We’ve been talking lately at the church about the problem of people becoming disconnected from the life of the church as this period of isolation grows longer and the time between our gatherings extends. In my blog post last week I explained to you the nature of the problem and some general ideas for how you might turn this season of ministry inside out by looking to your neighbourhood, workplace, or community as God’s calling on your ministry energy and resources during this pandemic. We continue to encourage you to make that your first and highest ministry priority at this time, but we don’t want you to do so without finding encouragement that comes from a vital connection with the church family. So, this week I am outlining some very specific and new opportunities for you to get involved in what the church IS STILL doing from the safety of your own home. All you need is access to a smartphone, and a willingness to allow your church family to see your face and hear your voice and you too can be a part of our service and teaching. Here are FIVE opportunities to get involved in our worship time.
1. Scripture Reading
If you gathered with us online this past Sunday you would have seen something new in the service (no not just my own experiment with a moustache—feel free to tell my wife that I should keep it, she disagrees). Just before we started the sermon, we had our weekly scripture reading. But this week it wasn’t delivered by Pastor Jenn or me from Studio B at The Bridge Church, but rather it was delivered from home by Maneesha. We assigned her the passage for the week and she recorded herself on her selfie camera reciting God’s word from Exodus 34! Can you read scripture in front of your phone? I’m sure you can. Why not email Pastor Jenn and let her know that you want to get involved in this part of the service. She would be happy to assign you a text and put you on the schedule.
2. Reading the Creed
We’ve just started a new series on the Apostles Creed, and part of what we want to do is to spend time every week reciting the creed together in worship. But why would you want to hear any more of my voice reading it over and over again every week, when we could hear (and see) you leading us instead? Take a trip to the series page on our church website and record yourself clearly and slowly reading the creed to your phone and send it to us so that we can feature you leading that part of our worship on an upcoming Sunday morning! Bonus marks to anyone who sends in a recording of your whole household reciting it together!
3. Reciting The Bridge Church Catechism
On the same page you find the creed, you’ll find a running list of our catechism questions. Record yourself reciting (from memory please—no cheating) the weekly question and submit it to the church office or post it to social media and tag us. We will review the best submissions every week and include one recording in the service. Let’s practice together and encourage one another as we learn about the doctrines of the Church.
4. Participating in Online Prayer Ministry
We haven’t forgotten about the indispensable role that the ministry of prayer plays in what we do at The Bridge Church. And while it has taken us some time to get the details worked out and the system up and running, we are pleased to announce that beginning this coming Sunday (April 26) our post-service prayer ministry is back. At the end of the service we will display a meeting code for Zoom (visit www.zoom.us to sign-up and download the appropriate client). You can enter this code and connect with our prayer team for ministry. We have a license for Zoom which allows us to use some advanced features such as moving people into private rooms for prayer or assigning different team members to different people. We may not be able to lay on hands for healing, but we can do just about everything else. If you need some prayer, why not check it out.
5. Get Creative with your Ministry!
We are always looking for more content to share with our church. So if you are doing something cool outside of the congregational context that you think we should know about, make a video telling us about it, write a blog post and share it with us, or find some other creative digital medium to communicate the cool things that God is doing in our midst at this time. It doesn’t necessarily have to fit one of the previously mentioned categories, but if God is on the move we want to document and share it with the church family. What might he be asking you to share at this time? Send whatever you create to myself or Pastor Jenn and we will review it and get back to you about the best way to use it.
These are all just ideas, and we are always open to more ideas, to more innovation, and more creativity from you. Please help us keep the family connected by getting out from behind your screens for a while and instead, getting in front of your cameras. God has given us the great privilege to live in an age where these sorts of things are possible in a way that no generation previous could have ever imagined. Let’s not squander the opportunities before us, but instead, let’s take advantage of them and build up the church through our worship of Christ.
Until next time,
Chris
