Electronic Church

It has been around for some time, obviously, but not like this. For a long time you could find some sort of online service for people like shut-ins or on a Sunday when the family was sick or something. It's not new. But, in a way, it is. It is in the age of COVID. It's new in the sense of "normal" where it was once "outside of normal." More and more people have been forced to experience online services rather than in-person services because, well, social distancing and all that. I mean, you don't want to kill someone, do you? Besides, the government deemed your First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion as nonessential, so there was no choice.

Things are starting to open up again. Our church has restarted. Well, sort of. You need to schedule a service because seating is limited. You need to wear a mask because the government says so. No hugging your church family now. Stay 6' apart. Sort of open. They still offer the online service and some of the groups also offer a Zoom option, but it's sort of open. What it is not is "the same." It wasn't the same when it was remote; it's not the same with its current limitations in person. It is different enough that some have come back, sampled the "new normal," and decided it wasn't for them. "We'll wait until the old normal returns," they say.

How many will that be? Worse, how many will not return? How many are finding advantages in the online version? "You know, it's kind of nice not to have to dress for church. It's kind of nice to able to have Sundays free and pick another time to catch the service. It's kind of nice to be able to mute the pastor at times or the songs we don't particularly enjoy. When they're praying, I get the chance to slip out and get some coffee without disturbing anyone." And so it goes. Predictions say that upwards of a third of regular churchgoers may cease to be churchgoers. Why? Because churchgoers are thinking like consumers and not like "the body of Christ."

I've written in the past about the "one anothers." Christianity is very much about others, starting, at its core, with "love God and love one another." The Bible says we are gifted by the Spirit "for the common good." (1 Cor 12:7) That is, 1) every believer has a gift (or more) and 2) the purpose of all gifts is "the common good." The church isn't designed for bringing people to Christ (although that can happen in a church) or a social club (although it should be sociable for believers especially); the design is "for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith ..." (Eph 4:12-13). This cannot happen in the electronic church.

I start to wonder. There are lots of issues we see in today's church. There is a lack of biblical depth. There is often an absence of the practice of spiritual gifts. There are false teachers and wolves in sheep's clothing and personal conflicts that should never be part of a church. And these aren't new. They were present in biblical days. But they were addressed then while today many consider them normal. We live in a time when church is a commodity. Like some smorgasbord, we look around for what we like and see if we can get fed. We go to get, not to give. We are often not particularly dedicated or invested in a local body. It's just ... something we do. "I'm not too keen on the music at this church. Can we find something more entertaining?"

As it turns out, then, this COVID problem appears to be unearthing a church problem, because if we can be happy with a remote church experience, we don't really know what church is about. If we can be happy with no church experience, we really don't know what Christianity is all about. I'm starting to think that a pandemic is not really a good thing, but if it reveals some real problems that we can see and address, I guess a pandemic isn't all bad, is it?