“CONVERSATIONS: a series of fora aimed at providing a platform for churches to share and discuss issues encountered in worship and the music ministry.” This is a new programme which the Methodist School of Music (MSM) launched on 25 Sep 2021.
The first episode featured “Online Worship: Insights and Reflections” moderated by Justin Chan, a Program Executive at MSM. It was an insightful and thought-provoking conversation among two seminary professors and a lawyer: Rev Dr Bernard Chao (Trinity Theological College), Dr Calvin Chong (Singapore Bible College) and Justin Yeo (Queenstown Chinese Methodist Church). While all three did not claim to be experts in the subject matter, they agreed that it is a timely and important topic that churches need to discuss and engage in. Three questions were brought to the table:
1. What is online worship at its best?
Justin Yeo expressed his opinion that online worship—like physical worship—should enable us as the Body of Christ to come together to bring our sacrifice of praise to God and to glorify Him. In both practices, a proper heart of worship is required for the leaders and worshipers. Justin spoke about how the Church responded to the 1918 pandemic—publishing the liturgy in the newspapers and using the telephone to reach the people! The technology then was far from what we have today but the church leaders creatively used the tools and resources they had then. In the same way, we need to make use of the God-given gifts we have today.
Justin highlighted that technology comes with a cost and has to be used wisely, responsibly, creatively and with due diligence. We therefore need to be good stewards—both in finance and in practice. The financial implications may be high but with proper identification of what the Church needs and good recommendations from the experts, the Church will most likely acquire what is best for them. Further, Justin strongly believes that employing these gadgets will have to be done with the utmost care and consulting the experts is always wise.
In order to have a smooth worship flow, Justin emphasised that the tech team needs to realise the importance of reducing technical glitches. The worship team has to engage the congregation and encourage or enliven their participation. The worshipers in turn need to have the proper attitude in attending worship online. Rather than using it to fill a gap in our schedule, it is best to attend services regularly at a fixed time. Justin used the word “attend” and not “watch”—attending connotes commitment and involves participation while watching is quite passive and may tend to be consumeristic.
Taking a biblical perspective, Dr Chong referenced four scripture passages: Deuteronomy 6:4, Amos 5:21, Haggai 1:2 and Malachi 1:10. As the Shema (Deut 6:4) begins with the verb “hear”, our first duty in worship is to listen. Unless we listen first, we might get our concept(s) of worship wrong. He pointed to the messages of the Shema and the prophets Amos, Haggai and Malachi, which equate worship to loving God and being mindful of social justice. He shared an article by Craig Greenfield about how the themes of social justice and concern for the poor, widows and orphans are not quite captured in the songs we sing in worship. We might be too focused on the things we do and forget the essence of worship. Dr Chong suggested that this might be a good time to take stock of our worship music repertoire and consider adding more songs that speak of love for God and of social justice.
From a theological perspective, Rev Dr Chao raised his concern about how our practices are being informed by our theology and how our theology is informed by our practices. He acknowledged the challenges brought about by online worship, i.e. the practices in physical worship that cannot be duplicated online like passing the peace and hearing one another as we sing or respond to prayer. The changing landscape has called for innovations on the part of the churches. He also highlighted our limited imagination of worship and Church, the digital space as a new arena, our sacramental theology being challenged; and the Church’s response to the digital realm.
Rev Dr Chao shared his view that there are many new possibilities open for the Church to explore. These include a new space for the love and presence of God and His people to inhabit, a “flattening” of the Church, enhanced connection and communication, and moving from Church-centric thinking to a mission-centric trajectory.
2. How do you connect online worship and the kingdom of God? Or online worship and spiritual formation?
Justin Yeo pointed out that online modality allows us to reach people—from those who do not step into church to those far beyond our boundaries. Dr Chong shared how technology has expanded pastoral and missional possibilities for him as he shared his experience in co-creating worship music with a large range of people across the globe. Rev Dr Chao raised an interesting insight about how we perceive the sacred and the secular, which seem to have an unnamed and underdeveloped theology. Dr Chao believes that we need time to test, innovate, practise and create new habits in order to develop a deeper theology of online worship.
3. Is online worship compatible with current Christian practices?
Dr Chong saw the pandemic situation as an opportunity not just to figure out how online worship should be done, but also to relook at whether parts of our physical worship services need to be revamped. Rev Dr Chao highlighted that the Methodist movement has a heritage of “de-traditioning” (for instance, John Wesley departed from the practice of his time by preaching his sermons outdoors), and so the Church ought to be flexible to ensure it is relevant and engaged with technology. Nonetheless, Justin Yeo cautioned that we have to be careful to not let online worship (which started as “better than nothing”) slide into something that is “better than everything” due to our own self-interest and convenience.
Through the thought-provoking and rich discussion, participants learnt much about how one could think about online worship (both theologically, spiritually and practically) and how God is present even in the digital space. He is also powerful enough to wield a medium that is often associated with the immoral and profane to make the good news of the gospel reach to the furthest ends of the earth.
Conversations may be accessed through MSM’s YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/lQLZUgqsb0k
Judith Laoyan-Mosomos is the Director for Worship and Church Music at the Methodist School of Music (MSM), and a member of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. / Photos courtesy of MSM