Like so many other churches across the world, mine had to make a sudden and unexpected decision in the face of a pending lockdown: Do we broadcast our services or do we not? Under normal circumstances we would never even entertain the notion, but with a looming period of isolation that would last no less than weeks and that could well stretch into months, we were suddenly presented with the dilemma. We decided to “sort of” broadcast our services. Let me tell you what we settled on and why.
A Matter of Ecclesiology
Grace Fellowship Church has always attempted to give a lot of attention to ecclesiology—the theology of church—and to carefully put that theology into practice. It is for ecclesiological reasons that we would not typically broadcast a service since we believe that assembling as a church requires physically assembling. Under normal circumstances, our concern with broadcasting a service is that it would allow people to think they are genuinely participating in church when they are actually only observing it. Those who only watch church from afar simply cannot be full participants. (We best see the physical necessity of assembling in the sacraments—while you may be able
To continue...read the full-length post originally published on this site.
