Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

And there’s another yet to be determined percentage that is going to stick with streaming worship at home. The huge challenge is going to be for congregations to accept them as full and equal members in fellowship and not panic when they aren’t back in the door Sunday mornings. I was at a goal-setting session this weekend and the first thing some of the older members wondered is if we should cut off the livestream to get more bodies back in pews. That horse has galloped out of the barn for good.

 

Wear the mask and err on the side of caution. Or are you just trying to antagonize just because?

 

I thought streaming would change the churches, but I looked at the streaming numbers of my parents’ megachurch, which has thousands of members in person and four “campuses” around the city and their streaming numbers were in the low 300’s every week. People want that in-person experience.

 

I've been a regular church attendee for my entire life. I was just kind of raised in it. That whole thing has been at the core of my COVID struggles. Logically and responsibly, I totally understand why the return process has been so deliberate. Our folks doing audio/visual work have done a very good job knitting stuff together. But spiritually, it is a poor facsimile and I've been fairly honest with folks about it. As a single person who lives alone, church used to be one of the times in my week in which I could feel less alone, where I had to make a deliberate effort to be an active part of the congregation through music and other participation. Church on YouTube is entirely passive and often made me feel more alone instead of less. Of course, one of the core parts of being in any faith community is the importance of putting the needs of others before self, but I cannot deny that one of the biggest negative impacts of the COVID era on me has been spiritual, and I wish our church had the same amount of urgency to regain that fellowship aspect as I do.

I think the ability for folks to have a church 'product' they can timeshift and 'consume' passively is good both for people who can't make 10 a.m. Sunday work, don't really want to be 'spiritual' in public or are kind of on the fence about it all. The key is directing those people into participating. You're right that this is a big paradigm shift but it is as good an opportunity for 'mainline' Protestant churches to generate a little 'buzz' in their communities as has come up in the last 20-40 years.

 

I'm on the administrative board for our UMC congregation. We met a few weeks ago to discuss fully reopening and scheduling (we are down to two full-time pastors from three). Luckily, our head pastor really wanted to continue live-streaming the services as we were getting views of them from people outside our city. As he said "if our goal is make disciples of Christ, then shouldn't we keep trying to reach as many people in as many ways as possible?" The fact were were getting more viewers than people in the pews made his decision easy too.

As the same meeting, we had some older board members saying the same things as at @dixiehack's church. Finally, after several minutes of it, I had enough. I gently explained to them that people had spent the past 14 months adjusting and reajusting their lives in countless ways. We can't expect them to immediately switch back to how they did things in the Before Times. A few of them just didn't get it at all.

 

I've found the same with concerts. Plenty of the acts I like have done livestreamed shows. I watched a few but stopped logging in. It's like watching concert videos on YouTube after awhile. Just not the same thing.

 

Our church was pleasantly surprised that giving stayed at a sustainable level last year. I think it may have dropped a bit, but they actually made up ground with the amount of time the building wasn’t open to the public. How that holds up for 2021, especially with an interim pastor for the rest of the year, is an open question.

 

Let's take a look at Gov. Trumpfluffer in Georgia, lauded by some as a hero for opening up earlier than most. How has it worked?
Through May 31, 2020, Georgia ranked 36th among the 50 states and DC in deaths per 100,000 at 19.12. (Hawaii ranked first, i.e. the lowest figure in deaths per 100k: 1.20).
In the period running June 1, 2020 through May 17, 2021, Georgia ranks 40th in deaths per 100K.
If we look exclusively at deaths per 100K from Jan 1, 2021 to May 17, 2021, Georgia is 47th.
Decisions have consequences. Claims that Georgia has somehow thrived while prematurely shedding its obligations to protect public health are not grounded in fact.

 

I had no idea how lousy with Methodists this board is.

In a related note, there was a school merger up in mining country and they named the high school Rock Ridge.

 

Local control!

 

At least it will make things pretty easy when figuring out who to go after legally when enough anti-vaxxers and COVID deniers seriously impair or kill someone.

And why am I certain Abbott has railed against Biden issuing orders, yet has no problem with doing so himself ... and certainly had no issues with those issued by the SPC.