This paper stems from the first meeting of the Circuit Livestream Team (involving Matt Forsyth, Dale Sherriff, and myself –this initial meeting could have included more people but we also felt the need to meet quickly). In this meeting we recognised four priorities.
- We need to look at how we support Dale and Grace in delivering their livestream worship, so that the process is less intensive and that we can release Grace to focus more on enabling youth.
- We need to encourage more people to create content in the form of readings, sermons, prayers etc. Sue Moore has been extremely helpful in this and coordinates who will assist week to week.
- We need to outline how we see the place of online worship as part of how we operate as a circuit, complementing what is offered in local churches. The case for this has been stated and restated. However, there is always a need to reassure people that we are aware of the strengths and challenges of online worship, and that no one feels disenfranchised.
- In terms of developing online worship, we have come a long way and have asked people to assist in particular ways as our needs have surfaced. We are now at the point where we can step back, look at who does what, and to formalise these roles. This will help us affirm people, give us increased confidence to work together in raising the profile of what we are offering as a circuit, focus on how we enable discipleship (and where possible local church attendance) through our online presence.
It would have been easier(!) to simply look at our needs in terms of overseeing online worship. However, from the outset it was clear that we needed to look at online worship from a much broader perspective. As a circuit we need to understand how online worship links with local church attendance, how we celebrate our successes, we need to identify where the tensions and areas of concern are, and then look at how these might be addressed by people who are appointed to different roles.
These roles are:
Circuit Social Media Administrators
Circuit Livestream Worship Leaders
Circuit Worship Content Creator
Circuit Online Pastoral Leaders
Online worship refers to worship that is either presented live, or pre-recorded worship that contains live elements (such as the ability for people to comment and offer prayers real time). It includes platforms such as Facebook Live, YouTube Events, and Zoom.
Increased engagement through online worship
In resorting to online worship as an additional means of engaging with people during the covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the circuit discovered that we were able to reach parts of the Church that have previously been difficult to reach people:
• who are housebound through illness or infirmity.
• who cannot attend church easily because they care for family members.
• who work shift patterns that include or make Sunday mornings difficult.
• who have simply found it difficult to engage with church because they have had challenging experiences in the past.
• who have recently experienced a challenging life experience that has disrupted their church attendance such as a bereavement or moving from one location to another.
The evidence for this is measurable and irrefutable. Most poignantly, there are people who now engage in online worship regularly where previously, year on year, we may have questioned in pastoral meetings why they were a member of a Methodist Church and yet ‘we never see them’.
Acknowledging those who cannot connect online
It is obvious that the Church must accommodate people who are not able to engage online. This can happen for various reasons:
• Access to the internet can be poor in some areas (although this is increasingly rare).
• Some people lack the equipment to engage online.
• Some people lack the skills/confidence to engage online.
• For some people, online worship does not appeal because of its style or format.
• Some simply lack the inclination to learn something new.
This said, our experience would suggest, albeit anecdotally, that as the pandemic unfolded and the impact of shielding and social distancing increased, we witnessed an increase in late adopters who had begun to engage with online platforms such as Zoom, driven by the desire for their own families to retain contact. This has then increased people’s confidence to engage and even contribute to worship online. Meanwhile, as a circuit we continue to champion paper resources, such as The Vine, and all those church leaders to ensure its distribution.
Is online worship a threat to the ‘tradition’ of the Church?
The short answer to this is, ‘No’. There is or has been, without question, an underlying unease among some people about the level of profile we give to online worship, whether we are undervaluing gathering physically. The natural fear is that this will undermine people’s willingness to attend local church services. However, the evidence to date is that despite the provision of online worship, people are even more keen to see each other in person.
In respect of a threat to ‘tradition’ (a word which can be helpful because what makes something ‘traditional’ is often subjective), livestream worship can admittedly feel less traditional because of the lack of high-quality resources that include hymns, organ, choir singing etc. However, this is changing.
An additional observation is that online worship frequently transcends the geographical boundaries which often, in part, defined local church attendance. Thus, we might define Circuit Worship as worship for those who live within the circuit. However, online worship often incorporates people from across the circuit and beyond. A range of factors might be in play here; the time of the worship, a sense of connection with Peterborough, an affinity towards any given leader (which also happens in local churches), lead people to engage in livestream worship. Equally, there will be members of the circuit who engage with a former minister who is engaged with online worship elsewhere.
Our focus is to ensure that online worship complements what is happening in local churches, encourages local church attendance, gives us a platform to emphasise the best of our Methodist Tradition, and develops a relationship with local churches that is mutually beneficial.
A Theology of Online Worship
Commenting on an emerging theology of online worship may feel a little abstract here, but people often find it helpful to relate their experience to the scriptures, events, and parables that we read in the Bible. Ultimately it helps us understand and make sense of what God is doing. A deeper reflection on this is well beyond the scope of this paper (which began by asking what needs to be in place to support online worship – and then took a step back to ask honest questions about where the benefits and challenges of this might lie). However, the following areas might be helpful.
• The feeding of the 5,000 (All of the gospels). The reason for Jesus’ presence here was to heal the sick. God did a miracle in meeting the need for nourishment, yes, but someone offered the little they could (the five loaves and the two fish), and it made all the difference. Everyone in their own way, has offered what they can to contribute to online worship.
• Paul Preaching to the Philosophers on Mars Hill (Acts 17). Paul occupies the public space of the day, engages with Greek philosophers, and relates the story about Jesus (starting with his pointing to a statue of ‘The Unknown God’. Although online worship can become insular (Facebook groups for example can become like an echo-chamber of chatter from like-minded people), our approach has been to try and be as open as possible. Online gives us huge potential to reach out to new people. Linked to this, we are very much following the footsteps of Jesus into Gentile territory. Online worship provides a less threatening way of inviting people to think about faith.
• Valley of Dry Bones – ‘Can these bones live?’ in Ezekiel 37. ‘I will open your graves and bring you up from them.’ Arguably this is one of the most powerful illustrations, in that we know of people whose faith has been rekindled because of online worship.
• Early Christians worship in their homes (Acts 2) – as well as worshipping in the temple. They then gravitate to gather in larger homes or buildings – in this sense worship was always in ‘third’ or ‘borrowed’ spaces. Without question, both online and paper resources have recentred Christian spirituality around the home.
• The Good Shepherd. Pastorally we are capitalising on the greater reach that online worship affords and can provide additional support to those who are unwell, or housebound by increasing their sense of community.
Can online worship be ‘church’?
One of the early concerns about online worship was the extent to which we could call this ‘church’ or ‘church online’, since the word church (‘ekklesia’ in the Greek) means ‘assembly’, and broadly speaking, Christian tradition understands that ‘church’ takes place whenever people gather together physically. In one sense, there are aspects of church that cannot be offered online.
• Holy Communion (even if the Methodist Church permitted communion to be shared ‘online’) would be a pale imitation of what people would experience in church.
• The lack of corporate responses and singing is a challenge (even though zoom provides opportunities for choirs to sing, this is not the same as everyone in church singing).
• Fellowship cannot take place in quite the same way. People who worship online cannot shake hands or embrace as they might do face-to-face (although increasingly one suspects that physical contact will still be limited in the future).
This said, it is too easy to ignore aspects of our Christian history where people have retained their Christian faith whilst longing for but unable to gather in worship. The clearest examples of this are Paul, imprisoned whilst He wrote Philippians, Philemon, and Colossians (two years in Caesarea, three years in Rome, before his execution). Meanwhile, an elderly John the Evangelist was banished to the Island of Patmos for two years because his preaching Christ was undermining the way of life in Ephesus. This said, both Paul (and one suspects that John) communicate with other church leaders by letter – and, more than this, their writings gave encouragement and direction.
Whilst we should, without question, encourage people to attend their local churches, we would be unwise to dismiss the different forms of fellowship that can exist online – when in effect, the coronavirus has led us to live a form of exile and, we suspect, will continue to shape how we are able to interact in the future. Curiously, a group of people meeting online can develop a sense of community and even sharing, especially in story and prayers, that we may struggle to achieve in church. People can interact at any time during an online service whereas unless this is called for by a leader of worship, this is unlikely to happen in local congregations. Online worship allows people to leave and re-join acts of worship less conspicuously.
The cost of online worship financially
To date the circuit has relied on the equipment that people own themselves, rather than purchasing large pieces of IT equipment. Presently, the superintendent is supported through the provision of additional equipment (so far, a limited amount of additional lighting, a microphone, a green screen, and a breadth of extension leads). Those who lead livestream services (rather than those who contribute to aspects of the service – sermons, readings etc), have been supplied with minimal lighting.
In addition to this, most people use their own computer equipment, and we are grateful for this. However, in some circumstances, especially if a service is compiled, recorded, and then broadcast later, more powerful equipment is required. It is important that we acknowledge this generosity of giving all round as people press into use old resources and/or invest in their own personal equipment.
The cost of online worship, spiritually
There are some dynamics around livestream worship that are not present, or are present to a much lesser degree, compared to worship that is face to face.
Livestream worship:
• Whilst being as simple as pressing the ‘Go Live’ button on Facebook, becomes much more complex when we are wanting to include different contributors, images, and music. Closed Zoom worship requires a good grasp of the screen sharing facility (and provides mixed results). Meanwhile, Circuit Worship is managed using (free) production software such as OBS, streamed to a single hub (Castr) and then relayed back to Facebook Live and YouTube. This gives the best mix of quality and accessibility but relies on the person leading worship having to learn new skills.
• This then means that the person leading worship is also taking responsibility for managing the stream. Whilst there are people able to phone and feedback on any problems, ‘We can’t hear you/you sound like a Dalek!’, livestream worship in its current format lacks the equivalent of a steward or assistant in the room. Elements of this can feel high pressured, especially in the event of technical problems, but we are learning also how gracious and faithful the congregation is in terms of being willing to wait until any difficulties are resolved.
• Whilst the Holy Spirit is most certainly at work there is a sense in which livestream worship leaves the person leading worship having to generate their own energy from an environment which can at first feel sterile and lacks face-to-face interactions. A good analogy is that of it feeling like one is playing in a sport’s competition but lacking the interaction of the crowd (in for example singing and smiles) which feeds back into the mix.
• In addition, we should also acknowledge that it is not only those who lead livestream worship, but also anyone who creates video content (prayers, readings, reflections) have pushed against their own self-conscious feelings (no one likes hearing themselves or seeing themselves on camera), and no doubt multiple attempts at recording to try and communicate as effectively as they can.
In short, this means that Livestream Worship may well demand more of its leaders than face-to-face worship with local congregations, where church happens ‘around us’.
Some brief observations: Recorded Worship and Live Worship
It is worth exploring this issue. One suggestion as we look to the future (in which livestream worship will feature on the plan alongside local church worship), is that we alleviate pressure by having people record worship beforehand and broadcast it later. There are some challenges with this.
• First, compiling and recording a service for worship (as is the case with Dale and Grace), is more resource intensive and time consuming than livestream. Combining several video scenes into one requires a powerful pc (an hour of video can take for example four hours to encode). In addition, it can take four hours for say YouTube to upload and convert it ready for broadcast.
• Second, our successes so far rest in how people are able to interact live with the person leading worship, or in the case of a video that is premiering having been uploaded, the leader(s) who remain in the background to encourage prayers. It is possible for one person to be leading whilst another assists those who respond with prayer requests, but pre-recorded worship has its limitations in that the leader(s) cannot adjust how much time they spend on one aspect of worship over another, should this be needed. A good analogy is the difference between taking to a Powerpoint presentation, where one can spend more time on one slide than another if the congregation needs it, or even jump slides to focus on what is important, or turn off the presentation all-together – compared to speaking to a video of a Powerpoint presentation and being limited by time.
Thinking about four roles
Bearing all this in mind(!), apart from underlining that online worship will always complement local church services, and more than that the two can be of mutual benefit to each other, it is clear that we need to formalise some roles to safeguard what is already happening. In some senses these roles are not new, but they lead us to question what more we can do to improve our online outreach as a circuit. These roles are:
Circuit Livestream Worship Producer (as previously identified and appointed by the circuit)
Then…
Circuit Social Media Administrators
Circuit Livestream Worship Leaders
Circuit Worship Content Creator
Circuit Online Pastoral Leaders
These roles are outlined in greater detail below:
Circuit Social Media Administrators
From the outset we had asked people to assist on Facebook as ‘administrators’ and YouTube as ‘managers’. A Social Media Administrator has ‘access all areas’ across all circuit sites and platforms. In effect, Simon Stewart has taken the lead in this, with other livestream presenters being able to assist when they are not presenting.
Admins work in partnership with Circuit Livestream Worship Leaders, the Circuit Livestream Worship Producer (previously defined), the Circuit Social Media Enabler (previously defined) and the Superintendent. This forms a core group that has oversight of all online circuit material.
The role of an administrator is as follows:
• To manage ‘static’ content on the platforms that they help administer. This includes being able to change the look and content of the sites, and to post material on behalf of the circuit. They are free to take the initiative in sharing reminders and promoting resources that are in-line with the aims of the circuit, as they see fit.
• To encourage more people from within the circuit to contribute to creating content for livestream worship, or lead livestream worship per se.
• Admins monitor the feed of multiple sites (currently three) at the same time, bearing in mind the Safeguarding and best practice requirements of the Methodist Church.
• Admins work in direct partnership with Livestream Worship Leaders to determine the nuances of where the risks lie in livestream worship, in terms of understanding the capacity for people to disrupt (which is different on different platforms). Admins then put in place measures to mitigate against any disruption.
• Admins assist in the management of copyright. Whilst we have copyright covered, in some instances we still need to report what music we use, and when. Background music is an area of concern where we need to apply for individual licenses each time we use a track (or we need to establish a clearer pattern of what tracks we use and when).
• Admins have the ability (and are trusted to) block comments on YouTube and Facebook as and when necessary, to restrict access, and even to shut-down a broadcast as a last resort.
• To assist the person leading worship by posting readings etc, and collating prayers as they surface, allowing the person leading to sum up.
• To feedback any problems to the presenter during worship, often via phone or text, in the event of a problem that they cannot see themselves.
• To ‘hold’ folks together if a livestream must be restarted, by remaining as presence – assuring people until things are resolved or redirecting people for example from Facebook to YouTube.
• Given the responsibilities that this covers, an admin needs to be both IT literate, recruited (as usual) through Safer Recruiting with the Circuit as the Responsible Body, trained in Safeguarding, and DBS cleared.
• Ideally, we are looking for a team of Admins and develop a plan for who is on duty during morning prayers and Sunday Services.
• Admins assist the Circuit Livestream Worship Producer and the Circuit Social Media Enabler in feeding back on the level of engagement in online worship.
Circuit Livestream Worship Leader
• Is qualified (or under supervision and training) as a Worship Leader or a Local Preacher.
• Takes responsibility for leading an act of worship that is Livestreamed.
• Both manages the livestream – and leads the worship.
• Receives submission in the form of prayers, reflections, sermons and collates these.
• May present live using OBS, but similarly may convert an act of worship to video, and upload this, or schedule and upload.
• Engages ‘live’ with people during online worship.
Circuit Livestream Pastoral Leader
• Is present when a Livestream is broadcast, monitoring comments.
• Actively acknowledges participants prayers, and thoughts.
• Signposts people to other means of support.
• Looks to help people grow in their discipleship.
• Encourages people to make a link with a local church.
• Identifies, and passes on pastoral concerns to ministers.
Circuit Worship Content Creator
• Need not be qualified as a worship leader
• Uses their creative or production skills (writing, photography, interviewing, video editing) to create content for online worship.
• Identifies content elsewhere which may be useful to the circuit – eg material produced by other charities, highlighting specific Methodist foci during the year, thereby helping the Livestream Worship Leaders plan ahead.
• May help manage the online storage of resource material (songs etc.)
• There could be scope for such a person to assist in copyright administration.