those members who cannot use social media: we need to put photographs of them on the screen to join the montage of faces, to see the face of Christ properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When we cannot embrace each other, or link hands, it is more difficult to experience \u201ctouching\u201d the body of Christ. But sharing the Lord\u2019s Supper online can be an important way of putting together the features of Christ and of touching his body. Breaking the bread does not have to be done at a distance. Members who are part of the covenanted fellowship can have bread and wine or juice with them, and can join with the ordained minister in co-consecration, using the \u201cwords of institution\u201d, or \u2013 as I would prefer to say \u2013 the words of consecration. All members can say with the minister and\u2014above all\u2014with Christ, \u201cThis is my body, this is my blood.\u201d So, word and action can come together in each place. The presence of Christ can be known more deeply through the broken bread and through the great cloud of witnesses who surround us on the screen, through the phone, or through their pictures.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If, and as, we move into a time of mixtures of meetings, some of the congregation in a church building, some still self-isolating, others having been house-bound long before Covid-19, we should seek to actualize a Zoom ecclesiology in this situation. For example, we can have the video, voices or pictures of those who are at home up on a screen in front of those who are gathered in the building, as fellow-participants in worship. It may be that having had a period of lock-down will give us the vision and the skills to worship in a way that makes even more real our covenant and fellowship in the body of Christ.  <\/p>\n\n\n","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[315,1241,1335,1281],"tags":[1286,318,1338],"years":[],"class_list":["post-17185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mission-guide","category-apbf","category-english","category-practical-guidelines","tag-angela-d-french","tag-the-church","tag-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17185"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18313,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17185\/revisions\/18313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17185"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baptistworld.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=17185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}