This week several people shared with me an op-ed from the New York Times, “Why Churches should Drop Their Online Services”. Though Rev. Tish Harrison Warren has some strong arguments about the faith community needing to be in contact with each other and to hear, experience and taste the liturgies and movements of congregational worship. “These moments [of congregational worship] form and shape who we are and what we believe” She also states “We are not in March 2020 anymore”

She is correct that this is not March 2020. It is 2022. We cannot ignore that we have been in a liminal/pandemic environment for two years. We have not been suspended in time but have determinedly moved through these tough years to continue to be the church both in person, in the community and online.

Rev. Warren stated that the worship experience forms and shapes who we are and what we believe. So has the pandemic season formed and shaped and tested who we are as a communities of faith.

She also acknowledges that dropping the online worship experience would mean that those homebound would not be able to participate in the life of the church. “This however,” according to Rev. Warren,” is not a new problem for the church” Yet, within the pandemic a remedy for the problem has emerged and been engaged. Not only has it found a solution to an “old problem” but has created new connections, engagements, and ministries with the world around us. These new opportunities don’t necessarily fit into our image of the church and its ministries, but they are opportunities to imagine the church in a creative ways. New ways of expressing and demonstrating our faith are emerging through this pandemic season.

We are NOT the church of March 2020. We are the church of 2022. We are the church that has found a way through the pandemic and is now on the threshold of discovering a new way of being the Church of Jesus Christ, in a different, tired, anxious, confused and hope-filled world.

Now is NOT the time to drop the online service or ministry. Now is the time to engage with the community of faith and the surrounding and online communities in which we find ourselves. Now is the time to discover together the new paths where the Holy Spirit is leading.