Offline. . .

As I have oft said, online is a misnomer -- at least when it comes to worship.  Online is really offline.  I would not presume to say it is entirely without value but the reality is that worship is not meant to be mediated.  Screen or whatever other mechanism that replaces being together around the Lord's Word and the Lord's Table vitiates what it means to worship.  You can watch it and appreciate it in some way but you cannot participate nor can you receive the gifts of God via the screen.  While it is certainly true that we tend to live our lives in isolation from one another, that cannot apply to worship.  It is possible to sit at table in a restaurant at the same time while each of the diners is occupied by their screens and it is possible for the diners to take their food into different rooms to eat.  Yet even if they are watching the same thing on their screens or eating the same food, they are not participating.  There is no koinonia in the Word, the body, or the blood of the Lord.

I write this as one whose parish does have services online -- not live but recorded.  The point of this is not to replace or even compete with in person worship but to offer a witness to the larger community of who we are as a congregation and to provide those without any access to be in person something of value, though not a replacement.  The screen has value for some things but it is of limited value and it cannot replace what the in person gathering of God's people -- nor would I want to proclaim the Gospel to those on screens whom I do not know and cannot see!  In fact, I would suggest that watching a sermon online is not quite hearing the Word preached.  Not of no value but not the same as sitting before the preacher and having the preacher stand before you.

Recently I heard of marriages that took place with a pastor in one place and the couple in another.  Is this legal?  I have no idea.  But this is not what it means to gather or invite God's blessing upon a couple's life together as they stand before the Lord in His house.  I understand that sometimes meetings must take place via screens and that sometimes via conference calls information must be distributed but as one who has sat through more than my share of them, it does not replace meeting together.  There is no personal dynamic via the screen.  It may be an emergency fallback for limited value but it cannot replace what it means to be together in the same place -- not for worship and not even for meetings.

When our children were distant from grandparents or from us and we took advantage of Skype to do more than converse over the phone, it was a wonderful gift and blessing.  But only a fool would suggest that it replaced the in person hugs, smiles, frowns, and conversation.  It was a step up over watching a movie or hearing a voice but it did not in our hearts replace the longing to be together.  It should not for the people of God.  That there are people who have become satisfied with online or congregations who presume to provide pastoral care for their people online is both a sad state and an indictment against what has come to pass for membership within the body of Christ in a particular place and pastoral care.  No one should boast in this and we should all repent of it -- from the people who are content with this as their church to the churches who are content to call this faithfulness to the pastors who do not challenge these practices.  Online is not online at all when it comes to our life together;  online is offline.