[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], October 2020]
Has digital church replaced physical church? What have we gained, what have we lost?
For the last six or seven months we have been doing digital church. We’ve been doing YouTube services, we’ve been doing Zoom home groups and Zoom after-church coffee and it leaves us with that question – what is best, physical church or digital church? What does the future of the church look like? We’re going to be talking a little bit about that over the next few minutes.
[00:48] I think possibly what we need to do as we unpack this is remind ourselves of kind of our theology of the Church because we say over and over again that the Church is the people, not the building, but sometimes we can forget about that. We mustn’t fall into the trap of Church only being when we’re meeting together in a Sunday service. We mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that God is somehow confined to a building or a 10:30 service or a worship time when we all meet together. God just doesn’t work that way. God is too big to confine to any box, any building, any physical space.
[01:33] We have to remember that the Church is the body of Christ. It’s the believers in Christ on Earth who together are united by the Holy Spirit, who together are using their gifts and their talents to work with God in the mission that he has in this place, to bring about the kingdom of God in our place. All of that can be done without physically meeting together on a Sunday morning when we do YouTube services but we can still do things together in terms of discipleship, we can still do things together in terms of evangelism and we can still do things regardless of what we’re doing on a Sunday when it comes to meeting the needs of those in need in our town so don’t fall into the trap that we have to meet physically on a Sunday or in a worship service in order to be Church.
[02:37] Now often people quote those verses from Hebrews 10 where the writer to the Hebrews says “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”. Let’s look at why the writer of Hebrews said that. Well he said that by meeting together you can encourage one another, you can spur one another on towards love and good deeds; actually by being together, by being united, you help people grow in their Christian walk. It’s no secret that if you disconnect from the Church and you disconnect from Christ your salvation may be secure but you’re not going to be walking the walk, you’re not going to be talking the talk, you’re not going to be living the life that God wants you to live. You’re not going to be able to be an effective part of Christ’s body.
[03:38] But we can still encourage one another digitally. We’ve been doing Zoom every Tuesday every week since the end of March and it’s been a real time of deepening our relationships with one another and spurring each other on as we disciple each other. Actually digital has a huge number of positives, a huge number of pros for us as a Church. I just love the way it’s opened those four doors of the church, I love the way that people are seeing who we are and what we do. That’s normally hidden in the four walls. Although people are very welcome to come in they often don’t. They’re able to access our YouTube services or our Facebook page and see what’s happening. I love the fact that we’re able to share the good news of Jesus Christ with with more people than we ever have been able to before. It’s also solved numerous problems with regard to accessibility for people for whom maybe attending a physical service was difficult, maybe due to a disability or anxieties or even just they’ve got children to look after. They can’t get out. Digital Church has made a huge difference, a huge number of positives and I would hate to lose that.
[05:10] But … a friend of mine was sharing that her niece is a psychologist and she’s doing all her consultations, all her appointments now online via Zoom and although it works, kind of, actually she struggles to get the depth of relationship that’s required in order for her to bring about healing and to bring about change, to move someone towards getting better, getting sorted. Likewise, we are missing something when we don’t meet together physically. Yes we can encourage others, yes we can spur each other on but it’s so much harder when you’re not there physically. Also you can’t minister to someone in love and affection as easily via a screen. It’s difficult to show that love, particularly that physical touch which we are missing so much at the moment.
[06:13] Digital is great but it is not a replacement, we still need that physical proximity to deepen our relationship with one another. We still need to worship together, lifting our voices together and feeling the Holy Spirit move amongst us and we still need that sense of meeting together which Zoom and YouTube just doesn’t bring. I love digital church and all the opportunities that it brings but, to be honest, I can’t wait till we meet together again physically.
[1] YouTube link: Physical or Digital? The Future of the Church
Bible references: Hebrews ch10 v25
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
