(pic credit: ThruTheFone ©2024 by crisbaj. Used with permission)
PROLOUGE
So, here I am, zooming at the speed of light in my little space-ship, heading out to do extraordinary exploits for God.
Yes, I spend a lot of time with a lot of folks out here ‘in the great beyond’, but these are not peeps who have the time or inkling of getting to know me, and really don’t want me to know them close-up… such is ministry with the poor and hurting… even when you try, they are too busy chasing after survival.
So, my space-ship has some really great tekk… nice sound system, great view-screens, hi-rez capability, and can stream many, many messages in split-screen and hi-fi sound.
BUT… real human contact, talking to people, bumping shoulders in the coffee line, looking directly at a human face or into a human eating stale donuts or home-made cookies without sugar, connecting eyes, actually talking… does not happen, zooming thru space in my space-ship…
Sounds like that song ‘Rocket Man’…
ON-LINE V REAL-LIFE
I belong to a ‘Leadership Network’ that has a really, really state-of-the-art web site, daily ‘Zoom’ chats and ‘Encounter Rooms’, a ton of streaming content loaded with really excellent teaching, regular video messages of encouragement and prophetic words, break-out Zoom-rooms for areas of interest in your Leadership sphere… pastoral, business, health care, etc….
There is NOTHING about the Leadership Network that is inferior, second-class or poorly designed.
BUT… everything is on-line, chat-room/Zoom-room styled gatherings.
There is NO live, face-to-face engagement or relationships from this Network.
Yes, member info is up and available, and I’ve reached out to a couple of people who actually live in my area… only to have multiple attempts to have coffee-meetup fizzle… and I even offered to buy!
Yes, there is a yearly ‘Gathering’ at a big central church in the US, and hundreds of people come from around the US and Canada and even some Globe-hoppers, and it’s fun and exciting, and we get connected to each other’s FaceBook and Instagram accounts to see what we’re doing after, BUT…
SO, the Leadership Network recently popped up a ‘so, how are we doing?’ on the on-line feed…
… and here was MY answer…
I’m really betwixed about the whole ‘on-line community’ thing… ON ONE HAND, I’ve had some significant times and experiences during on-line ‘Zoom-style’ meetings… and THAT experience was positive in it’s encapsulated moment… BUT a month later, I’m not closer to anyone, or personally closer to anyone else who was ‘on the Zoom’… THAT’S THE OTHER HAND, which is that on-line is not necessarily substantial social, real-life contact, and can be just another not-real-life contact experience… DOES HEBREWS 10:25 “… not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” have a ‘hidden exhortation’ that we NEED real-time, MANDATORY face-to-face EVEN IF we pursue Online/Zoom-room/streaming ‘connection….
Nobody commented or replied…
FEELS LIKE COVID PART 2
Why, after all the things we did 2019-2022 to NOT have human contact because of a stupid CoronaVirus… flip to on-line everything, streaming Christian content with one person on-screen in front of their laptop camera, the crazy way we elevated ‘Zoom meetings’ to some Divinely-given social-survival mechanism…
Why, in 2024, when we can actually be in the room with people, and share a cup of coffee/tea, actually see the real-face-up-close of a person smiling at your stupid joke, WHY is there such a rush by churches and ministries to ‘do more on-line’… and essentially do LESS in person, face-to-face??
OVER-EXCITED ABOUT ON-LINE
Perhaps, after a decade lag by churches in the area of developing on-line and digital communications methods, everyone is a little over-enthused about ‘what digital communications can mean to our ministry!’…?
Perhaps, after years of our churches elevating a 45-minute one-way, no-interaction lecture from a guy in a pulpit to a room of people listening to the speech… the only interaction you have is coming in, going out, and looking at the back of somebody’s head for the duration of the lecture…?
Perhaps, we’ve just translated well-practiced dis-connect to some on-line format…?
JUST ASKIN’…
No, this is not a diatribe against on-line and digital ministry.
Honestly, I’m kinda on-the-fence.
Yes, I now reflect that Pew Research stat, the ‘17% of U.S. adults regularly attend religious services in personand watch them online or on TV’ (reference: see below). When I’m traveling, when I’m fighting a cold, I watch a couple choice Church Streaming services.
I DO think that, in the rush to digital on-line streaming, even situations like the ‘Leaders Network’ I led with, there seems to be all glowing reports, and little discussion about face-to-face ministry AND on-line… I’m just askin’…??
THE HEBREWS 10:25 QUESTION
I think the question I posted on that Network needs some discusion…
DOES HEBREWS 10:25 “… not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” have a ‘hidden exhortation’ that we NEED real-time, MANDATORY face-to-face EVEN IF we pursue Online/Zoom-room/streaming ‘connection….
Does a Zoom meeting with 20 participants, all in their little ‘Hollywood Squares’ space [old people will get the joke…], does that fulfill the assembling of ourselves together, as the Scripture calls for?
I believe that at the core of this exhortation in Hebrews is the Kingdom values of Connection, Relationship, Personal Connection…
The New Testament grabbed a particular Greek word, Koinonia. It’s a transliterated form of the Greek word κοινωνία, which refers to concepts such as fellowship, joint participation, partnership, the share which one has in anything, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution.
Koinonia is used 20 times in the New Testament, especially in the pivotal passage found in Acts 2:42.
OTHER UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS
So, the real question remains un-answered… Can we, the Church in the 2020’s relate in real Koinonia thru exclusively on-line connnections?
Of course, if we want to ‘drill down’ into the other hard statistics of how many people after COVID did NOT return to live, face-to-face churches and fellowships (see reference below)… those stats are complicated, but LESS people are in Church in 2024 than before the Pandemic in 2018.
Wanna up-pack WHY that is true… not offer opinions and ideas, but look at the reports…?
Nope, not me… not here.
Hungry for real connection…
TAKE-AWAY
I just heard Francis Chan on a video stream (!!) talk about how he senses God wanting the Church to get away from preaching and pulpits, and focus on the Eucharist/Communion, like the church of Acts [Ch 2:42-47]. He says in Communion, we directly encounter Jesus, and directly encounter the Body of Christ, which radically changes lives.
The stirrings of the ‘Communion Revival’ that flood my in-box and topic suggestions are now over-whelming. Go ahead, look it up.
Yeah, I’m in.
CRISBAJ
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Author: Executive Producer crisbaj
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