I remind myself that there are some who have little choice but to have their worship electronically all the time, online, radio, or TV. I am very aware of the distance from the sanctuary and those usually in it. I am hoping the discipline will be good for me. I should say rather that I am hoping the discipline will be good for believers in general. I am not optimistic, but then, I am thinking only from a worldly POV when I make that assessment.
I am one who teaches "Forsake not the fellowship of the saints." I don't believe attendance at worship is merely optional in the Christian life, and I further believe that the Church is the Body of Christ. While great saints and the testimony of Scripture both speak highly of having time away from the world and from other people, flying solo is considered dangerous in most confessions. It is unsurprising that it became a very North American idea, given our history, and there is a lot of cultural permission for finding no church acceptable and carving out one's own path.
I just don't think it works. I don't find Oswald Chambers inspiring, I find him deeply one-sided.
In one sense, this is how I have always done church living mostly in my own head in a world of ideas. I can imagine others worshipping at the same time because I am aware of the people in my life at most times anyway. Gathering together is something separate in worship. Because I am so talkative in the company of others people find it surprising that I am such a fan of solitude. I don't seek to hug or be hugged For Good Friday tomorrow, our church is having brief devotions every three hours. I'm going to try and keep up with that. That may be a new church model for more than special occasions. Not very different from Matins, Nones, and Compline, when you think of it.
3 comments:
I was a lodger years ago with a family that was firmly of the opinion that having selected a house to purchase in their new town, the nearest christian church (which happened to be "free methodist" across the street) was their parish community, for better or worse. I rather think they brought more spiritually to the group they joined than vice-versa.
It saves shopping to find the mythical perfect match, I suppose.
Even shut ins would typically, in non-pandemic times, get visitation and possibly communion from priests, deacons, or elders. This gives some sense of belonging.
A local church is doing "virtual coffee hour" where if you comment in the facebook live service you get a reply with the zoom-meeting URL for your "table" in the "fellowship hall".
I heard that idea of simply going to the nearest church years ago, and liked it. We are already involved in a church so it would be discontinuity now. We were 13 years at a church with a 30-35 minute commute, coincidentally near where I worked and the children went to school some of the years but an hour from where my wife did. Most other pillars of the church were likewise distant, and not in the same direction. It just doesn't work very well. Fellowship events cannot happen easily.
Had we done this, depending on when we initiated it, we would have first been at an old-style Pentecostal church, then equidistant from the Congregational and Episcopal churches, for many years at the Catholic church, and now at a Methodist church
I am reminded of your discussions about the American frontier experience and the rise of Fundamentalism. Making a virtue of a necessity will have unintended consequences.
Post a Comment