As we continue to think about what things will look like after we are able to return to our physical gatherings, I found this article by Trevin Wax stimulating.
Our tension as regards this virtual era in which we find ourselves is to embrace what is good and jettison what is not so good (notice I didn’t say bad – different churches will, no doubt, come to different conclusions here). So there are things that we have discovered during this time that seem helpful and will, most likely, continue in some form in the new era to come. There are other things that will not.
One of the big areas we are wresting with is what to do with our Sunday Facebook Live broadcast after the gathering bans are lifted. One the one hand, because of the importance we place on the physical gathering of the body, we want to get rid the online offering as soon as we can. We don’t want to continue to reinforce something that is not ideal if we have the option of gathering physically (which we consider the best option). However, we are aware that, at least at the beginning, there may be some who are nervous or fearful about gathering physically, so, perhaps there is a place for continuing the online offering for a time. If that is true, how long? Or, perhaps we discontinue the virtual option for a time until we are all used to the physical gathering and then we offer something again for those who are ill, away, etc.
The local church as a physical assembly is something we touched upon earlier in the week. Just as a couple is still married even if one of them is away on a business trip, and, in such a time, the ability to see one another virtually is a short-term good, the fullness of what it means to be married is only fully expressed in embodied, physical proximity to one another. So, also, the local church. We do the best we can when circumstances preclude the full expression of what it means to be a local church. The question becomes, how do we balance the timing of the return to what is best.