Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. | Hebrews 10:23–25
The elders made the decision this week to cease streaming our services and posting our gatherings to Youtube. As we make this change, we felt that it was important that we explain the reasons why.
The streaming of our services was never something that we wanted to do. We chose to do this because of COVID restrictions and the inability for the church to meet together for a period of time. Early on, I wrote a blog that pointed to the fact that we had entered into a situation where how we had to worship was Not Ideal. We adopted some means that we would not have otherwise for the sake of being able to connect when we were being asked to socially distance. At that point, it was important that we viewed the ability to stream our services as a gift from God:
We must also recognize God’s grace in the midst of the struggle. We are able to connect with one another in ways that were not possible a generation ago. We can call one another, stream services, and communicate on various different platforms (it is actually overwhelming to try choosing which is best). In streaming services, we are able to worship with our missionaries, members who have moved away, and some who are on bed rest and wouldn’t be able to come even if COVID-19 were not a thing. We had members joining us for service in their jammies, over breakfast, and on couches much more comfortable than the wooden pews. We have a generous God who allows what is not ideal to still be filled with His blessings and grace.
The blog goes on from this to encourage us not to get too comfortable with what is not ideal. God has described for us a way of gathering and worshiping that is ordered to both bring Him honor and to shape us as His people. Our worship service is not just a set of preferences and ideas, it is following God, trusting that He will work through our obedience to sanctify us. Gathering together to sing, pray, hear the Word, give offerings, and take sacraments is a necessary part of our faith. When we disconnect them from one another and create substitute ways of accomplishing these tasks, we rob them of their power. It is a very different thing to sing praise songs in your car and to join together with the gathered church to worship with one voice. A sermon that you are present for and part of is a drastically different thing than one that you watch (tends to lead to a consumer/provider relationship with your pastors). The act of Communion, this sacrament of grace, is not even possible via stream. I have not even taken into account the conversations after service and the community formed by gathering. All of this requires the people of God to meet together regularly (HERE is an article that articulates some of this from the beginning of the pandemic).
Streaming our services presents an alternative that deprives people of the fullness of the church (while making it seem like it is a healthy substitute). The same way that the gathered church forms us, we can be formed by the lesser option; it can lead us into believing that what the church offers can be condensed down and provided easier and without the difficulty of other people. In this, it is not only doing a poor job nourishing souls, but it is encouraging us to embrace the individualism we all sinfully crave (the book Analog Church does a great job describing this, you can read the book review HERE).
As leaders of the church, we do not want to encourage and promote streaming as an alternative to gathering. While we kept it going through the ups and downs of COVID, we feel like this is the right time to pull the plug. If you can’t be at church because you are sick or out of town and want to keep up with the series, we will still post our sermons on the website and on Podbean, Spotify and ITunes.
At the end of the day, your pastors want you to be formed by God for His glory. We are willing to remove anything that obscures this or offers you less. At this point, we view streaming through this lens (pun intended).