Celebration: How We Gather and Scatter to Worship!

I am so in awe of how God is working during this pandemic. Our normal ways of worshiping, discipling, fellowshipping, leading, serving, sharing, caring, and mission have been disrupted. We are learning and embracing different ways to Be the Church!

I think we are seeing a shift away from the Church is the Place of God – to the reality that the Church is the People of God. Perhaps you can use this pause from gathering on Sunday to help expand the understanding that church is not a destination. I like the way that Dr. Richard Halverson responded to the question, “Where’s your church?” He said, “Well, it’s 3 o’clock in Washington DC. The church I pastor is all over the city. It is driving buses, serving meals in restaurants, having discussions in the Pentagon, and deliberating in Congress.” He then added, “Periodically, we get together at a building on 4th Street, but we don’t spend much time there. We’re mostly in the city.”

Here are a few ways that our churches provided Bible teaching this weekend – pictures link to church website. Several churches did not stream or broadcast Bible teaching at all and simply encouraged their church members to read and discuss the Scriptures.

Share Your Stories

We’d love to hear how God is working in your church families – and through your church families – during these challenging days. Send us an email at [email protected].

Also – since online streaming is new for many of our churches – could you take a moment and respond to a few questions by replying to this email?

• What worked well for streaming?
• What problems did you face?
• What was missing or confusing?
• How did you cultivate community?
• How did you encourage and strengthen relationships?
• How did you focus on “being the Church” vs. “going to Church”?
• How many people made a commitment to Christ online?

We continue to pray for you and your church leadership team and church families.