A Different Kind of Sunday

Everything is changing around us every single day, isn't it? And it always does, really, but we're more aware of it right now. Uncomfortably aware.

I know there are different rules in different states about public gatherings, and even those rules are changing so rapidly. Here in Indiana, going into the weekend, the government mandate was that there could not be more than 250 people in a group at any given time.

Our pastoral staff spent the entire day on Friday wrestling with how to handle our Sunday services. They had no desire to go against the orders handed down by the state, but they also wanted to make sure we made use of any option we had to be able to carry on with a Sunday worship service. Since we have multiple rooms in our church that can handle larger crowds, one of the initial suggestions was to hold church, but split up the congregation so every room would have a small amount of people inside. They even had a plan in place to release people at varying times so they wouldn't run into each other in common spaces.

But after further scrutiny, they decided that since we have many older people in our congregation, it would be best to cancel our public services so they wouldn't have to make difficult emotional decisions about whether or not it was best for them to stay home or go to church. All day Saturday, on their days off, the pastors worked diligently to set up the sanctuary to be prepared for live-streaming our service. (I know many large churches do this regularly, but ours hasn't been fully equipped for it to this point, so we had to hurry to have lights, sound, and other equipment ready in a short amount of time.)

Though the services were officially canceled, our pastor asked the staff to attend in person so he could have support in front of him as he preached. Since I'm a recent addition to the staff, that included me.

I was a bit nervous about it, because I knew it was going to be a very different kind of Sunday morning. I couldn't imagine what it was going to be like to be in such a big sanctuary with so very few people.

We arrived a few minutes early, and I found the pastor giving instructions to our tech team - who all showed up as volunteers to run lights, sound, screens, cameras, and probably more things than I even know.

While they got set up, a couple of the staff members settled in with their laptops so they could interact with Facebook live watchers throughout the service.

Besides the tech team and staff, the others in attendance included the worship team, who did a phenomenal job of leading, despite the smallest handful of people singing with them. (We have such a talented musical crew in our church - for both services. This team is not from the service Ryan and I normally attend, so it was really wonderful to get to hear them and worship with them! The one on the left does my hair - that's just a free fun fact I threw in!)

Our pastor delivered a powerful sermon:

There was something very sacred about that morning. Even though we sat off to ourselves in a mostly empty sanctuary, there was something inexplicable about being in that place. And as I scrolled through Facebook comments later, it was clear that the same sacred Spirit we felt in that room was felt in the homes of those watching from around town - and even the country.

And this was just our church's experience. I know many thousands of churches offered a similar worship experience for their people this past weekend, too. It was so encouraging to read the comments of my friends on social media and see how many were having miniature services in their homes!

And just so you know...we didn't wear our jam jams. Nor did we shake hands or touch surfaces of anything. And we sanitized often.

We may have more services like this. I don't know! (I do know we didn't need to paper clip nearly as many bulletins as we did!)