Follow us on Facebook Showing a video is a nice way to break up the speaking parts and add a little music and change of scenery. And I acknowledge that certain aspects of Christian fellowship may even be stronger online than in the flesh, because some folks feel more freedom to share openly when they are not physically present with people. They make relationships that are variously real or fictional, depending on a wide variety of factors. Rather, God renews and restores his creation. Thus, to deny the reality of virtual church is too simplistic. 2020 Lutheran College & Seminary Virtual Christmas Programs Please email office@alcm.org with updates or additions. Estes is a careful theologian with a solid biblical foundation. If you’ve read philosophical or psychological discussions of reality, you know that what I’m saying here is very simplistic (if not confused). Yet is virtual church enough? You don’t need to feel obligated to be connected to some sort of physical church as well.”? Set changes are much easier with Zoom. Then they can un-mute themselves when they speak, and mute themselves after they are done (especially before any page turns.) Just like in a typical live performance most people tend to speak too quietly and too quickly. Sometimes, after engaging in tender sharing through email with some man, I would run into him on Sunday after church. God created the physical world and called it good. And if one baptizes oneself in real water which participating in some virtual ceremony, though the water is real, that person will never know what it’s like to receive baptism. 103-134). I will have to admit our church has become quite proficient at performing our Sunday morning services over Zoom. Speaking for myself, I’m much more drawn to physical church than virtual church. “Christmas Carols by Cedarmont Kids. But I believe that what happens when Christians come together in physical space is essential to the full experience of church. Sometimes Christmas is a time of expecting great presents and being disappointed. In my last post in this series I made what I consider to be the strongest case for virtual church. And the sobering statistic: while no one knows exactly how much time residents spend in virtual worlds, a large percentage spend twenty or more hours per week, and many spend much, much more. Become motivated! We are currently in a pandemic but that does not mean we cannot perform fun and educational performances for church services. Thus the potential for church to be fully real is there for physical church, but not for virtual church. In the next few decades, the virtual world will equal or surpass the real world in its reach into and positioning in many aspects of our lives. • How can you bring a meal to a person who is house-bound? Could Virtual Church Be Real Church? Thus, I cannot imagine saying to someone who is fully able to participate in physical church, “Don’t worry about it. You can get some excellent Christmas programs under $10 on Amazon.com, but we know many churches want to create something original. You can find our 2020 Christmas Cantata below. But these activities don’t have to be limited to just times like the current pandemic. In my next post I’ll suggest a theological reason why I think virtual church can’t ever quite be fully church. I’m not an expert in the sociology of technology, so I can’t demonstrate that what Estes has written is true. Moreover, it seems to me that the question about whether virtual church is real or not is too simplistic. But for these folk to fully experience what church is meant to be, at some point they’ll need to gather with other believers. 731-423-2228. (p. 20), Of the one billion people online, an estimated seventy million are already regular participants in virtual worlds, and that number continues to grow dramatically. Was it more or less real than my relatively shallow experience in the morning? Thus, the findings of the Pew study "These new finding challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States. • How can you actually embrace those who are weeping? Choosing the right style of event for your team is critical to get the most fun and engagement from the experience. It would be to people who, for various reasons, are precluded from participating in physical church. They also suggest that we should not too quickly dismiss the potential for virtual church to be real in certain ways, even in certain crucial ways, even if it will never be real physically. Merry Christmas Eve! And, given the fact that I believe the Holy Spirit can be present in a real though non-physical way, I’m open to the possibility of virtual church being real in ways that count, even though it can never be real in some ways that also count. 4. Rather, virtual church purports to offer a full church experience that is not dependent on a physical church, but is meant to provide a stand-alone, genuine church experience in a virtual reality world of the Internet. In several of Estes’ own scenarios, some sort of physical relationship with other people is required. 3. In my last post in this series I offered an existential response to the question: Is virtual church enough? (p. 224). We don’t have to miss out on any drunk, spirited singing this year. During both the rehearsals and the actual performance the Director must be familiar with using Zoom and how to mute everyone (Alt-M) and spotlight the participant about to speak. This is evident, for example, in Estes’ chapter on “WikiWorship” (pp. Scheduling a few rehearsals is very important so your cast is ready to perform when it is time for the main event. They do not have to do anything! I expect that most of my blog readers would grant this premise, given the fact that you are reading these words because of the Internet. That was more difficult … I will not use your e-mail for any other purpose. Since he couldn’t worship with his local church family, Porterfield tried to find a virtual Christmas service online. It is real in many ways that matter. For a Christian, reality is clearly more than physical. Examining the Translation Debate, The Force of Freedom: The Political Theology of George W. Bush, All Things New: New Year's and the Tsunami, The Presidential Election: A Christian Response, Was Jesus Divine? It will be the place where they find love, soothe their feelings, make deals, and worship. Estes explains virtual worlds and virtual churches with exceptional clarity. They don’t sing songs together in the same room. What I experienced was very much like what millions upon millions of Christian experience every week in their physical church. The basic facts of creation and new creation suggest that physical life is extraordinarily important. But I would say that, in many ways, our email conversation was more real and closer to what we’re supposed to experience in church. To this point, I have been making an existential argument for the inadequacy of virtual church, based on the experience of the sacraments. Enjoy this reposting of our Sunday Morning Children's Ministry families telling us the Christmas Story. But some folks, especially men, were reticent to come in for a personal visit. Rather, he was focusing on virtual churches, that is, on so-called churches that exist, not in physical space, but rather in the electronic realm of the Internet. Some physical churches do have a substantial online or virtual presence. . Yesterday I began a blog series focusing on the challenge and opportunity of virtual church. If you want my answer to that question, you’ll just have to visit the series. When somebody enters a virtual world online, it is real in a sense. Hopefully by Christmas 2021 we will be able to enjoy a true live Christmas program inside again. What was a more authentic experience of church? (p. 19), [T]he internet is causing a paradigm shift a hundred times greater than that of the mobile phone. But the first Christmas gift was an ordinary-looking Baby who offered the best present ever. Christians believe that in order to save people and renew the cosmos, the very Word of God became human. I read SimChurch with great interest. So mute them all and have them dressed up in front of a nice background at their homes, and play some nice music from the Host’s computer while you spotlight all the little ones dressed up as angels, sheep or whatever. They’ve released a nice collection of Free Christmas programs and scripts for churches to use. People use the technology to stay in touch and share information in ways that keep them socially active and connected to their communities.”. I would begin by pointing to some of the most formative truths of the Christian faith. Let’s say that on a given Sunday I go to an in-the-flesh worship service at St. Mark Presbyterian in Boerne, Texas (my home church, in photo to right) in the morning, and then log in to a virtual church in the afternoon. Permalink for this post / Permalink for this series. If they are using a tablet or smartphone, remind them to orient them horizontally (landscape not portrait) so their videos will fill better for the finished product, but then also remind them the camera and microphone are likely to be on the sides of the screen. (It wouldn’t be quite the same to order take-out and have it delivered to their home, would it?) Quite to the contrary! The Early Christian Perspective. Sometimes I would end one of my emails with a prayer. Here are some easy directions on how to convert one of our plays into a successful online presentation. Here’s where I agree most strongly with some of the conclusions of Douglas Estes in SimCity: It seems to me that real-world churches will accomplish ministry objectives that virtual-world churches and internet campuses will struggle to accomplish, just as virtual-world churches and internet campuses will accomplish ministry objectives that real-world churches will struggle to accomplish. If they don’t, they will miss things about church that require physical presence. If you take away materiality and physical community from the sacraments, you may have something that approximates them. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. . Your virtual church experience is enough.”, As you know if you been following this series, I have not denied the reality of virtual church. Find fun, original Christmas plays for children and teens about the true meaning of Christmas...and a Narrated Nativity for Preschoolers to act out in class! Which hugs would you prefer? It has two narrators, one of which does not believe in … Let me put it this way. Create a blank Church Program. It’s not the chance to create or utilize virtual church. On my way into the sanctuary, I shake hands with an usher and receive a bulletin. No sanctuary or worship center or house church with a physical world address. All of the Kremer programs are on CD-ROM and can be reproduced for use in the church or school. More real than virtual church? Physical churches could do for virtual churches that they could never do themselves without having a physical aspect: provide contexts for real people to gather in real space for flesh-and-blood community and full-orbed sacramental worship.