Knowing Your Strengths and the Needs of Your Community
“There has been a lot of grace this year.” Heard from many worship leaders
“Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” Acts 6:3-4 [NRSV]
When worship leaders say, “there has been a lot of grace this year,” it has often been a kind way of saying that people worshiping online have seen a lot of mistakes during the past year. During a first attempt at anything, mistakes will be made. Mistakes are how we learn and improve. As congregations look to the next two years, leaders will be intentional about the choices they are making with online worship options. Here are our insights to guide those choices.
Know your strengths The strengths of your congregation as a whole may differ from the strengths a particular leader brings to the congregation. Know the strengths of the congregation as a whole. Are there members of the congregation who have become a reliable part of producing the weekly online worship experience? Is less time needed now by the primary worship leader to prepare for online worship than was needed during the first six months of offering online worship? If the primary worship leader was not present, would members of the congregation be able to stream the service led by a guest at the same quality as if the primary worship leader were present?
St. Mark currently has a team of 4 hosts who monitor the chat during worship. The goal is to grow that team to 6 so there are 2-3 hosts who can take turns at each of the 2 worship services, so there is at least one host at each service. For camera and sound operation, St. Mark has one part time media specialist who prepares the visuals for worship and two high school students who each operate the camera and sound – one at the first service and the other at the second service.
Intern Pastor Tim Jacobsen, St. Mark Lutheran, West Des Moines, Iowa
Know the quality of your online worship experience Ask people who regularly participate in your congregation’s worship online what they see and hear. Is the quality of the sound good? Is the quality of the video good? Does the camera bounce every time someone walks across the balcony? Then ask two or three trusted colleagues to provide meaningful critique. If the online worship experience is of high quality or at least is better than “good enough,” it may become a vital part of your congregation’s ongoing ministry.
Christ Lutheran began online worship in 2015. In 2020, a staff member who usually is actively involved in Sunday morning worship needed to participate from home via the online service for several weeks. He watched every minute of every worship service and made pages of notes for things to improve. His list included changing camera shots to focus on what was happening in worship, removing clutter such as papers and coffee cups that were distracting, paying close attention to the transitions between camera shots, and much more. “I was blind to my own arrogance. I thought people who watched online should be happy that we were offering this online service for them.” After several weeks of worshiping online himself, he realized that the online service needs to be of the same quality of excellence that the congregation strives for at the in-person service. Online is the worship service for people participating online.
Staff Member, Christ Lutheran, Charlotte, North Carolina
Know your resources In addition to staff and volunteer resources, know the resources that are needed to sustain your online ministry. What is the cost of the podcast licenses, sufficient internet bandwidth, software, computers, switchers, cameras, microphones, etc. that are used each week? When one needs to be renewed or replaced, where will the funds come from? Are weekly streaming sponsorships something your congregation is willing to support (e.g. This week’s livestream is sponsored by Katie Luther in honor of Martin’s birthday.) How much time is needed each week to prepare for what is unique to the online worship experience? Who is paid or volunteers for that time? What happens if that person is not available in a particular week? What ministry is not happening so that online worship can be available?
“I’m the tech person. I implemented it all [in March 2020.] I bought an iPad and camera for the congregation. We went with the easiest and most user friendly set up we could do. Paying a monthly fee for a streaming service was too expensive. The congregation received a bequest so we are in the process of putting in equipment to stream directly from the sanctuary. We are in the process of hiring an administrative assistant who can manage the website, monitor the online worship stream, and monitor the chat.”
Pastor Jill Seagle, St. Thomas/Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Missouri
Know the needs of your community Pay attention to the number of views your online worship services receive over time. If there were 60 views per week two months ago and now there are 6, but 80 people are back in worship in-person each week perhaps your congregation is telling you that online worship is not a strong need they feel. For another example, if there were 30 views each week two months ago and now there are 20, but 45 people are back in worship in-person each week perhaps your online ministry is meeting a felt need of the community. Ask the people who are new to your congregation if they participated in the online service one or more weeks prior to attending worship in-person. Does this experience offer a new way for people to get to know your congregation before becoming more deeply involved? Ask the people who once participated in-person if they now participate online as a way to stay connected with the congregation.
Online worship “has been sunshine in a time when things were weirded out. My husband notices how positive it makes me after participating in the Sunday night group. He sees the philanthropy and how that fills me up.”
“On weeks that I can’t go in-person, I can keep that really important anchor in my life by watching later.”
Stacey, Calvary Lutheran, Clarkston, Michigan (prior to March 2020, she had been to Calvary because of a volunteer connection with the school where she works. A friend invited her to participate in worship online. When in-person worship resumed, the friend invited her to participate in-person.)
“I feel like I’m a member of the congregation, contributing and congregating with others. I’ve been there and know people and people know me.”
A worship participant, St. Mark Lutheran, West Des Moines, Iowa (prior to March 2020, she had attended worship at St. Mark several times, then moved away from West Des Moines during the pandemic and continued to participate with St. Mark in worship online. When she returned to West Des Moines and in-person worship was an option, she resumed worshiping in-person and officially joined the congregation as a new member.)
Know the reasons your community participates online Some of the people worshiping online came because they had no way to connect with your congregation in-person due to COVID-19 precautions. They eagerly returned to in-person worship as soon as that option became available to them. Other people have no intention of attending in-person, but they have found that online participation meets a faith need in their lives and helps them connect with God and with the online community at your congregation. Some people thrive on the relational aspect of Zoom worship when they can wave at family who live in distant communities. Others jump into the chat on Facebook to greet other worshipers and make a connection each week. Still others appreciate the anonymity of online worship or the ability to worship without the distractions of trying to keep children quiet during the whole service. For additional insights, read the article Who Will You Meet Worshiping Online? Preliminary analysis of data from the June 2021 Internet Missional Assessment Profile designed by Kairos and Associates shows that of the more than 500 people who had taken the assessment during its initial launch, fewer than 5% of respondents are new to their congregations during the previous two years. The vast majority of respondents say their faith is nurtured through participating in their congregation’s online experiences and that they intend to continue participating both in person and online in the future. It is worth noting that four of the five congregations we visited during our research period had an average worship attendance in 2019 of 211 to 1037 per week. The fifth congregation had an average worship attendance of 115 per week. None of these congregations used Zoom for their worship service, but chose to use Zoom with smaller groups such as Bible studies, classes, council meetings, and other gatherings of existing leadership teams. For additional information about platforms used by these congregations, read the article Who is Watching What. For congregations that choose to use Zoom for a relational worship experience, we recommend giving thoughtful exploration into how to invite newcomers to fully participate in worship.
Commenting on online worship more than a year after many congregations moved to an online format, one worshiper who participated in online worship with several different congregations throughout 2020-2021 said, “It is hard to sit and watch when it looks thrown together. Some churches adapted. Others didn’t.”
A worship participant, St. Mark Lutheran, West Des Moines, Iowa
Know who else in your community offers online worship Are partnerships possible that would honor the strengths, quality, and resources for online worship to meet the needs of your community? For example, in March 2020, when in-person worship stopped abruptly due to COVID-19 precautions, Trinity Lutheran in Crookston, Minnesota, invited both First Presbyterian with whom they shared a pastor and St. Paul’s Lutheran to participate in the existing radio and cable television broadcasts. Trinity already had the equipment to allow high quality broadcasts. What was needed was the invitation for worship leaders from other congregations to participate in meaningful leadership roles, including preaching, on a rotating basis. Members of all three congregations appreciated seeing and hearing “their own” worship leaders and valued the ministry they all did together. Sustaining partnerships is not easy, but may be a worthwhile pursuit to meet the needs of your community. Consider whether the partnership is set up so “they will do this for us” or so “we will do this together.”
When asked about collaboration with other congregations, the pastor’s voice grew in excitement. During the spring and summer of 2020 during the beginning time of worship, “we invited guests like the interim pastor from St. Paul’s to talk about what this week has been like or a local mental health expert to talk about signs of depression. That filled the gap when no announcements of upcoming events were happening.”
“Palm Sunday 2020, the interim pastor from St. Paul’s and I waved palms from the back of a pick-up parading through town.” Each December, the congregation has hosted a Stable service. “In December 2020, Trinity joined with two other congregations in hosting a drive-by nativity. Each congregation had an outdoor display of a different scene from Luke’s nativity story. The final scene was baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a stable scene at a community park. 300 cars drove by to observe the four scenes.”
Pastor Gregory Isaacson, Trinity Lutheran, Crookston, Minnesota
Christians in the first century recognized early on that not everyone could do everything that was needed to sustain ministry in ways that met the needs of the community. In Acts chapter 6, we hear about the appointment of seven deacons who were put in charge of the serving ministries of the early church. That may be a good model for congregations now as we assess what is needed by our communities for online worship that is attentive to the strengths and resources available to offer high quality experiences with a local focus on ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.
Rev. Kristina Weber, Senior Pastor Trinity Lutheran, Jamestown, North Dakota
Rev. Erik Weber, Senior Pastor St. John’s Lutheran, Jamestown, North Dakota
July 2021