Essential Church

In moving, one of the things we were most looking forward to was finding a good church home and getting involved.  To us, it represented one of the quickest ways to start finding friends up here in Indiana.  It was a way to meet people our age, in a similar life situation and get to know them. It was a place our kids would meet other kids their age and see who they might be going to school with.  I suspect for many, beyond the theological strengthening and encouragement, this social aspect is one of the great draws to joining a local body.

Of course, no one expects a global pandemic.  It has certainly prevented us from physically attending local services and meeting everyone like we had hoped.

And yet, in many ways, we feel more connected to our churches than before.

Every Sunday, now, we are watching two services and participating in a host of activities throughout the week.  We watch the service from Wills Point where we had been attending in Texas, keeping in touch with our church family there.  And we have found the church that we will be joining here in Brownsburg and are participating in their services and in their "welcome" meetings.

Finding a church in Brownsburg was surprisingly easy for us.  We chose a church based on their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  How they were distributing PPE, food, and other necessities.  How they had actually increased their connection with their congregants by offering additional prayer services, worship hours, and devotionals online.  Admittedly, with their existing online presence, they were probably better prepared than most to make the transition, but they still made the most of it, making sure their people still felt like they could be connected to the church and connected to service.

Stonepoint in Wills Point did the same, adding a Family Game night, a morning prayer time, a morning song service, etc.

Where others saw an insurmountable obstacle, they found an opportunity to extend their reach.

And I would expect many others are finding churches in the same way - based on their response to this crisis.  I think we could see a great revival coming out of this time, all dependent on how the church acts now.

Here's why:

Google searches on prayer skyrocketed in March 2020.

The Bible publishing industry is seeing a Coronavirus boom.

Church attendance, though virtually, is up.

To the point of overwhelming servers.

There are people out there seeking for answers, seeking comfort, seeking hope.  This shouldn't be surprising; it happens in times of national crisis.  We saw it after 9/11, for example.

What matters is what we do now.

Will this be an opportunity to proclaim truth, to spread hope, and to show mercy?  Or will it be a breeding ground for division?

For example, is your church using this time to do all it can to reach the people around it?  Has it adapted and put out video messages on social media and other platforms?  Is it sending out words of comfort via email or snail mail?  Is it continuing to be active in meeting the needs of the community?  If it has a kitchen, is it cooking and sending out meals to those that need it?  Is it showing that it cares for the population around it by following social distancing guidelines?

Is it like the church in New Jersey that launched a nation wide local grocery delivery service?

Is it like the church in Alabama that is administering Covid-19 tests?

Or, instead, has it flaunted social distancing guidelines and held in person services anyways?  Has it complained about the government infringing on its rights?  Has it refused to learn new technology?  Has it simply been inactive during this time?

We've started talking about everything in this time as either essential or non-essential.  Here's the hard question during this time - is your church essential to your community?  Or has it become non-essential?

If your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone miss it, beyond the people who show up on Sundays?

Would anyone even notice it was gone?

“Here is the reality: In North America, Church has been considered ‘non-essential’ for quite some time, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. Even in the ‘Bible Belt,’ trends are not just moving post-Christian, they are post-Christian.”

I would propose that the churches that will grow from this, the churches that will see revival are the ones that have remained essential to their communities.  Essential to the lives of those people that are around them, whether they are members or not.

They are the ones that have gone through great changes in this time to make sure they are still reaching and comforting those around them.

And it's those changes that we will need to keep when things get back to "normal," whatever that looks like.  I hope Stonepoint keeps the family game night, perhaps now virtually and on campus (or even just virutally.  I hope Connection Pointe keeps the Thursday song service. Keep the morning devotionals rotating through staff and leadership.  Keep the Monday morning prayer time, likewise.

Why not?

What would be the argument against it?


“When adjusting how our churches operate, the question is not, ‘How do we make the future look as much like the past as possible?’”
Instead, we should be looking for ways in which we can have the greatest reach and impact.  The greatest ways we can make ourselves essential.

Because if we come through this looking exactly like we did before, then we've failed.

Lord, let that not be said of us.

They're Everywhere

Confession time.

This blog is posted via Blogger, a Google service.  My personal email is a gmail account, connected to my calendar and contacts.  I use Google Maps for directions and a lot of illustrations.  We use Google Keep for prayer requests in our Journey Group, a way of seeing the different praises and requests and watching them get answered.  I have two internet domains through Google domains.

The blog posts to Facebook daily, which I also peruse, looking for updates on family and friends.

I'm an Amazon Prime Member, taking advantage of the shipping benefits, prime video, and prime music.  We have three smart speakers in our home that are used daily.  I often read the Apocrypha through the Kindle app.

We are an Apple family.  Generally Macs offer better options for set, sound, and light design, so a Macbook Air has been Jamie's laptop of choice.  We have iPhones.  I'm still rocking an old school clickwheel iPod that will be used until it dies in my hands.  Jamie and I both have an iPad, her a mini, me a gen 2.  Digital comics are just much better on a tablet.  I have a Mac Mini and have a large iTunes library.  We cut cable and watch everything through an Apple TV.  I wanted the security in the systems of Apple's famed walled garden.

And I would not be able to function at work without access to Microsoft products.

With all of that as a backdrop, it may be time to admit that the tech giants have a little too much insight into our personal lives and a little too much control on the digital world.

Kashmir Hill, deputy editor for the Special Projects Desk at Gizmodo, has been writing a fascinating series of articles on spending a week trying to do without each of the tech giants.  This week, she posted her article regarding the week where she tried to do completely without the Big 5: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.  It's a fascinating and slightly terrifying look at the impact these tech companies have on our lives.  Even in surprising ways.

For example, you might think Amazon would be easy to cut out.  Don't buy anything on their platform, don't watch a Prime Video, listen to Prime Music and don't talk to Alexa.  Plus avoiding Whole Foods now for good measure (I would have to give up PillPack, my mail order prescription service as well).

That's the easy part.  The problem comes with the segment that generates the most revenue for Amazon - Amazon Web Services, a vast server network that provides the backbone for most of the internet.  Just interacting with governmental websites would involve connecting with Amazon Web Services.  Government agencies love Amazon Web Services, like the U.S. Government Accountability Office's website.  If you cut out Amazon Web Services, Airbnb doesn't work.  Nor does Words with Friends. Netflix.  HBO Go.  The workplace communication tool Slack.

There's also the problem of the internet of things. "Smart" devices connected to the internet, that continually check back in with a server to verify activity and status.  Televisions, appliances, lightbulbs, thermostats, etc.  These devices are checking in with the server and connecting at times that we may not even ever be aware of.  Our phones and mobile devices are worse.  If they are on, they are communicating with a tower or server, whether we are interacting with them or not.

Surprisingly, in Ms. Hill's study, she found Amazon to be the one company and service that her devices were trying to connect to the most.  95,260 attempts to interact with an Amazon server by her devices during the week.  That's over twice the amount of the other four combined.  Further, the combined control that Google and Amazon have over internet services should raise concerns among even the most ardent libertarian capitalists.

I write this, not to scare anyone off their devices.  I'm not going to become a luddite or begin divesting myself of the devices that I interact with.  I do not think there is any need to start pushing completely off the grid yet.

I write and draw attention to the articles because I feel it is imperative that we are cognizant of how much of our daily lives are becoming dependent on these companies and their services.  Even if we cannot immediately see it.  Reading this article alone means you are interacting with at least two or three of them.

I also raise to suggest that maybe it is time for oversight.  Should these companies be treated like the monopolies of old?  Europe is moving in that direction, but the United States has been ever reluctant to do so.  Perhaps it is time for a change.

We certainly live in interesting times.  And while it's not time for the tinfoil yet, it might be time to invest in a good VPN.