Hey folks. I haven't chatted on here much for a while. Hope you're all keeping okay amidst the crazy world right now. I'm mostly staying home and working (because work is still a thing), which plays fun games with mental and emotional health and all that. But I got to see some of my family in person recently, which was really nice. And we walked some dogs the other day. So I'm alright.
But that's not what I wanted to talk about! Actually wanted to talk about church.
And I wanted to talk about church because I've found it really interesting observing what's been happening with it since Covid and isolation and all that started (being one of the main staff of a church myself). But after thinking about it a bit, it actually makes a lot of sense.
So, for context. Our church usually has two services - 9am and 5pm. The 9am service is fairly traditional Anglican; prayerbook service, organ, hymns, and the average age of the congregation is probably about 60 at a guess, maybe a little higher. They do morning tea afterwards, and they're lovely people. I usually do the first song for them on piano, which is comparatively newer, but still one they know well (like In Christ Alone, or Jesus Paid It All). The 5pm service is more contemporary, with a band (that I lead most weeks) and more modern songs (aka 2000 onwards or so), and a more relaxed setting. It's also our family service, so it has a kids church and all that too, and we have dinner together afterwards. We might get - at a rough guess - sixty or so at the morning service, and probably about eighty in the evening.
When isolation started, we moved online, as many churches did. We opted to do a church service via Zoom, consolidating both services into the one, which would start at 9:45am, but opening up the Zoom earlier for people to log in, chat, make sure their technology was working, etc. And we saw something a bit remarkable happening.
Each week, we would have close to, or just over, 100 devices signed in to the Zoom. Now, that's devices, not people - so some of those can represent couples, or families. And when you take that into account, that's more than our typical two congregations combined. I think there's a few reasons for that, and I'd like to take a look at that.
Firstly, what you need to commit in order to attend has been lowered significantly. Previously, if you wanted to attend one of our normal services, you'd need to set aside the time, maybe put on something a little nicer if you wanted to (though particularly at the 5pm service it's more casual), drive over to Cobbitty, and sit in the pews for roughly the hour that the service goes for (with some standing up and sitting back down, but a lot of the time is spent sitting in the pews), which aren't quite representing the height of comfort. Now, all you need to do is set aside the time, turn your computer/tablet/phone on, click the link in your email or on the church website or Facebook, and that's it. If you don't want to get dressed - just leave the screen off. Church in your pyjamas! Why not?
And so many people that might only attend church now and then are becoming more regular attendees. By the same token, it makes it much more open to newcomers - when it's a much lower barrier to entry, they don't have to worry about being scrutinised or called out or recognised by anyone (not saying that's what we do, it's just a worry that newcomers have) if they don't want to, and they can just have it going in the background - it becomes much easier to just try it out, and see what you think. And to even try out multiple services, if they're at different times, or if they're prerecorded and put up on platforms like YouTube or Facebook. I mean, if you want, you could watch a church service that happened at a church several hours away from where you lived - maybe see the church that your parents or kids go to, or that a friend you know goes to. All of this suddenly becomes very easy and simple.
Secondly, the importance of community in this time of isolation can't be ignored. When you're spending even more of your time either by yourself or with just the people in your household, it's a welcome opportunity to be able to connect with other people all of a sudden, even if it's only via a video chat. So having that time to talk with people before and after the service can be really lovely. Now, as you can imagine, 100 devices talking all at once doesn't really work that well - but before the service, people tend to arrive in bits and pieces, so the early birds can have a good chat to each other without being interrupted too much; and then after the service, we go into random groups for a few minutes (Zoom lets us do that via something called Breakout Rooms), and can chat there more easily. Having that interaction, and that support during this time is really important, and really helpful for many people. So I think that's another reason that we're seeing more people regularly at church.
Thirdly - and finally - I think a big part of it as well is hope. We're in a global situation at the moment that's rather unprecedented, and quite scary if you think about it too much. Where we are in Australia we're doing pretty well, but there's a lot of places that aren't, and where people are dying very quickly (though, thankfully, it's not nearly as bad as it could be). Amongst that, people look for hope, reassurance, light. Religion is one place where people often find that. After all, for Christians, part of our faith is that - regardless of what happens in this life - we will be with God in the life to come, and there will be no suffering or pain. There's plenty of discussion as to what that looks like, but regardless, that seems pretty awesome right now. And we also believe that he is with us now, through his Spirit, strengthening us, guiding us, helping us. Giving us hope. So, yes, that is something else that I think is attracting people to churches at the moment (and, I'm guessing, also to other places of worship, but I don't really have information on that).
To be the devil's advocate for a moment - this is, of course, something that can be used and abused by some people; to gain wealth, or power, or influence, or what have you. But I suppose I hope that this is a very small minority of cases.
What's going to be most interesting, I think, is to see how this affects churches post-Covid. If churches draw from some of the lessons here, and think about how they can bring some of this back to regular services. Maybe that means looking at offering a livestreamed version of their service; perhaps it means looking at how they welcome or interact with newcomers, and seeing if there are changes that need to happen. But those are conversations for later. For now, I hope this was an interesting look at some positive aspects that this situation has had to churches (or at least, the church I'm in). As a parting note, if you are interested in joining our service this Sunday, you can find more information here.
