Last week I blogged about the theology of posture in worship – how do we enable everyone to worship God with the whole of their bodies, even though almost all of us experience some kind of limitation on our bodies at some point in our lives, and some of us experience that permanently, or longer term?
This week I want to explore this further, but particularly in the current Covid-19 pandemic context, where many churches are worshipping ‘virtually’, using online technology, each person in their own homes. Whilst in most of the UK, places of worship are allowed to open for communal acts of worship, that isn’t the case everywhere (such as where I am, in ‘locked down’ Leicester), and even when it is legally possible, for many churches social distancing and a ban on singing means that is still more practical to gather ‘online’ from home and many members of our congregation may be shielding, or unable or too scared to leave their homes.
In the first post, I noted that the two key things for a service leader to emphasise are that whatever we are inviting people to do – singing/speaking words of worship; affirming our faith; hearing the gospel and so on, we are firstly doing those things as part of our worship of Jesus Christ, and secondly, we are worshipping Him together, as a community or fellowship of believers.
Hopefully the first of those – the worship – is still self-evident as we gather virtually in our own homes. However, the second, that we are doing those things together, is probably slightly less obvious, or at least harder to remember, as we don’t necessarily see other people worshipping God alongside us. That is particularly true for those whose churches are using a prerecorded service with little real-time engagement, such as via YouTube or Facebook (although the comment facilities allow some of this), and even more so if, like me, you live on your own. This is partially alleviated through video-conferencing tools such as Zoom, but is still difficult for things where everyone except the host is muted (e.g. singing) because other voices cannot be heard joining with yours in worship of Christ.
Coupled with this, the relatively recent changes in technology which now enable us to link our other devices to the TV mean that often we can simply play the services on our TV as we would any other programme, adding to the challenges we face in being present and engaged in worshipping together.
To address some of these challenges and help us in reorientating our spiritual posture towards God, many of us may well find it helpful to physically change our posture, as we might do in a physically gathered service, such as “in church”. Indeed, many of us may find it more necessary to do so in order to be fully present spiritually. I myself, as someone who doesn’t always stand to worship “in church”, have noticed that I find it much harder to engage fully in worship just sat on my sofa.
In response to these challenges and the general human need to change something tangible in order to change something within us, emotionally or spiritually, some churches are making a particular effort to invite their congregations to stand for the sung worship within their online services.
As I noted above, I agree with the principle of inviting people to change their physical posture as they prepare to come before God in worship. However, for those of us who have difficulties in standing or in moving, this invitation can, as I suggested in my previous post, be difficult. If we cannot stand, permanently or temporarily, asking us to stand to sing (or to participate in other aspects of worship) can, subconsciously, communicate that the worship we offer is ‘less than’ the worship offered by those who are able to do so. It also creates expectations within the congregation that standing us required unless it is physically impossible, and then that becomes a last resort.
Whilst the peer pressure will be reduced as others may not be able to see you, the internal pressure created by expectation and the value placed on particular postures can still mean that some people will stand, not because that is the posture that would most enable them to worship God, but because they believe that it is only acceptable to worship God by taking the posture suggested by the service leader or order of service.
This is why I believe that it is important to proactively do in online church as we would in ‘physical’ church, and that that should be creating a space where everyone can assume the physical posture that most enables them to worship God. I would suggest that this even needs to be more proactive in online church than when we are gathered in the same post.
In my last blog, I suggested that the service leader could introduce the physical service with a single invitation for people, at every point, to take the posture that would most enable them to worship God through the songs, hearing and revering the gospel, affirming faith and so on. With online church, attention spans appear to be shorter, and like with online work meetings, online services are somehow more tiring than doing the same ‘in person’. So it may mean that for online church the purpose of each part of the service needs to be explained more explicitly, particularly with sung worship, the confession, the creed and (for churches doing so) showing and/or sharing the Eucharist. This explanation then also gives opportunity to reiterate the invitation for people to consider what posture would most enable them to worship God at each point.
Finally, I reiterate my call to the body of Christ to commit to enabling everyone to engage in worship and encounter God together, whatever their situation or circumstances, all the more in this strange time of worship in our own homes, doing so consciously and proactively, so that we emerge from this time closer to God and better equipped to share His Good News and practical love with those around us.
repairerofwalls 