Online Alignment: Ways to Worship From Home

Yesterday was a hard day.

Together, the Elders at Highview made the difficult decision to return to Online Services only, in what we believed to be a loving, Spirit-led response to the current surge in Covid-19 cases in Waterloo Region.  

View Video Message Here

That means starting THIS Sunday we will not be meeting together in our building, but gathering instead around our TV and computer screens.

Everyone agrees this is not the same and not the best.  The physical presence of other worshippers is, at least in part, certainly what God has in mind when He calls His Church to be a community.  And yet, here we are, in a strange time in our lives when staying apart might just be the most loving thing we can do for one another and for our community as a whole.  

We've done this before, and, to be honest, that seems like such a negative at first.  "Not again!" is what my heart wants to whine.  But on second contemplation, maybe what we learned together from the first time can make things better in this next round.

So here are some suggestions to experiment with.  It's not a thorough list by any means.  And I'm actually hoping I'll hear from you (Highviwers and otherwise) about ways you have learned to worship from home.  The more ideas we can share the more connected we can be, and the more our times before God together-while-apart can mean something good.

Here's a start.  I'll divide mine into Before, During and After.

Before

• Choose your viewing time intentionally.  There is some flexibility with online services, in that you can watch it at a time most convenient for you.  AND I might also suggest that we all might have a better sense of connection if we didn't go the convenience route and decided to watch together at 10:30 on Sunday morning.  I won't argue decisively for this right here.  Just sayin' that part of our feelings of disconnect might be routed in the 'whenever' factor.  Not sure.  Be glad to hear from you on this.
• Set yourself up.  Wherever you're watching from, have something to drink ready if you like, get your Bible and notebook ready.  Get comfortable, but not too comfortable, if I might suggest.  Being up and dressed and 'present' just might put us in a better state for engaging in what's about to happen.

During

• Stand up during the music.  It's more what we're used to, and your lungs and diaphragm have more room for singing when you stand.  This can help get the message of the song into deeper emotional places.
• Experiment with different postures for prayer and worship you might not be comfortable to try in a public setting (although this makes me want to write something about that! Maybe later :).  
• Take notes.  Have a notebook or your phone and write down the highlights, even the whole of the outline of the sermon, making sure to include any action steps the Spirit might bring to mind for you.

After

• Pause for a moment to ask God if there was anything specific about the morning that He wants to bring to your attention.  Any song lyric, or point in the teaching or any application point.  And then thank Him for the gift of our church community.
• Call or message someone to say hello, chat about the service, or any of the other kinds of conversations we usually have in the foyer after service.
• Send an email or a message to at least one person who participated in providing the online service.  One aspect of not being 'live' is the disconnect for those serving us to know if any of their efforts had any affect at all.  Be an encouragement.

That's all I'll leave here for now.  I'm actually really curious to hear from you if any of these were helpful, and if you have other ideas to share.

And I want to remind Highviewers that we will be experimenting with a Zoom gathering at 11:45 a.m. - a more normal time for us to be together chatting anyways.  For now I'm calling it Hot Chocolate By The Fire.  So bring something warm in a mug.  Ken and I will put on the fire.  And we'll see what happens.

Sacred Spaces

Not sure when I noticed this about myself, but environments are important to me.  The ambiance of it, I mean.  Works spaces, sleep spaces, eating spaces.  I wish this translated into something of a talent for decorating, but it doesn't.  And it's not exactly what I'm talking about anyways.

It's about -- Well, the spaces that are most important, actually, are the ones that become sacred spaces.

And right now I'm not talking about temples or sanctuaries or church buildings.  I'm talking about the kind of spaces that become something else to us, individually.

I've set up something of a work station for myself down at the church.  During this interim pastor stint, I will leave our Senior Pastor's office alone.  And my own home office, which I LOVE as a workspace, will remain intact.  In both instances, it's about the books mostly.  Can't even think of schlepping my books back down to the other end of town.  And anyways, with Covid in play, I'll be working from home for most of the week.

Even so, it seemed important to me to make this little work station mean something.  

In a fortunate overlapping of time-continuum orbits, Ken's company recently decided to forgo their rented space and have each of the three comrades work from home.  That meant clearing out the office they had, with some furniture left over.  I have 'adopted' a narrow desk with matching hutch, plus a moderately sized bookcase, both of which fit very nicely into the room Highview cleared out for my use.  Add a small tub chair, an office chair and a picture or two, and I have a space that will serve me very well.  Oh, and a vanilla candle of course.

None of this makes it sacred, of course.

For any space to become a sacred space, it's about what happens there.

Before I go too much further, I need to be clear that my understanding of how the Bible describes God is that He is <clearing throat for a big word here> Omnipresent.  He's everywhere.  So, in a sense, every space is sacred space.  Most of life is made up of mundane moments that also capture something holy if we pay attention to the many patient interactions God initiates with us....all the time.  So yes, we also experience the Every-where Presence of God.  Just to state the obvious in case anyone's worried.

Even so.  Sometimes certain private spaces are consecrated.  And then, on purpose or maybe even sort of by accident, the intentional habitual use of a space for spiritual practices, tend to imprint strong and sacred associations. 

We're all spending more time at home these days (said Captain Obvious).  And I'm guessing that for many of us there's a space like that where we live.  A chair by a window.  A spot by a fireplace.  In better weather, out on the porch or somewhere on a back patio.  A place where we go on purpose to meet with God.

And I guess what I'm marveling at in this, is the fact that Creator God, King of the Universe would "humour" us in this.  That the One who exists outside of Time and Space would deem to in some way restrict Himself, if that's even the right way to think about it, into our time and space just so that we could know Him.  That He would "humour" us, honour us, Love us....like this.

A manger.

That was a sacred space once.

Oh the lengths to which He'll go!

I'm grateful that Highview has allowed me this work station, and that I've had the chance to make it a 'warm' ambient place to work from.  I'm grateful for all the ways God moves right in.  Can't wait to see what He's got in mind as we move ahead into these next months.