I have a confession to make. I quite liked ‘church at home’ during Covid. Now I’m not sure if I feel guilty about that. The reality is that for a few months we simply ‘weren’t allowed’ to attend. I got it. The singing, the hugging, the way the seats work, the closeness of it all put church in the same danger zone as bars and clubs. Oh the irony of that!.
But we’ve moved ‘down’ the levels, remember groups of up to 50 with ‘appropriate spacing’ . But it didn’t feel good. It felt a bit like a restaurant putting me in the window to try and show ‘passers by’ that we were in a busy place. The singing sounded a bit hollow and I kept remembering the earnest scientist who shared with all of NZ that singing was a wonderful way of projecting the virus further than normal ‘up and down the aisle’ at the supermarket.
But another reason I liked ‘church at home’ was that very quickly pastors adjusted their ‘style’ and all of a sudden I felt as if he was speaking rather than preaching to me and I liked that.
Maybe, just maybe, the traditional model of church is yet again tipped on its head. The Greek word that means ‘church’ is Eklessia ….meaning ‘anointed one’…not a physical building. The New Testament dudes met in homes as well as in temples. As my wife says ‘Gary…needs must’. I’m sure that’s not a ‘Pam original’ but I get her drift.
Rather than get my knickers in a twist about so called ‘right to worship’ I wonder whether Covid is a bit like the i-phone…a ‘disruptor’ . The iPhone heralded the arrival of all sorts of cool stuff but it also caused a complete rethink of how we buy, save and play music.
My pastor is a natural ‘one on one’ guy, many pastors are ‘one to many’. Maybe its ok to have church at home via the Internet together with small home groups that stay within the legal number? Maybe the ‘one-to- many pastor’ needs to change more than me?.
That works for me. No longer will I have to pretend to sing ‘How Great Thou Art’ because the key its played in works best for sopranos!…and no longer will my wife say to me ‘Gary, are you going to church in those pants?’. With Church at home no one else sees or hears.