While we wait to gather again physically, we can ask: How are we experiencing the Spirit’s movement in our cyberspaces of worship, inviting us to cross boundaries between human, machine, more-than-human, the physical and the non-physical?
Amid isolation and silence forced by a pandemic, ‘We’re all monks now’
Even if shelter-in-place for you feels like being held in solitary confinement, this devastating pandemic WILL end. Until then, perhaps you have been given a rare opportunity to quiet your heart and mind for a greater purpose.
I’m a music minister who nearly died from COVID-19. Here’s what I’m called to do now
I have become a patient advocate and personal resource for people around the country whose loved ones and friends are now behind the COVID curtain, alone. With reluctance, I have also entered the public dialogue about COVID-19 on social media.
I’ll get to hope. For now, I need to sit in the ashes and mourn
This pandemic is not a theological crisis. It’s a moral one. We would do well in this moment to take the prophet Jeremiah’s advice to “put on sackcloth, lament and howl.” We need to mourn and rage and contemplate what led us to this moment.
Baptist uses magic to preach powerful message during pandemic: ‘Stay Home’
Professional magician and retired children’s minister David Garrard is famous for his ability to combine slight-of-hand, humor and faith in his performances. His new YouTube video, titled “At Home,” features world-class magicians performing tricks and promotes the message of safe practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sacrament of not touching: a gift of grace made literally a matter of life and death
As congregational separation and virtual worship persist, I find myself longing for the healing touches consistently dispensed in our home congregation – sacraments of grace I’ve taken all-too-for-granted.
Even limited to screens, COVID-19-era virtual church is fostering fellowship believers need
More than a month into virtual services, ministers are finding ways to engage with their congregants, even if services are watched in living rooms amid real-life distractions.
Self-care as political resistance – or how (not) to sacrifice humans to ‘save’ the economy
In the face of economic collapse, Americans are being invited to become sacrificially collectivist in their willingness to strap life, limb and vulnerable loved ones to the altar of our hyperventilating economy for the good of “everyone.”
Now what? Some thoughts about what’s next for the scattered and gathered church
Like retailers, universities and hospitals, churches will be having conversations around this question: Are buildings a necessity for delivering our services and ministries? In our new normal, physical location may be only one of many expressions of church.