Good reader,
Instead of the usual numbered GoodLinks edition of the newsletter, I have another full issue for you all. It’s part two of a three-part series on the digitally-delivered church, which I hope can be helpful for both the faith and tech crowds.
In other news, Good Words is getting a new home! I’ve nearly completed the full reconstruction of mattcivico.com and soon the newsletter will be hosted and delivered from my little corner of the internet. If you’re a free subscriber then I’ve already imported your email and you’ll continue to receive Good Words as usual. If you’re a paying subscriber (via Substack or Patreon) you can get in touch about transferring your paid subscription.
Now grab yourself a hot drink and enjoy the rest of the newsletter.
-Matt
📜👩💻Ten Theses on Digitally Mediated Worship – Micah Latimer-Dennis, Breaking Ground
Continuing from where we left off in Part 1, here are the next theses on virtual church practice up for discussion and reflection.
Video recording opens the life of the church to surveillance.
These three abide: the recorded, the live-streamed, and the video call. But the greatest of these is the video call.
Recordings of worship make gathering for worship possible—but only in an impaired sense.
The biggest problem with pre-recorded sermons and live streaming is that they’re inherently isolating and non-participative. Pre-recording sanitizes the act of preaching and makes the preacher just another talking head, especially to worshippers/viewers who don’t already have a personal relationship with the pastor.
For example, a pre-recorded sermon is likely to be of higher quality than a shoestring live-stream, but it’s also more likely to feel impersonal. Without an audience, the preacher can’t know if a key illustration needs to be followed up or (God forbid) if a joke has landed. This is as unhelpful for the pastor as it is for the congregation, yet if I have the option between a recorded sermon and a live-streamed one, I prefer the recorded.
Why? Because if I’m unable to participate meaningfully in the service, then it’s less isolating to know that we’re all non-participatory in the same way. Live-streams remind us that while some are gathered, others are scattered. For this reason, the video call presents the best version of virtual gathering (for all its faults).
But that doesn’t solve our problem. An active Zoom call works well with a small group but loses effectiveness at the size of even a small congregation, not to mention larger ones. A workable solution requires the synchronicity of a live-stream with some form of meaningful participation. Meaningful participation needn’t take place between participants during worship or the sermon, however. Those are the portions of the service during which we “attend to the Lord” individually, even as we’re gathered.
The social dimension of the worship gathering—with all the implications for belonging and discipleship it entails—is severely lacking in the digital realm. Too often, solutions default to platforms like Facebook or YouTube, which, in addition to being worship-killers in terms of our capacity to “attend to the Lord,” also presume that switching between windows and screens and various threads can somehow be a sabbath experience in a time of remote-everything.
I know I’m doomsaying here, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t alternatives. The greater doom would be to accept the lesser (and actively bad) options available to us without labouring in faith to do better. Adam Graber, writing at FaithTech, offers several ideas to bridge the gap. There are physical options for larger congregations, hybrid solutions such as integrating video calls into the service and offering participatory feedback to full-suite software designed for churches.
To be sure, even these solutions present their own problems, but if your church has decided on a solution without thinking through the available options or without having a reason for choosing a given solution beyond convenience, then this a place to start.
For my part, I’m looking into what it might mean to practice fellowship on text/voice/video chat platforms like Discord.
If you’ve had success with some of the methods mentioned (or something else entirely), I’d love to hear about it — reply to this email!
Our Common Pursuits
I have two short pieces up at Common Pursuits that link up nicely with our current discussion on embodiment and belonging.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves deals with how we relate to others and roles hope and fear play in our social interactions.
Remote Work & Renewing Neighbourhoods considers the opportunities for more (and potentially better) social interactions in your very own neighbourhood. Remote work will change things; what it changes is up to us.
Thanks for reading this issue of Good Words. I have a picture for you.
📷 This is a church - Canon AE-1, 50mm, Fujicolor 400.