Why Home Worship?
When it became obvious to us that the coronavirus outbreak was going to mean lots of change, I wasn’t surprised to find out that we don’t have a “pandemic playbook” locked away in a secret vault in the catacombs of Grace Covenant. We needed to make big decisions and make them quickly. That’s not something Presbyterians are known for. While I never would have imagined that my first year at City Church would include a months-long shelter-in-place order, I am grateful for a leadership and staff team ready to pivot rapidly with thoughtfulness and unity.
One of the first decisions we had to make was about corporate worship. It was obvious we had to cancel, but what should we do instead? As you are aware, we chose to produce home worship guides rather than live-streaming. While many churches we highly respect and partner with chose that route, here are a few reasons why we decided to provide home worship guides.
We did this for practical reasons. It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that we’re a pretty low-tech church. Unlike other churches that regularly broadcast their services, we didn’t have any of the technology in place to livestream and weren’t confident in our abilities to put that together quickly.
We did this for theological reasons. We are big on the corporate aspect of the church—we believe, in fact, that it is essential to the Christian life—but our being together isn’t what fundamentally makes us the church. We are made the church by the mystical communion we share as the Holy Spirit lives within us. Throughout the history of the church, believers regularly gathered outside of the Sunday service with family and friends for informal worship. We think this is an opportune time to be reminded of our own agency in worshipping God through the Spirit and hope that these guides serve as a template for what home worship could look like even after we’ve resumed our corporate services.
We did this for formational reasons. Several people on social media have observed that this coronavirus disruption happened in the middle of Lent. Who thought we would give this much up? While humorous, there is a real nugget of truth there. Lent is a season of penitence and fasting that reminds us of the brokenness of life and hones our longing for what the resurrection of Christ guarantees—the blessed hope of His return and everything sad being made untrue. As such, we view this pandemic season as a time of fasting from our normal corporate life. Rather than offering substitutes for what we’re missing, we hope this will form within us a deeper gratefulness for our church and a deeper longing to be restored to one another.
All of this being said, we’re holding all of our decisions with very loose hands. Circumstances are changing rapidly, and we want to be open to how God leads us to respond and care for our church family. For now, we ask that you join us in the new normal. Do the home worship guide on Sunday with roommates, family, a group of people over Zoom, or individually. Continue to engage your City Group. Reach out to people and ask how they’re doing. Moreover: pray, pray, and pray some more.
Our prayer for you is found in the words of Paul to the Thessalonians: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”