With summer come rain and storms. If you’re worshipping outside due to the pandemic, then you may need to check the weather forecast closely to ensure that everyone is safe and dry. Or perhaps you have access to a tent or a tabernacle that allows the air flow of being outside but protects everyone from the rain. It seems like Camp Meeting had the provision for this long ago.

How do you let everyone know about the weather and it’s impact on the worship service? You can use social media, or texting, or email. The important thing is to make the decision in time for people to plan their Sunday accordingly.

Many Churches are moving to outdoor worship as a way of maintaining social distance protocols. If you have worship on the Church lawn, then people can space out as they feel comfortable.

The challenge is to have a PA system that handles this. Think of an outdoor concert. It has to be loud enough to drown out the noise of traffic going by. But it also has to be soft enough not to offend anyone. Perhaps you need multiple speakers set up so that everyone can hear clearly without being too loud.

The health and wellness of the community of faith has to always be a consideration for Church staff. Does your Church have a policy in place to manage the pandemic. If not, then you should gather a group of Church members (virtually) that have expertise in Health issues. They should discuss the possibilities and come up with a policy for your Church.

Once the policy is created, then use every means to inform the congregation about it. There should be some time for feedback to allow everyone to weigh in on it before it is implemented. But go ahead and set a date for when it goes into force. That way, staff have a definite time to get it underway. There may be preparations required.

With Churches starting to think about meeting in person again, it makes one wonder how that might work. Suppose you meet outside, where you have lots of space for social distancing. You could easily fill up the front lawn with people sitting in folding chairs. What are the technical considerations?

First of all, you should consider the weather forecast. If it is going to thunder and lightning because a thunderstorm rolls through, then the preacher will be upstaged. And everyone will probably scramble for the front porch of the Church, where they will huddle together. If the weather is cold, then the elderly will likely skip the service.

Secondly, make sure that you have a sound system outside. Think of an outdoor concert. With traffic rolling by, there will be lots of external noise. You need a sound system that can reinforce the word spoken and hymns sung so that everyone can hear clearly, even out by the street.

Thirdly, consider what you need to do pre-service and post-service. Normally, people congregate in the vestibule to converse with one another. Outdoors, that will look like something else. Try to consider effective ways to pass out bulletins – e.g. via an electronic link. Provide coffee if that is the normal pre-service fellowship time, but deliver it to anyone seated.

Worshipping outdoors reminds me of Camp Meeting. There, you had a Tabernacle to keep the rain off, but plenty of cool breeze in the evening time. It was relaxing and enjoyable. Try to make your Outdoor Worship a time to refresh the soul.

With many Churches worshiping online these days, it may feel just like being there. However, there are some things to consider here:

• Is the service live or pre-recorded? Pre-recording allows for the technical staff to edit the worship segments together, but the seams may show. Broadcasting the service live over the internet is more life-like, but minor errors and glitches will be seen by everyone
• If pre-recorded, then is the setting consistent? If you show the organist playing the anthem, is it in daylight or darkness? If the rest of the worship service is in daylight, then it will look odd if the anthem is suddenly shown in darkness. The windows may be covered, but some ambient light gets in. Make sure that the setting is consistent, so that worshipers feel like they are there for one service.

Worshiping online will likely be something the Church wants to continue long after the pandemic is over. It has some great advantages. People can join you in worship from the hospital or nursing home. They can worship even though they are far away from home on a trip. Then can worship when they’re sick. The Church needs to continue to support this as an outreach to the community.

In REV 21:5 God declares “Behold, I make all things new.” In this new year, we have an opportunity to make all things new in the life of our Churches. As we plan for the return to in person worship, how can we apply this concept?

In one sense, it will be good to return to the Church building. Many of us have been worshipping virtually through various video conferencing services. That has helped us keep the congregation together in worship throughout the pandemic that has become a barrier. Some Churches may have already returned to in person worship.

Churches can plan in person worship with new elements. How about an a Slideshow during the offering that shows how the money given is touching lives in the community. Or how about combining worship services together with a sister Church. Or maybe having a live shot from out in the community shelter to show how the Church is ministering to people in need.

As we return to worship, we have an opportunity to reinvigorate it and bring an air of excitement and joy. Joy in how God is touching lives in the midst of the travails of our society. Let’s seize the opportunity!

With the New Year of 2021 just around the corner, our attention turns to the future. It is appropriate this Advent Season to envision what that future might look like. (No prediction is 100% reliable, but some are more probable than others.)

With vaccines now available, the plague known as the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will come to an end. This will have a profound effect on everyday life for all of us. The New Year holds the promise of life returning to somewhat normal. Churches will be able to resume in-person worship services. Schools will be able to once again hold in-person class sessions. Businesses will reopen. Restaurants will return to full, in-person capacity. But let us not forget to pray for the families of those who have lost loved ones. The abrupt end of so many lives around the world has been devastating to family after family. We need to pray for one another as we come to terms with the consequences.

My apologies to my readers. A recent update resulted in pages where the content was filtered out. The posts were thus coming up empty. This was caused by an old plugin that stopped working with WordPress 5.5. It has been corrected, so you should now be seeing this apology.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it is a good time to be thankful.

This year will be a bit different, since the pandemic is raging. Instead of a big Thanksgiving Dinner with all of the family around one table, we may need to have multiple dinners in our homes and use videoconferencing afterwards. Why not have a videoconference with all the family groups as we enjoy dessert?

Churches have adopted Web Streaming Services during this time of pandemic. They broadcast the worship service via that service to members and visitors every Sunday. But how do you go about choosing which streaming services to support?

The budgets of many Churches are hard-pressed right now. It is nearing the end of the year, so Stewardship campaigns are cranking up. Difficult choices often have to be made. Will the Church be able to afford to keep using the multiple web streaming services that they currently have? Or will they consolidate and only use one, or possibly none at all.

Web streaming is a great way to let people who are away from home join in with worship. I have used web streaming while in another state and on the road during worship time. It felt like I was at home. And it was one way to stay connected with my Church even on a trip.

What do you do when your audio system is acting up during worship? Like all technology, there are minor technical issues that can come up during operation. Dealing with those is part of the responsibility of the technical ministry team.

The first consideration is what I will call “gravity.” Is this problem severe enough to interrupt the flow of the service? If the answer is “No,” then the best thing is to just put up with it until the service is over. You can then handle it in Followup time, while you’re putting gear away. Many times the issue is small enough that it only takes a couple of minutes to deal with.However, if you walk up to the pulpit to handle it, then the congregation will be paying more attention to you than the preacher! This is inappropriate, and should be avoided if at all possible. Worship is an encounter with the Divine, and doesn’t need to be subverted by technical issues.

A great example of a low gravity event is the failure of a wireless mike do to a battery going dead. The preacher should just switch to another mike and go on with the service. However, if you only have one mike and are recording the service, then this would become a high gravity event. You should then walk onto the stage and do the mike replacement. I have done this during sermons when it was high gravity. You don’t need to say anything. The preacher knows that the mike went dead, and hopefully is going on with the sermon. You just need to quietly and without much fuss swap out the battery and hand the now active mike back to the preacher so they can carry on. You can potentially edit the audio track for the sermon to handle the skipped part. Worship goes on.

A second consideration is the “impact” of the problem event. If the impact is small – I.e. it doesn’t really have much of an impact on the community – then it can be ignored. Usually, this is the best course. However, if it has a high impact – e.g. people won’t be able to listen to the sermon – then you have to deal with it immediately. The best way to gauge the impact is to consider what percentage of the community will notice the problem. if only a small percentage would even notice the audio issue, then it can be ignored. If everyone in the community is going to feel the impact, then it demands immediate action. This is particularly relevant while streaming worship. You need to get the sound audible again!

Hopefully, you are doing mike checks before the service to make sure all mikes are in good working order. If in doubt about a battery (e.g. have we used that one twice already? ) then just replace it. Batteries are fairly inexpensive, and you probably have a whole box in the closet. Supporting the Worship Service is the priority, so that everyone can worship!

Many Churches are “live streaming” their worship services these days during the pandemic. This is the next best thing to the congregation actually being there. The variety of methodologies and web services supporting this is encouraging to see. Some make it easy. Others provide all of the bells and whistles for the Technical Ministry team to use.

The goal of Streaming Live worship is to make it as close to “being there” as possible. The Service should start and stop on time, although the ending is flexible. You can go over 15 minutes and probably not incur any additional charge. But if you drag on for an hour, you will likely lose your audience. So keep the length of the service within the bounds of what people in the congregation normally expect.

What technology is your Church using to stream live worship services?

The Church has long embraced the freedom that comes with Christ. As Paul states in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” The Church in Galatia was struggling with those who argued that Gentile Christians should be obeying the Law of Moses. Paul counters that they should simply Love your neighbor.

How do we Love our neighbor during this time of pandemic? Some would say that we should just steer clear of them – i.e. keep to ourselves. That would certainly maintain a social distance. By doing so, we avoid the possibility of exposing them to the virus. Others would say that we should reach out to our neighbors more, since we are all home alone right now. We should remind them that we care about them and what they are going through. By sharing, we enter into community and fellowship.

Many are finding ways to do both through technology. With modern communications and the Internet, you can reach out to not only the people in your neighborhood, but the global village as well. How about contacting old friends over a teleconference? Or simply send them an email expressing your concern and caring? Or invite a coworker to just meet over videoconferencing for a cup of coffee together? Technology offers unique ways to overcome the isolation that these times have brought. It is High Tech, High Touch. Through it, we have the Freedom to Love our Neighbor in new ways!

Since Churches are worshipping online through streaming services, there is an opportunity for enhancing worship. The typical pattern is:

• Welcome
• Call to Worship
• Music
• Reading Scripture
• Prayer
• Sermon
• Music
• Benediction

Why not add some new items? This is a chance to be creative. You could have a drama. You could have people singing the hymns from their homes all over the community. You could include former members who are now far away in reading the scripture. You could have children sharing the prayer (i.e. using multiple takes if needed.)

The Welcome and the Benediction should be by the same person. This brings a sense of wholeness to the service. Some elements will be the same as the Church did in “live worship” before the pandemic. That gives a sense of familiarity. Finding new ways to worship online is like filling new wine in new wineskins. It allows the Church to grow and try out new items. And you may find that the congregation likes a new item so much that you’ll decide to incorporate it in “live worship” when you resume meeting in the sanctuary!

How do you worship at home? The early Church always worshipped at home. They didn’t have Church buildings. The great cathedrals would come much later. And some have organized new Churches around the concept of a small group meeting in a home. Maybe that’s a good idea.

With the Coronavirus pandemic still underway, many Churches are providing worship services online. That allows us to still worship together, but it is hard to feel like you’re in worship. One alternative is to provide a multi-window screen, consisting of lots of people in a matrix format. This gives a sense of the fact that the streaming worship service is touching many people.

This year many of us will be celebrating Easter At Home. That seems strange. We’re all used to great services on Easter, starting at Sunrise and extending throughout the day. Most Churches have multiple services on Easter to support the crowds. A lot of people attend worship on Easter out of respect for family tradition, as well as nourishing their faith.

The early Church didn’t have any large buildings. They always met in one another homes – i.e. often in secret. There was some fear, that they might be found out. The early Christians faced persecution as their largest fear. Today, in most places, we don’t have to worry about persecution. But this year we are faced with the fear of disease. Let us return to meeting in our Homes as a way of celebrating Easter like the early Church. As you gather together, you might reflect on Easter memories and just what Easter means.

With a pandemic in progress, it will be challenging for congregations to continue holding worship services. Perhaps it is time to consider some Worship Alternatives.

The obvious alternative to consider is Live Streaming. This is where you hold the worship service with no one in the sanctuary. However, you broadcast the live video over the internet. This allows people to participate from their homes, or for that matter anywhere on a mobile phone. All they need is an Internet connection. While not quite the same as being there in person, it is a valid alternative. You’ll need to provide links to resources such as hymns and liturgy, either through email or chat. The Good News is that you can participate in the worship service through the stream. You can sing the same hymns, listen to the same sermon. The only thing you can’t do is hug or shake hands with other worshipers in the sanctuary (which might spread the virus). I would recommend that you hug your family instead.

Another alternative is to have the preacher record the sermon and distribute it via the Church web site. Likely you already have the sermons online in some form, either as video or audio files. This would just abbreviate the process, maybe recording the sermon in their office instead of the sanctuary. That way, people will be able to listen to the sermon at home via the Church Web Site. All they need is an Internet connection.

Speaking as one who has listened at home during a long illness, I can attest to the importance of providing these alternatives. In my case, the Tech Team recorded the sermon on CD and brought me a copy every week. Although I could not go to Church, I could still worship. If you provide access to the whole service via streaming, then your remote worshipers will also hear the same announcements, see the people, etc. The Church is the body of Christ wherever and however it worships! (1 Cor 12:27)

Does your Church include multiple buildings and/or multiple locations? Then it is an Internet Campus. This means that you have a network that defines all of the buildings. It may be a subnetwork in the cloud, to which all buildings are connected. Or it may be that you link routers together into a local network that covers your campus.

The advantages to an Internet Campus lie in security and efficiency. When staff in one building want to share information with staff in another building, they can do so quickly through the Internet Campus. They can logically see other equipment across the Internet Campus, such as printers and shared file systems. And they thus move information around more efficiently. If you have a school – i.e. even a preschool – then the Internet Campus supports the weekday programs of that school.

When Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar in October 1582 AD, it solved a problem that had been growing worse every year. Basically, the Roman era Julian Calendar didn’t match the solar year. The difference was slight, but through the centuries it had accumulated. And people were noticing that the Equinoxes were now off by 10 days.

There is a difference between Leadership and Management. Management applies to the technical functions of an organization. It includes the day to day organizational meetings and events that carry out the mission of the organization. It focuses on metrics of organizational efficiency and effectiveness. And it reminds everyone of the policies that procedures that keep the organization intact and functioning.

Leadership sets a vision before the organization. It lifts everyone’s sights up to a higher calling that the organization is striving to reach. Epiphany is a time to focus on our vision of the Church at its best. It calls everyone to put out some extra effort, to change to better meet it, to become more capable of reaching that vision. It should be the case that the Leader has a vision and knows how to communicate it to others. It is up the Leader to lead.

Advent is really the beginning of the Christian Year. What better time to start than the birth of the Christ child! Every year, we look for new ways to announce His coming. We celebrate Christmas with musical specials, children’s plays, small group celebrations, and Christmas Eve Communion. It truly is Advent Time.

But Advent can also be a time for some to struggle. It may be the seasonal change as winter sets in and we all stay inside more. Or it may be that some tragic event is remembered. Yet, in the midst of all of that, Hope is born again in our hearts through the Christ Child. Let Him come anew into your heart this Christmas!

Not every Church is on a rapid growth curve. Some are stable. Others are in decline. Local Churches have a life cycle of their own, just like other organizations. I’ve seen Churches at every stage of this life circle (including startup.) While it is true that God created the Church (at Pentecost) and supports it, local Churches are also human institutions and susceptible to human influence. This affects the organization of the Church.

So what do you do when your Church is in Retrenchment? In most Churches, the technical ministry equipment is already bought and paid for. Typically, the volunteers contribute to this; but I have seen capital budget items for it as well. If this is the case, then you don’t have much to worry about. Until the Church stops worshiping, there will be a need for the technical equipment. However, the Church may decide to shift worship to another building. You may be called upon to reinstall technical equipment in another worship space. Or you may find the budget has been cut for some of the technical subscriptions that you use. For example, the Church may no longer be able to afford to broadcast the worship service live. Or it may no longer make sense to keep the premier Website Hosting Service. Or it may no longer make sense to provide a giving kiosk. In all of these cases, I suggest scaling down the services rather than abandoning them. If you were involved in scaling them up, then you should remember what it was like before you went to the current level. Or you may be able to find Church members willing to support the service over and above their regular giving to the Church. Either way, making the service less expensive will help ensure that the Church continues to provide it. You should also look at documenting the effectiveness and impact of the service. How many people watch or listen to the sermons every week? How many people give online, rather than through the offering plate? These facts will help you make the case for continuing the service.

Technical ministry can survive a retrenchment in the programs and ministries of the Church. Indeed, it is likely that you can do more with less cost. Be ready to support the budget item with facts, so that you can make your case before the finance committee.

What happens to old Churches when the members die off or move away? More and more, this seems to be happening in small towns and villages. It is hard to realize, but Churches have a life cycle of their own. They are started by a few people with a desire to see a Church in that location. They grow up and mature as a congregation that serves their community and nation. And they decline and sometimes die off when the community changes. If your Church is in the late stage of this process, then several possibilities come to mind:

• The Church can be donated to a non-profit organization.
• A Mission organization can take over the building and use it.
• A new Church plant can occupy the building and reach the community.

If your Church is in a decline, you can just let it happen. Or you can be intentional about transitioning the building and grounds to another use. May God grant you the wisdom to celebrate the life and ministry of your Church, and then move on to better things.

Disasters happen. They make the news. And they impact Churches in the Disaster Community. If the Church building is spared, then it often becomes part of the recovery effort. Your Church building can provide shelter to those who are homeless. It can provide logistical support for organizations – e.g. UMCOR – that are bringing in relief. It can provide support groups and comfort to those who are traumatized by the event.

When the Church building is damaged, as in a storm or fire, then it too has to be rebuilt. Generally, there will be property insurance to help pay the bills. There may need to be an alternative worship plan for a time while reconstruction happens. Sometimes a neighboring Church will share facilities. Or a school auditorium may be used. Churches and communities need to pull together to rebound from the disaster. That’s what the Christian Community does.

When a disaster strikes a community, the Church is often there immediately to help. Whether it is a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or earthquake, the Church is part of the community response. Usually, this happens after the first responders have completed their mission. Churches will reach out with people, resources and service to help in the recovery. This is part of the Church’s caring for others ministry.

How does your Church respond when a disaster strikes? Some Churches will take up a collection and send money. Others will gather supplies and get them delivered. Still others will organize a team to go and help. It might be covering damaged roofs with tarps to keep out more rain. It might be repairing damaged homes for those without insurance. It might be sending cleaning supplies and home goods to help those who have suffered. Whatever the method, the Church is called to reach out and help. And I have been amazed at the generosity and helpfulness of those in the Church.