Worship in a time of pandemic

I had the opportunity to “visit” a number of churches this past Sunday, as friends put up online what they were doing. It was wonderful! And it was really great to be able to go to my mom’s church (she’s been the organist there for fifty years!), and hear Rev. Nancy offer a highly engaging children’s time, even through live streaming.

I was struck, vividly, by the creativity of these pastors — all of whom openly acknowledged that they don’t know what they’re doing, and they hope their communities will learn and experiment with them.

It reminds me of the early days of seminaries putting classes online, where faculty felt free to say that they didn’t know how to teach online — so they were open to learning about pedagogy. And that learning, in turn, transformed their regular classes as well.

I think it’s entirely possible that on the other side of this pandemic church leaders will have learned some very important lessons that they will bring back to what we might have called “typical” worship in years past.

In the meantime, I’m collecting some resources for worshipping communities on my COVID-19 page.