ChurchServices@Home

By the time you read this article, most churches in Singapore have returned to limited physical services of up to 250 persons in attendance. But not so long ago in March 2020, Singapore was in Circuit Breaker and we were only able to attend church through online services or ChurchServices@Home. This was an unfamiliar practice for most of us. More so for church pastors and staff who had to embark on a steep learning curve to deliver church services online. The church was adaptable and resilient to overcome and meet the spiritual needs of their flock.

Mass Communication and The Church

The use of mass communication tools by the church is nothing new. In countries where going to church takes a considerable amount of time and effort, radio and television are used to broadcast services. Even the Bible’s wide availability was an outcome of the written form and the printing press. With the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, we relied on the internet to bring the gospel into the homes of everyone. This easy access to online services has also made it easier to be cut off from church. As I pondered over this contradiction, several questions came to mind—Is online services the future of church? What new attitudes and behaviors will emerge towards online services? What can we learn from this “experiment” of a fully online church experience?

Everyday Distractions on a Sunday

Personally, it was a challenge to focus and watch ChurchServices@Home. My young children (both aged below 5 years old) would be running amok on Sunday mornings because whatever I was watching did not have any sort of baby sharks in it. On the few occasions that I was free to focus for an online service, my mind wandered off to asking, “Wouldn’t it be cool to watch services in the various churches I have attended? How are online services being run by churches all around the world?”. Before my thoughts ended, my fingers were googling the names of these various churches like Trinity Christian Centre, Hillsong, Passion City Church, etc… By the time I returned to my home church’s online service, it was over. I had missed out on the main course of my weekly spiritual feed. All this “channel surfing” only left me with spiritual tidbits that were not grounded with Biblical context.

The Audience is Listening and That’s All We Do.

Early renditions of online services lasted over 75 minutes as it followed the structure and flow of physical services. I struggled to pay attention. Most people have the attention span of 35-45 minutes before needing to do a different activity. That is why a physical service of 75 minutes does not feel so long. There are different segments and movements. We stand to sing, sit to listen, stand to pray, sit, and pass sweets, bags and cups among ourselves. With feedback from the audience, the church recognized this issue and restructured the online service to be less than 60 mins. In my experience delivering online learnings, I had to deliberately inject activities and movements to engage and keep the attention of the learners. This should be a key consideration in designing future online church experiences.

A big concern of online services as the future of church, is that we will only remain as the “audience”—a listener who is passive and isolated. We started the first few weeks of attending ChurchServices@Home dressed up in our Sunday best and seated in front of the screen with anticipation. As the weeks went by, online services began to feel unidirectional. The inability to connect and see others resulted in the loss of spiritual atmosphere and peer encouragement that comes from gathering. Why else would the Bible paint a picture of multitudes giving praise and worshiping God before his throne (Revelations 7:9-11)? Even John spoke of his joy to see his fellow Christians face-to-face even though they had the option of writing to each other (2 John 12:12).

My youth pastor used to tell me that being a Christian is not a spectator sport but a contact sport. You need to join a team; you need to participate and you matter to others. The importance of this online church experience has exemplified this principle for me. The impact of belonging and being part of a community of believers will lead to both participation and ownership for the Great Commandment (John 13:34) and Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

Accessibility instead of Availability

With most returning to church physically, many churches have stopped their online services. Will ChurchServices@Home remain as a footnote in the progress of the church? The value of providing online services will allow for the gospel to be accessible to all. One group which appreciated online services are seniors. Many seniors have trouble hearing the message due to issues of delivery speed and volume. At home, seniors can watch at their own pace, as loud as they need to have it and as often as they want (if it’s recorded and available after live streaming). They can even watch online services with subtitles. Online services are also accessible by people who may be unable to attend church physically like those with mobility issues, inadequate accessibility infrastructure of church venues, those unwell or unaccompanied and even the persecuted. Online services will be their lifeline for spiritual food.

Certainly, this experience should teach us, as the church, the relevance of leveraging mass communication tools for the gospel to be effective and accessible by all. It reinforces the value and purpose of the church to be a community for Christians to thrive. Moving forward, there is a need to collectively reimagine the potential use of this tool to not just deliver the once a-week message but a constant supportive method to fuel Christians for the other six days which we are not in church.

Erwin Chan is the National Communications Coordinator for Royal Rangers Singapore – a mentoring ministry that develops the total child for Christ. He attends and actively serves in Harborlight Church with his wife and has two young boys. Erwin is currently an adjunct lecturer in biomedical science and a capacity builder for social enterprises. His interest is to promote an innovative and entrepreneurial culture for positive impact.