This is our latest Third Space podcast on the Eternity Network – Worship in Wartime. We are looking at how we can be the church in this current crisis. Some are thinking this is great and gives us an opportunity to reorientate the church towards a more digital online expression. But there is a whole lot more for us to look at. What is worship? Why the militaristic language? Who are our enemies? Why can’t we just do virtual church? What does it mean to be Church? What is the future of the Church? Will Covid 19 destroy us or be used to renew us? We use ‘O Church Arise’ as an example. I hope this is helpful….if you want to help us then please subscribe and also pass this on…..
SUMMARY
As churches across the world move more and more of their services online to comply with social distancing, David Robertson and Steve McAlpine ask, ‘What is worship? And can it really be done through a computer?’
SHOW NOTES
Life In Wartime focuses on the effects that the COVID-19 crisis has had on Christianity, and in particular how believers can continue to live a distinctive life under the pressures of a pandemic.
David and Steve zero in on how worship can best be expressed in a world where fellowship is being redefined by electronic devices. What is best practise, and what are the pitfalls in thinking as we rush to digitise our faith?
WHAT IS LIFE IN WARTIME?
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought upon us all the moral challenges associated with living in a state of constant conflict. We have to choose how we’re going to respond to this global threat day by day, and David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine from Third Space are here to help you think through the implications of the messages we’re hearing, and how God would have us live in these challenging times.
The two songs I refer to are Bob Dylan – With God on our Side and O Church Arise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZmS81yLjMg
Virtual Church.
Your comments on the shortcomings of a possible virtual church are welcome. Permit me to emphasize, if I may, the fact that the Christian faith is both physical and spiritual. Jesus’ ministry was physical and spiritual. He mixed with crowds, had meals in crowded houses, laid hands on the sick (occasionally he healed at a distance, but this seems to have been the exception), His disciples baptised, He broke bread, drank wine and washed His disciples feet. The early church met in peoples’ houses, broke bread together, baptised and laid hands on the sick (or “hugged a leper” as you put it). Paul did a large amount of distance-teaching, but recognised, and longed for, face-to-face contact, eg Rom 1:10-12.
None of this would have been possible, and is not now possible, with social distancing. So I see social distancing as something very bad. Maybe well-intentioned, but bad in its effects. I get the feeling that governments are loving the power and control that social distancing measures give them, and will keep them in place as long as they can. I am sure the Enemy loves all the fear that has been generated in society, and loves the fact that Christian brothers and sisters cannot meet for proper fellowship. So yes, the authorities should pursue treatment possibilities and a vaccine, and yes, they should try to protect the old and the sick as far as is reasonable. But surely we should be working towards and praying towards a situation where people can, if they choose, meet with, and, hug, family and friends; meet with fellow believers, if they choose; attend football matches and indeed any mass gathering, if they choose, and so on. The notion that this would overwhelm the NHS does not hold water. The modelling was always flawed, the Nightingale hospitals have hardly been used, and in Scotland, where I live, the hospitals are all half empty.
Those who are fearful could, and perhaps should, be supported; but social contact is too important to be decided by diktat.
Dear David,
I refer you to an article in Live Action about a woman in the UK who has filed a lawsuit asking that abortion businesses be required to inform women that their preborn babies are capable of feeling pain while being aborted.
I find it so hard to believe anyone would abort their baby without looking into this first but we are constantly assured that preborn babies don’t feel pain.
As painful as it is to watch, I’d like all teenagers to watch the video on abortion procedures that is on the article page. It should be a part of sexual education.
https://www.liveaction.org/news/uk-woman-lawsuit-baby-pain-aborted/?inf_contact_key=268382db0f3e9d88e64c776f7e9ba45b16358d5485884e2f31e6019a0d26c8b0&__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=8064f82e22456add9ec6793df18639d3f4c13bd1-1588646296-0-Aal92qFVQYmawel4o-2detmmzY4GeCnMHe6Op74nOkTk5Itce1ugyY9RIt7NqXhwB-AWxwPGR_mIGx-rFjtABN6gFAGFNSp9NXf_NuBtCI7DsAXgaXhdXXJ3K5flfxb7ttRJ72YrE_YNoDF_pM89p32EMUFlG2hL7xCQbSrPWRhzsJFGec3cYhNBe3RRJZ3KSF2TUq-_ZXk6T6iVTV8Z5AX1EiGjWkHtLRkyrlLaIIqdsBgL1Jr6PzLDdvpoqwr11GIvCFGlEQ5mZOFxEOA3J5ix486fxzpqW3yrVc8QY_wKE6w7KpM5ltQLGEkPImwVqMXBEgT7kx2gU7rTd7tKJu7cZk9zAPug0CNxF_LigoM4nLi5DXlkW3eQiK_RLhWysUVes-D-eXzl2JqfM9BmlG4GkfwtIkuPzCyl4hhJnlDBfydlqvSNdCrbGRrzlwrRUg