Thursday's Catch: Engagement Lessons from COVID-19 and More

3 Lessons Learned about Engagement (from COVID-19)

Mark Howell shares three lessons about engagement that he has learned so far from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

The Zoom Social Etiquette Guide

Whether you are using Zoom or some other video conferencing platform, you will want to observe these important rules of video conferencing etiquette. Read More

5 Things Remote Ministry Teams Need from Their Leader

Here are a few of the lessons Zac Workun and Chad Higgins learned that may help leaders serve their staff and volunteers well during this season of remote work. Read More

How Personal Contact Will Change Post-Covid-19

We’ll be less touchy-feely and far more wary, but the transition will feel strange. Read More

Among the implications for churches is no handshakes at the entrance, no hugs in the hallway, no meet-and-greet time during the service, no passing of the peace, and no laying on of hands. We may see a revival of bowing in the West, perhaps with hands folded against our chests, palm against palm.

The Lord be with you (bow).
The Lord bless you (bow)

Virus Protection Resources for Your Church

As the time comes to reopen your church for public gatherings, make sure you have all the tools you need to keep your members and visitors safe. Outreach, Inc., the parent company of Outreach magazine, is blessed to be able to help keep your church safe by providing a supply of virus-prevention tools. Read More

Coronavirus Calls for Revival of Real Pentecostalism

Despite failures, Spirit-filled theology can show us how to respond to the pandemic. Read More

When Puritan Theology Helped Develop Immunology

The conquest of smallpox began when two Puritan pastors investigated whether God had provided a solution for the virus in nature. So, in the face of the outbreak, some Puritans began experimenting with inoculations—experiments that provoked fierce opposition. Read More

4 Ways to Disagree Graciously with Other Christians

Gavin Orland suggests four ways that we can disagree graciously with our fellow Christians. Read More

Why Is Anglicanism a Gateway to Catholicism?

If you have been an Anglican in North America for more than a decade or two, there is an experience you have almost certainly had. You have known someone who got up one day and jumped into the Tiber River. In fact, you may know many people who did that. The departures to the Roman Catholic Church are especially pronounced among the young, the highly educated, and those who came to Anglicanism as disaffected evangelicals. But by no means are these the only groups. Just in the last few months there have been high-profile conversions of older leaders in the conservative Anglican world, including a prominent rector of one of the largest parishes in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).[1]

Why? From the perspective of our fellow Christians who are Catholics, the answer is simple enough: truth wins, and the bark of St. Peter is always willing to rescue those who find themselves in the water. But if you, dear reader, are still an Anglican, that explanation will not satisfy.

For those of us who are Anglicans, the question is not simply why this or that conversion to Rome happens. The question goes deeper: what is it about Anglicanism that makes it so susceptible to conversions to the Catholic Church? There are conversions to Rome by Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, but not nearly so many. Why is Anglicanism so vulnerable?

The enigma deepens if viewed in historical perspective. It has not always been this way. There has always been an occasional convert from Canterbury to Rome, and vice-versa, but once the Reformed English Church took shape under Queen Elizabeth I, this was a two-way trickle, not a one-way stream. The change begins with John Henry Newman. Since his conversion to Rome in 1845, there has been a steady and disproportionate flow of Anglicans into the Catholic Church. For modern Anglicans, especially conservative Anglicans in North America, the pace of the conversions seems to have quickened. Again, why? Read More

Wednesday's Catch: COVID-19, Complacency, and More

As Lockdowns Drag On, Is It OK to Ease Up on Social Distancing?

Hand-washing and mask-wearing seem to continue to be top of mind, but staying at home — not so much. Read More

The Things You Need to Think About Before You Reopen Your Church

As states across the U.S. begin to lift their stay-at-home orders, churches have a lot of things to take into consideration as they prepare to welcome people back into their sanctuaries. Read More

4 Phases for an Orderly Return to Church


As church leaders, we shepherd God’s people, and a large part of our role is to protect, to anticipate, and to act on behalf of the sheep entrusted to us by God. Read More

The eagerness with which some church leaders are anticipating the re-opening of their churches reminds me of my oldest grandnephew when he was a small boy. He was fascinated by water. On one occasion I took him to the aquarium in New Orleans. It is located on the river front. When my grandnephew saw the Mississippi River, he ran headlong toward it. Only a flimsy rail separated him from the river, no barrier to a small boy excited about seeing his first large river. Fortunately for him and for me, he was wearing reins. With the reins I kept him from plunging into the river. When churches re-open, church leaders are going to need reins too so that their churches do not become nexuses for the spread of the coronovirus.

How To Display Lyrics On Your Camera Feeds

Whether your church is running a live stream for viewers at home or in other remote locations, or you have a projection screen in the church and want to display lyrics to hymns or scripture, you can do so easily using EasyWorship and NDI output functionality for vMix or OBS, which are popular live streaming software programs. Read More

Change Your Zoom Background to Engage Kids While Teaching Online

Did you know you can change your Zoom background while hosting online kids church (how-to instructions below)? You can be teaching from outer space, under the sea, or even in front of the city of Jerusalem, and you don’t have to use the same background the entire time. Using virtual backgrounds on Zoom is not only fun, but you can also use this feature as a teaching tool. You can easily change the background in the middle of your teaching to engage kids and involve them in the story! Read More

Some Zoom users may not be able to use the background option unless they have a green screen. Due to the high demand green screens are in short supply. A screen screen may be improvised from neon green poster board held together with neon green duck tape.

United We Can Beat COVID-19; Divided the Virus Will Beat Us!

By Robin G. Jordan

Like Kevin DeYoung I believe that we are at the front end of the COVID-19 pandemic . While some politicians are making noises that the worst of the pandemic is past and we can reopen churches, schools, and non-essential businesses, the public health experts are telling us that worst may be yet to come. They have studied epidemics and how diseases spread and they are far more knowledgeable than the politicians. They may not always get things right but what they are telling us is far more reliable than what we are hearing from the politicians.

As a student of history I have also studied epidemics—the Black Plague and White Plague in the British Isles; the cholera, typhus, small pox, and yellow fever epidemics in pre-Civil War and post-Civil War United States, and the various other epidemics that dot the history of humankind. I was educated in schools that were built to prevent the spread of tuberculosis—well-ventilated with windows that permitted plenty of sunlight in the classrooms. Tuberculosis was a scourge well into the twentieth century. People living in crowded, poorly ventilated row houses and tenements were particularly vulnerable to tuberculosis.

As well as studying how diseases have impacted human history, I studied early attempts to prevent their spread. The methods that worked involved better sanitation, better nutrition, uncontaminated supplies of water, quarantine, isolation, and the control of disease vectors like mosquitoes, rodents, and human beings. Vaccines and antibiotics would eventually supplement but not entirely replace these methods for keeping the spread of highly infectious diseases in check.

Vaccines and antibiotics, however, have their drawbacks. Viruses like influenza mutate producing new strains every year and requiring the production of new vaccines. Vaccination had its opponents in the late eighteenth-early nineteenth century when it was first introduced as it does today.

The United States had significantly reduced the number of cases of measles only to see a resurgence of the disease in recent years because parents were failing or refusing to get their children vaccinated. In some cases it has been the result of ignorance on the part of the parents; in other cases it has been the result of the parents’ obsession with debunked claims that the measles vaccine causes autism in children and other mistaken beliefs. Parents are deliberately exposing their children to measles out of the belief that it was a harmless childhood disease, not the cause of blindness, brain swelling, severe diarrhea and related dehydration, ear infections, serious respiratory infections such as pneumonia and other serious complications in unvaccinated children and birth defects in unvaccinated pregnant women.

The widespread use of antibiotics in the treatment of various ailments has resulted in the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of harmful bacteria.

The biggest problem we are facing as the novel coronavirus spreads across the United States is not the economic damage that it is causing or even the high number of deaths as horrendous as that figure is, rather it is the reaction of one segment of the population to the pandemic—their reluctance or unwillingness to face up to the seriousness of the pandemic and to implement recommended public health measures.

I do not believe that they will be remembered kindly in the future history books of the United States. Indeed, they may become the object of study into why humans, when faced with a threat to their lives and the lives of others behave in ways that exacerbate that threat.

To mitigate the effects of the novel coronavirus upon the United States will require a unified effort on the part of the whole nation. History shows that this is the only way to beat COVID-19. What is needed is a nation-wide comprehensive plan for testing, contact-tracing, and isolation and the resources to carry out such a plan, not the current piecemeal approach driven by the exigencies of the moment and marked by disorganization and chaos.

Tuesday's Catch: Six Risky Social Distancing Mistakes and More

6 Social Distancing Mistakes That May Be Putting You at Risk for COVID-19

Outlined in this article are six social distancing mistakes that we all should be extra conscious of now that we're no longer in the beginning days of COVID-19. Read More

When Everything Is Not Obvious

Most solutions to complex problems are anything but obvious. And if they are obvious, it’s only because we have the advantage of hindsight to see what worked. Read More

5 Good Things That Can Come From 1 Bad Virus

The big question is, how will we cultivate the good while we fight the bad during COVID-19? Read More

Preparing to Re-Open After Covid-19

We understand that COVID-19 has impacted a large majority of people, especially churches. One of the impacts a lot of people are not yet accounting for is what it will take to get their facility back and running smoothly when we're able to resume services. As church facility management experts, we have developed a FREE checklist to help you get back on track. Learn More

I am posting a link to this resource because it will help churches take better care of their facilities while they await the day that they will be able to resume services. Smart Church Solutions also evaluates churches' facilities and their need for maintenance for a fee and provides other services.

Which Preaching Style Works Best Online? 

An important question during the COVID-19 church shutdown.... Read More

Monday's Catch: Innovation and Your Church's Future and More

4 Ways to Quickly and Unintentionally Stop Your Innovation Curve and Miss the Future

It’s far easier to stop innovating than to keep innovating. Left on its own, you’re far more likely to stop innovating than you are to keep going. Same with me. To that end, here are four ways to flatten your innovation curve and miss the future. Read More

The Top 7 Reasons Everyone Ignores the Online Content You Produce

Knowing what works is a little more tricky than figuring out what doesn’t work. To save you some time, here are seven things that don’t work, seven reasons that, if you keep doing them, make people ignore the online content you produce. Read More

5 Things To Do When the World Changes

I don't know if you've noticed, but things may not immediately return to the way they were before COVID-19. They may not immediately return, or quickly, or even over time. Read More

Preparing for Your Church to Reopen: 4 Suggestions

Across the country, state governments are setting dates for re-opening businesses and other parts of the economy in phases. What will church life look like during this “in-between” season? What is involved with reopening the church and gathering for worship? Read More

Avoid This Big Mistake: Stepping Back into the Past When You Step Back into Your Building

The biggest mistake most leaders will make in the emotional rush to get back into a facility, to see everyone again, to assemble their teams and get back to ‘normal’, is they’ll re-embrace a model of ministry designed to reach a world that no longer exists. Read More

What to Do When You Can’t Pay Your Church’s Lease or Mortgage

If you are leasing a space for your church, the time has come or passed for your first lease payment in the midst of COVID-19. You may have been OK last month, because you had gathered a few weeks before social distancing guidelines were encouraged. But now many people have been furloughed or their business has seen a drop in income. Lease and mortgage payments may be another story. So, how should you approach your landlord? Read More

6 Ways to Shepherd When You Can’t See the Sheep

In the wake of our pandemic, many godly shepherds are now faced with the daunting challenge of shepherding from a distance. Read More

Too Soon to Begin In-Person Worship Services Again

By Robin G. Jordan

Readers may wonder why I have not posted any links to articles about Christians’ yearning to gather once more in person for worship services and other church activities. Or about churches that have continued to hold worship services despite the recommendations of state and local authorities against such gatherings and what they have done to safeguard the attendees of those gatherings from infection.

First, I don’t believe going on about how much we miss the “good old days” and how much we are looking forward to the return to normalcy serves any good purpose. Rather it weakens our resolve to adapt to our present circumstances and to explore new ways of spreading the gospel and reaching all people groups with its life-transforming message. It encourages the attitude that we can put the church’s mission on hold until things get back to normal.

Second, I believe that such articles make pastors, elders, and church members already restive from being confined to their homes more susceptible to prematurely beginning worship service and other church activities again in which people come into close personal contact with each other. People have all kinds of ways of rationalizing bad decisions. While people who are prone to making bad decisions most likely will make these decisions, we are not excused from doing what we can to discourage them from making such decisions. We are not showing the love of neighbor to which our Lord calls us if we chose to do nothing when churches make decisions that harm not only themselves but also others. While we may not be able to extinguish the fire, we can avoid adding fuel to it and fanning the flames.

As for churches that continue to hold in-person worship services despite recommendations to the contrary in the time of a national health emergency, I believe that their church leaders are acting irresponsibly. Even if they implement social distancing and other safeguards against infection, their churches are a health threat to the community—to its older and more vulnerable members. Maintaining that they are standing up for their right to freely worship under the US Constitution is, to my mind, a rationalization for what amounts to poor judgment on their part. A pastor who believes that he must fill the sanctuary with people and look down on row after row of faces in order to preach is gratifying his own ego.

Now I realize that some churches do not have the resources to livestream their worship services and are located in parts of the country which are sparsely populated and where few people have access to internet, much less broadband service. TV reception is poor if not non-existent. Cell phone towers are few and far between and cell phone “dead zones” are not uncommon. These churches may feel that they have no option but to continue their Sunday worship service.

While the more remote or isolated areas may have no reported cases of the coronavirus as the disease spreads across the United States and Canada, these churches will eventually become points of contagion. COVID-19 is a very infectious disease. Wherever people gather, whether in small or large numbers, the virus spreads. People do not need to display symptoms of the disease in order to infect others.

The first reported case of the coronavirus in the county in which I live was an out-of-town visitor to a relative who lived in the county and who worked at the county hospital. From what I gather the visitor had been diagnosed with the virus before he visited the relative. Rather than self-isolate, he not only traveled to another community from one in which he lived but he also attended the relative’s church while visiting the relative. The relative was the second reported coronavirus case in the county. The county health authorities have no idea of how many other people he infected during his visit. The members of the church were warned that they had been exposed to the virus.

As of today, the number of reported coronavirus cases in the county is twenty-eight with one death--a five case increase from what it was earlier in the week. Twenty-eight reported cases and one death may not sound like a large number of cases and deaths compared to the number of reported cases and deaths in highly-populated areas like New York and Washington but they represent the tip of an iceberg. A number of milder or asymptomatic cases will go unreported. Coronavirus anti-body studies where they have been done indicate that the number of infected individuals is much higher than the number of the reported cases. One of the implications of these studies is that while the number of reported cases and deaths may go down, a community will continue to have a sizable population of infected individuals who can transmit the disease to others.

Whether this one out-of-town visitor was responsible for the twenty-one other reported cases, it is difficult to say. The community in which I live is home to a state university. While the university urged students to stay home during the summer break and not to travel, a number of the students who live in the community may have traveled to Florida where large numbers of college students gathered during the summer break. The community is an hour’s drive from Paducah, the region’s largest metropolitan area. It is also linked by Interstate to Louisville and Nashville. Residents of the community often travel to these cities for business, pleasure, and health services.

In a scientific brief that was made public today, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.” This comes as no surprise since there have been reports from China and South Korea that COVID-19 patients who tested negative tested positive when retested. Being infected with the disease does not appear to confer lasting immunity or even immunity for short periods of time. It has not been established whether these individuals are still infectious.

While politicians and protesters may be urging the reopening of businesses and churches and a number of Southern states have decided to roll back the public health measures mitigating the spread of the coronavirus in those states, I believe that churches need to take a far more cautious approach. While they may experience pressure to resume in-person gatherings, they really need to wait until widespread testing and contact-tracing has been implemented not only in their state but also across the nation. Even then they should continue to implement the public health measures that have helped to reduce the number of reported cases and deaths.

COVID-19 looks like it will be with us for a good while. The development of an effective vaccine and a mass immunization program may significantly reduce the spread of the disease but if the resurgence of measle cases in the United States is anything to go by, there will always be those who oppose vaccination. We have had flu shots for a number of years and they have reduced the number of flu cases in the United States. But a segment of the population refuses to receive the shots every year. This means that there will continue to be outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States and churches must quickly learn to adapt to the “new normal.” The old normal is not going to return.

Consider the Birds

I was awake at 3:30 in the morning. My mind was racing as it’s been doing non-stop the past few weeks or so. Certain realities of life that had mostly felt concrete, prior to very recently, are suddenly gone or simply up in the air. Where will it all land? We don’t know, is what the professionals keep saying.

As my mind flitted about from one worry and prayer to another the sound of birds pierced my nearly subconscious thoughts. Why are the birds chirping at this hour? I moaned while fluffing my pillow for the countless time. Don’t they know it’s the middle of the night!

Scientists call this early morning bird singing the dawn chorus, which is most noticeable in spring when birds are migrating or mating. The name dawn chorus sounds so delightful except when you’re trying to get sleep in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. And, yet, maybe this is the point: singing in the middle of a storm, reaping during a time of scarcity, staying on mission. Maybe the birds have something to teach us after all, I mused. Read More

My grandmother introduced me to the dawn chorus when I was a boy. She was an early riser. She got up before the rest of the household and made the morning tea. She loved to hear the birds singing at the break of day.

What Kelly Minter may have heard at 3:30 in the morning was a night bird. Some birds sing at night; other awaken earlier than the rest. The dawn chorus does not really begin to tune up until the sun begins to peep over the horizon.

When I hear the dawn chorus, I am reminded of my grandmother. She was a gentle soul who sung hymns as she went about her daily chores. Her favorite hymn was Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of my soul."

Her father had been a school master. Since he had pupils in both the local Anglican parish church and the local Methodist chapel, he attended both services with his family. My grandmother's family experienced hard times when her father lost his voice after plunging into the cold water of a canal or river to rescue a drowning boy.

My grandmother played an important role in my upbringing since my mother, my older brother, and I lived with my grandparents. One of the things that she taught me was to live by the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have done unto you." From her I learned the important of being kind to others and of being considerate of them.

Saturday Lagniappe: Georgia Pastors React to Governor's Reopening of the State and More

Most GA Pastors Don’t Want to ‘put God to a foolish test’ by Reopening

As several categories of businesses begin reopening in Georgia today, many pastors in that state say their churches will remain online-only for now. Some have expressed concern and even outrage at Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s plan, saying it endangers the lives of churchgoers—especially African Americans. Read More

An Open Letter to Evangelicals on Self-Less Living During this Pandemic

We may be sequestered, but as we emerge and show our faces in public, the gospel is on trial. Read More

Should We Be Protesting Stay at Home Orders?

Egged on by certain high ranking officials, various frustrated Americans have taken to the streets (and largely ignored rules about social distancing) to demand that the country’s businesses open back up so we can all sing ‘God bless our standard of living’ one more time. There are numerous problems with this whole approach, and my concern in this post is that many of these oblivious people are devout Christians who should know better, since they are supposed to be loving their neighbors as themselves. Read More

Our Idols Are Exposed in Times of Crisis

COVID-19, like any other significant crisis, lays bare who we are: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Moreover, its revealing nature does not discriminate. Read More

Online Sexual Predators Eager to Take Advantage of Greater Access to Kids during COVID-19, Police Warn

Police are warning parents across Canada that in dark corners of the internet, sexual predators are talking among themselves about how children are home all day, every day and spending more time online because of the pandemic — and they are eager to take advantage. Read More

I would suspect that the situation in the United States is comparable to that in Canada, if not worse. Due to COVID-19-related layoffs sexual predators also have more time to pursue their prey online. I would also suspect that incidences of child sexual abuse by someone known to the child are also on the rise since perpetrators and their victims are spending more time together due to layoffs, stay-at-home orders, and school closures.

We're All Start-Ups Now

We’re all start-ups now. Talk about a level-set. In a matter of days, organizations large and small were ushered back to the start-up days. Read More

How Are You Thinking About Re-opening Church?

One of the most common questions ministry leaders are asking one another in this crazy season is around “re-opening church gatherings.” While none of us can really answer with any certainty “when” we can re-open church gatherings, we can think about “how” we will re-open church gatherings. Read More

A Pastor’s Response to the Re-Opening of Churches

My pastor, Mike Woodruff, captured my imagination with an analogy he heard that helped me envision re-entry — maybe it will be helpful for you. Sharks near the beach. Read More

24 Questions Your Church Should Answer Before People Return

If you think we’ll all rush back to church and pick up where we left off, don’t kid yourself – it’s not going to happen. Or at least it shouldn’t happen. We need to think and plan carefully so we do not endanger people simply because we let our guard down and believed that the Coronavirus crisis had passed. Read More

In our eagerness to gather, we should not forget that a number of coronavirus "hot spots" originated from church gatherings. The coronavirus crisis has not passed. We have just experienced the early stages of the crisis. If the COVID-19 pandemic follows the pattern of the "Spanish Flu" epidemic and other epidemics of the past, we can expect a second wave of coronavirus cases and deaths, a wave far worse than the first.

3 Fantastic Ways To Broadcast Your Services Beyond Your Sanctuary

In this article Easy Church Tech gives at least 3 if not 4 options to help churches broadcast their services in unique ways that will enable them to minister to more people than is possible during these strenuous times. Read More

Online Celebrations of the Lord's Supper Now and in the Future

By Robin G. Jordan

For Anglicans the Lord’s Supper is more than a bare memorial of our Lord’s suffering and death. According to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion the Lord’s Supper is a trustworthy witness to divine truth and an effectual sign of grace and God’s good will toward us. Through the Lord’s Supper God works invisibly in us. God not only invigorates our faith but he also strengthens and confirms it. As a sign of grace and God’s good will toward us, the Lord’s Supper is effectual in the sense that it accomplishes all that Christ purposed in instituting it.

The only requirement that the Articles set for the administration of the Lord’s Supper is that it should administered in accordance with Christ’s institution of the sacrament. This boils down to a gathering of some kind for the purpose of celebrating the supper, bread of some kind, wine of some kind (in some traditions, unfermented grape juice), the offering of thanks to God, and the recitation of the Words of Institution. It does not preclude the celebration of the Lord's Supper online.

A celebration of the Lord’s Supper does not require a priest albeit a priest is customary in the Anglican Church. Depending upon what theological school of thought to which you subscribe, the presidency of a presbyter or bishop at a celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a matter of church discipline or an essential for a valid sacrament. Scripture, however, is silent on the subject.

While it may go against the longstanding traditions with which a particular theological school of thought has hedged the Scriptures, there is no Scriptural reason for not celebrating the Lord’s Supper online. The argument that we need to be physically present in the same room in order to celebrate the Lord’s Supper takes a mechanistic view of the sacrament. It fails to take into consideration that even when we are physically present in the same room, we may not be near to God and to each other in spirit. Scripture recognizes this problem. It also recognizes that one may be spiritually present while physically absent.

There is more to gathering than occupying the same room. When we gather as a local expression of the Body of Christ, the most important requisite is that we draw near to God and to each other, not that we share the same space. This we can do online as well as in person.

We can expect to engage in social distancing for the foreseeable future. This will require that we reevaluate and rethink how we celebrate the Lord’s Supper when we are able to have in-person gatherings again.

It is wishful thinking to believe that the coronavirus will disappear as mysteriously as it appeared. Even if scientists develop an effective vaccine, we can expect outbreaks of the virus. The anti-vaccination movement has already voiced objections to the mass vaccination of the American public should a vaccine be developed. While an effective Ebola vaccine has been developed, many Africans in countries that experience Ebola outbreaks refuse to be vaccinated, fearing that they will contract the deadly virus.

Basic public health measures like staying at home and staying away from people in the case of the more vulnerable and keeping six or more feet between ourselves and others, washing our hands, wearing face masks, and wiping down surfaces with disinfectant in the case of everyone else will still be needed to mitigate the effects of the virus. There will be no returning to the “old normal,” to the old way of doing church.

The passing of the “old normal” is not necessarily a bad thing. Many of the teachings and practices with which our particular ecclesiastical tradition may have added to Biblical Christianity have proven to be significant obstacles to the spread of the gospel. Rather than clinging to the past, we should be exploring new ways that we can reach our virus-ravished world. We will need the Lord's Supper more than ever to invigorate, strengthen, and confirm our faith.

Grace Upon Grace: A Response to Ryan Danker's Theology of Holy Communion

On March 25, the Baltimore-Washington Conference webpage posted this piece by theologian and historian Ryan Danker. In the article, Dr. Danker decries virtual or online Communion as “sacramentally impossible from a United Methodist perspective.”

He augments this argument by appealing to two theological axioms and practical assertions: 1) our UMC eucharistic theology inescapably entails a physical, same-space gathering for the materialization of the Real Presence of Christ, and 2) the Communion must be administered by authorized clerics also present in the same space as the congregation.

To accent these axioms, Dr. Danker appeals to Word and Table I and the double-epiclesis, which, Dr. Danker argues, assumes the Real Presence of Christ manifests in the Eucharist when we have A) physical bread and wine, and B) a corporeally congregated ecclesia. Read More

Also See:
A Missional Meal: The Digital Practice of the Lord's Supper
Churches Find Communion with Online Lord’s Supper
As Coronavirus Keeps Parishioners Homebound, Christian Clergy Debate Online Communion
Virtual Communion: Church Leaders Say It Can Be Done
Advisory Opinion: Communion in an Emergency/Pandemic
Doing Communion Online Right
Tips for Videoing Online Communion from DisciplesNet Church
A Plea for More Online Celebrations of the Lord's Supper
Holy Communion in a Coronavirus World
"Do This in Remembrance of Me": Celebrating the Lord's Supper Online
Virtual Communion in a Time of Pandemic

Friday's Catch: 'Churches Should Not Be the First to Open' and More

Churches Should Not Be the First to Reopen

The demographics of many US congregations make sanctuaries a risky place for gatherings to resume. Read More

Five Hard Things Churches Must Do Right Now [Podcast]

This season of isolation and social distancing has forced churches around the country to make hard decisions without an idea of what the other side holds. Listen in as Thom and Sam discuss the questions and best practices pastors are talking about right now on Church Answers and the five hard things churches must do right now. Listen Now

Conspiracy Theories in a Time of Coronavirus: How to Address the Problems They Reveal

Discerning leaders should be wise to recognize the growing need to confront conspiracies in their midst and to equip believers to engage loved ones and friends who have come to believe some of the fake news flying around. Read More

Those MAGA-Hat Protestors: Compassion, Contempt, and the Way of Christ

Often, our compassion meters are put on display when it comes to how we respond to those who seem least like us. The way of Jesus is better. Read More

We also live an age where special interest groups and unscrupulous individuals may exploit the fears and anxieties of others to push their own agendas.

No Job, No Friends, No Faith

The coming wave of "deaths of despair." Read More

No Tech/Low Tech Ministry Ideas for Local Churches

What are some simple, low to no technology opportunities for staying connected as the Body of Christ, as a community, and as a congregation? Read More

Seven Tips for Engaging with Live-Streamed Worship

The most fundamental shift to make is moving from watching to participating—from passively observing a produced service to fully engaging as an active worshipper. Read More

During Quarantine, Become a Singing Family

“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you” (Ps. 5:11).

This quarantine season is an unexpected opportunity for us to create healthier rhythms in our lives and to speak to our troubled family and friends “the beauty of thy peace.”

One lost treasure of Christian home life is the ability to sing together as families. For most of Christian history, “congregational singing” was happening both in the church and also in the home. From Luther and Calvin to Wesley and the revivalists, singing at home was encouraged and assumed. Many of us who grew up in Christian homes remember parents or grandparents finishing evenings with singing hymns. Today, this has often been replaced by Netflix or other amusements.

Since we started our Getty Family Hymn Sings, people have asked, “How can we do this if we haven’t been used to it?” “What do we do if we are not musical?” and “What’s the easiest way to get started?”

Here are five suggestions that might spark new ideas for the singing culture of your home. Read More

Thursday's Catch: A 'Painful Opportunity' and More

How the Pandemic Is a 'Painful Opportunity' for the Church

How should the the church be postured for change during this season of ministry? What kind of pruning should congregations welcome amid the impact of the coronavirus? Read More

Using the Coronavirus for Missionary Training

There’s so much about our current circumstances that resemble the experience of living cross-culturally. So, this post suggests 7 ways you can use the coronavirus quarantine for missions training. Even if you have no plans on moving cross-culturally, your ability to understand the missionary life will increase your empathy and equip you to maintain a more missional lifestyle. Read More

4 Steps to Equip Your Church to Be Good Neighbors

Social distancing is our current reality, but that should not keep our churches from embracing the Great Commandment and living on mission. In fact, now is the perfect time to encourage our people to demonstrate compassionate care to their neighbors. Good neighbors doing good works leads to goodwill that opens the door for the good news. Read More

The Most Urgent Things for Churches to Put in Place Now

What are the most urgent things we can be doing as the church is scattered? Here are 10 things that you should have in place already—if you don’t, you are late and it is time to get going. Read More

This article is a repost. But it will not hurt to read it again. You may notice something which you missed the first time that you read it.

What Does the Bible Say about Domestic Abuse?

Domestic abuse is a very real problem in the United States and the rest of the world. Domestic abuse and child abuse often go hand in hand. Read More

Pastoring A Small Church Is Not A Penalty, It’s A Specialty

Small churches are not a sickness to overcome, a problem to fix, or a theological error to correct.... Read More

The Pressure on Pastors During Covid-19

Pastors are dealing with a lot of pressure right now, and many of the pressures today are unlike whatever they’ve experienced in the past. I was able to look through many of the comments pastors left when a recent LifeWay Research survey asked what pressure points they are feeling most right now. Below are some answers that helped me better understand how to pray for church leaders during this season. Read More

4 Tips for Livestreaming a Funeral Service

Funeral homes have experience livestreaming funeral services and will have great advice to share during a crisis like this. However if you yourself are hosting a livestream of a funeral there are several things you should know. Read More

Moving Worship Online: Guidance and Resources

A number of mainline denominations are offering local churches guidance and resources for moving their worship services online during COVID-19. I surveyed a number of their websites and identified those which contain useful information. 

9 Key Tips for Planning an Online Worship Service

Here are some tips on how to plan a successful online worship gathering. Read More

Tips for Videoing Communion from DisciplesNet Church

Here, DisciplesNet leaders share wisdom they’ve gained over the years, hoping some might help pastors and worship leaders live-streaming or recording video when traditional worship is shut down for a time.Read More

Online Worship & Music Resources for Livestreaming

As we have clearly entered a new way of worshiping as a community of faith through virtual means, the worship staff at Discipleship Ministries has compiled a variety of resources that are available. Read More

Piano Accompaniment Recordings

These piano accompaniments of familiar hymns are provided as free downloads as a joint project of Discipleship Ministries and United Methodist Communications. They are intended to provide accompaniments for congregational singing for churches unable to provide accompaniment for singing. Read More

Church Community during the Coronavirus Pandemic

While we are unable to physically meet or visit there are ways in which we can remain, or even strengthen our church communities. Read More

Worship during the Coronavirus Pandemic

The Methodist Church's Sing the Faith Plus website offers a number of resources for worship during COVID-19. Read More

Meeting an Unprecedented Moment

As the world has grappled with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the ELCA has sought new ways to meet this unique cultural moment, engaging members in worship and faith formation through innovative means. Read More

Worship Resources

The ELCA offers a number of worship resources for use during COVID-19 on its website. Read More

Worship & Nurturing Community Online

The Southeastern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ also offers a number of resources on its website. Read More

Community without Communing: Resources for Virtual Church

As pastors and church leaders determine how best to shepherd their congregations during this health crisis, Sojourners reached out to those who have experience for their best words of advice. Read More

Wednesday's Catch: Relaunching the Church and More

What Relaunching the Church Might Look Like Over the Next 3–12 Months

We are in the midst of a crisis that is forcing the church to learn a new song and dance. Read More

What Your Church Must Know Before Reopening the Building

Understanding the concerns of everyone in the local church will help leaders better assess their current situation and make the proper plans before welcoming worshippers and guests back to the building. To help with the process, LifeWay Research has developed and made available a free survey church leaders can send to everyone in their congregation. Read More

10 Ways Women Can Stay Connected During COVID-19

We continue to innovate, pivot our strategies, and seek new ways to keep one another connected to God’s Word and to each other. Read More

Four Ways to Deal With Your COVID-19 Worries

How can you overcome worry during this stressful season? Read More

Majority of Protestant Pastors Believe Climate Change Is Human-Caused

According to data from LifeWay Research, a majority of America’s Protestant pastors now—for the first time—say global warming and climate change are real and human-caused. Read More

Barna: More Americans Now Believe in Satan Than in God

The third and latest report in Dr. George Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2020 evaluated the perceptions of God that people have in the U.S. Among the survey’s most surprising findings are that more Americans believe in Satan than believe in God and that more people believe that Jesus was divine and a sinner than believe he is divine and sinless. Read More

Tuesday's Catch: Six Lessons for Churches from a COVID-19 Survivor and More

Surviving COVID-19 in Spain Changed My Faith

Six lessons for churches from the president of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. Read More

10 Ministry Idols Being Exposed by COVID-19

The pandemic is forcing churches to do ministry differently and find new ways to reach people. But it’s also teaching us about ourselves and exposing weaknesses in our ministries. Read More

Church Plants, Fight for Community During COVID-19

This pandemic exposes our ecclesiological commitments. For the communal aspect of church life to continue during COVID-19, instead of simply hibernating let’s exhibit three characteristics in our fight for community. Now is the time to lead your church plant to prioritize and pursue community. Read More

5 Things Smart Churches Are Doing During The Coronavirus COVID-19

Brian Dodd examines five of the things that smart churches are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

Why Your Church Must Move to Both Digital and Automated Giving Immediately [Podcast]

In a time when most churches are holding virtual services, Thom Rainer and Sam Rainer speak with Jess Rainer regarding best practices and benefits in moving to both digital and automated giving immediately. Listen Now

12 Ways We Might All Be Different When We Gather Again as Congregations

We’re all looking forward to the day when we’re past this COVID-19 crisis enough that our churches can worship together again. None of us can know for certain how we’ll be different when that happens, but here are some of my guesses. Read More

How Church Leaders Are Responding to the Challenges of COVID-19: Second Round Survey

Even as there are emerging signs of optimism in combating COVID-19, the demands of this season on pastors and church leaders are not likely to lessen in the near future. Read More

4 Steps to Cultivating Pastor Resilience 

How to take care of yourself as you care for others. Read More

Everyday Mercies: 7 Ways to Build Resilience during COVID-19

Adversity means an opportunity to grow. At the heart of growth is the ability to be resilient. Resilience is all about the ability to cope and bounce back. How can we develop resilience, in these times? Read More

5 Ways to Grow Stronger during the Pandemic

My family has decided to make it our goal to grow stronger during these times. I encourage you, pastors, to adopt the same theme during the weeks ahead. Consider strengthening yourself in the following ways.... Read More

Worship God with Your Whole Heart at Home or Wherever You Are

By Robin G. Jordan

While Mike Leake makes some good points in his article, “There Is a Reason Your ‘Worship at Home’ Doesn’t Feel the Same,” he is assuming everyone will experience worshiping at home in the same way that he does. Some people will; others will not. The latter may be more adaptable than the former and have easily made the transition to online worship.

The latter may  also includes those whose only experience of worship may be digital. They are the people whom we are attracting to our live-stream services and who have no previous experience of the worshiping church.

The people that I have in mind, however, are people who like myself are equally able to worship at home and in a church sanctuary or worship center.

Over the years I have worshiped in a number of different settings, including my own home. I have worshiped alone as well as with different groups of people. I have led family worship around a kitchen table. I have worshiped with other house church members, singing along with CDs of popular contemporary worship songs and traditional hymns during the worship time of our weekly gatherings.

I have worshiped with small congregations that had only two or three strong voices. I have worshiped with larger congregations in which most of the congregation enthusiastically joined in the singing. I have sung hymns and worship songs to the accompaniment of organ, piano, guitar, or MP3 worship tracks. I have also sung hymns and worship songs accapella—without accompaniment of any kind.

The Acts of Apostles tells us how Paul and Silas sung hymns to God in the middle of the night, in a prison, their feet in stocks. The conditions under which they worshiped God were far from ideal. But they praised God and glorified his name. What was their secret? They entered wholeheartedly into worshiping God despite the circumstances in which they found themselves.

When we worship at home, we have a choice. We can focus on what we miss. We can repeatedly say to ourselves and whoever may be with us, “This does not feel like church to me.” We can dwell on how it differs from what we have become accustomed to. Or we can, like Paul and Silas, enter wholeheartedly into worshiping God.

For those who struggle with worshiping at home, I have three suggestions when it comes to singing God’s praises.

First, ask the Holy Spirit to help you in praising God and glorifying his name.

Second, forget how you might sound. God is not grading us on how well we sing.

Third, worship God with your body as well as your voice. Stand. Lift up your hands. Fall down on your knees. Prostrate yourself. Dance. Let the Holy Spirit move you.

I believe that if you follow these suggestions worshiping at home will be an entirely different experience.

Monday's Catch: Healthy Online Churches and More

Three Approaches for a Healthy Online Church

I want to challenge you to start to think through how to move watchers into your church, a partner church, or maybe a home church, but you need to think through how it all works together. I will provide three approaches to consider as you think through expanding online endeavors, but first, let’s look at some data of what’s been happening with those already streaming their services online. Read More

Harnessing the Potential of an Online Campus [Podcast]

What assumptions have we held onto that 100 streaming churches have proven wrong? Jay details the potential that is stored up in an online campus. We learn the pathway from Community to Core, and how pastoring people online helps drive them to deeper levels of belonging. Listen Now

3 Lessons From a Decade of Teaching Online

Among the many disruptions caused by the coronavirus, church leaders have found themselves suddenly faced with the challenge of shepherding their flocks without actually gathering corporately. This means that churches everywhere, many for the first time, are exploring how to deliver teaching content online. Read More

6 Tips for Overcoming Virtual Meetings Fatigue

What do we do when our minds and bodies start shutting down from virtual meetings overload? Here are six tips to overcome your Zoom/Hangouts/WebEx/Skype/FaceTime fatigue. Read More

5 Steps for Serving Those with Special Needs in Times of Crisis

God calls the church to meet the needs of its people and to serve the community at large, even—and I would say, especially—as these needs change. Here are a few suggestions to help your church care for those with special needs during this time of crisis.... Read More

6 Needs to Anticipate When the Church Gathers Again

It may be difficult to imagine right now, but the glorious day is coming when God’s people will again be able to gather—physically—to worship together. How can your church help make that a success? Read More

What If Our Church Attendees Showed Up at the Same Time? Five Thoughts

As we wait to return to our in-person worship services, let’s start addressing this issue before the stay-at-home recommendations lift. Here are five thoughts.... Read More

Do Online Gatherings Have a Place in the Life and Worship of the Church?

By Robin G. Jordan

In article on Anglican Ink, "Virtual Christianity Will Not Do," Julian Mann asks how can an online gathering be the body of Christ? The he goes on to answer his own question without realizing it. He quotes 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.” The answer to his question is found in the same passage: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

What unites us as the body of Christ, to Jesus and to each other is the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ transcends both time and space. We are united to those believers who went before us and those believers who will come after us as well as to other believers around the world.

The assembly of the local church, when it gathers in the same room, is an outward expression of an inward spiritual reality. The local church's assembly points to that reality. However, we should not confuse that reality's outward expression with the reality itself.

Online gatherings may be an imperfect expression of the body of Christ. But when Christians gather online to do what the church does--to worship God, to hear God's word, to pray for God's world, to encourage each other, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper, it is the body of Christ even though its members are seated in separate rooms in front of a screen.

The Holy Spirit is not tied to our physical reality. He not only dwells in the inner most being of the believer but he also dwells outside of time and space. He manifests himself when we gather together in one room and when we are physically separated from each other. He is present when we gather online as he is present when we gather in person. We do not need to share the same physical space for the Holy Spirit to be present.

Like the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the assembly of the local church points to a spiritual reality, as I noted earlier in this article. It, however, is not the spiritual reality itself. A gathering of believers online, while they may not share the same physical space, also points to the same reality. Like the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the local church’s assembly is a means of grace. So is a gathering of believers online. We do not need to be physically present in the same room to experience God’s kindness and good will toward us or to feel his influence in ourselves and our lives.

In-person gatherings have historically been the norm of the Church and should in my opinion continue to be its norm. However, online gatherings have a place in the life and worship of the Church. They are, while imperfect in a number of ways, an expression of the body of Christ.

Saturday Lagniappe: Effective Online Gospel Invitations and More

5 Ways to Give an Effective Online Gospel Invitation

One of the key aspects of serving this new audience well is giving an effective gospel invitation online. Here are several applicable practices to keep in mind.... Read More

7 Things the Coronavirus Hasn’t Changed

In this time, it’s particularly important and especially precious to consider and celebrate the things coronavirus can’t touch; the unchanging, unshakeable realities that haven’t changed, because, according to the Bible, they cannot and will never change. Read More

Can a Constraint Be Beautiful? Some Thoughts for Leaders

We are in a season of constraint. As a pastor, we are constrained from gathering physically. We are constrained from using all the resources the Lord has given us – from the facility to the events we have had to cancel. We are constrained from lunch meetings where development conversations occur, from face-to-face counseling appointments, from weddings and funerals, and from so much more. Read More

Ten Questions Every Church Leader Should Be Asking About Finances During COVID-19

Last week we took a look at what I think every church leader should be asking about church attendance during the COVID-19 crisis. This week, let's shift to what you should be looking at in regards to generosity, budgeting and giving during this time. Read More

7 Top Concerns of Pastors during COVID-19

When LifeWay Research spoke with pastors about how the coronavirus was impacting their church, they also asked: “As pastor, what are the pressure points you are feeling most right now? In what ways could you most use support?” Here are the seven most common responses and some quotes from the pastors themselves about the topic. Read More

3 Questions to Help See Jesus in the Old Testament

When we study the Scriptures, it should always be in light of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection (Luke 24:27). Many of us understand how this shapes our reading of the New Testament, but we need some help with the Old Testament. Here are three questions to encourage your congregation to ask when reading the Bible Jesus read.... Read More

How to Manage Stress During the Coronavirus Crisis

Because stress can affect how we feel, think, and behave, our ability to manage stress can have a profound effect on how we deal with the current coronavirus crisis. Before we consider ways to manage stress, though, we need to develop a better understanding of what stress is and how it affects us. Read More

Handling Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic [Video]

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck many with fear, depression, and anxiety. Join this roundtable discussion with biblically trained counselors as they discuss some practical ways to address these issues that come as the pandemic progresses. Watch Now