Digital Nazarene

A Nazarene Wrestling with Digitally Expressing the Great Commission

Tag: Church of the Nazarene

  • Mystery Lost

    Mystery Lost

    We are not stewards of certainty. We are pilgrims of mystery.

    Preston Ulmer

    Being within the “evangelical” realm of Christianity, I have long been in a church culture that promulgates certainty. It would be nice if that certainty was just about Jesus.

    It also amazes me that much of “evangelical” culture rails against the Enlightenment, but uses Enlightenment practices and thought processes to prove itself and the faith.

    Over time (and not much of it, either), other things were introduced into the “evangelical pantheon”. Sex, evolution, science (in general), and politics. Certain practices within the wider tradition of Christianity were considered questionable, dangerous, or heretical. This despite many of the reformers who themselves had practices that now are under fire by those who claim to step in their chosen reformer’s footsteps..

    Certainty Kills

    I was reading Friendship Beyond Belief: How I Learned to Love and Listen to Doubters by Preston Ulmer in the January/February 2026 issue (it’s Loving and Listening to Doubters online), and he caught my attention with…

    …most of us have not been prepared to embrace a faith that stays committed in the face of uncertainty. Instead, we’ve been told that the stronger our certainty, the stronger our faith. Ironically, that kind of faith can become ossified and brittle and often looks to the rest of the world like close-mindedness or stubbornness.

    Preston Ulmer

    This put something I’ve been wrestling with as a pastor, particularly in my current calling. Certainty eliminates mystery. Certainty kills mystery. What’s wrong with a bit of mystery?

    Mysterious Call

    I have long had a sympathy for the mysterious aspect of Christianity. I find comfort in the truth that I do not know it all. I hold many things with firmly, and yet hold them flexibly.

    In the Church of the Nazarene, the Eucharist (e.g., Communion, Holy Supper, etc.) is only done once per month. Even as I say that, some churches do it more often, some hold to the Manual minimum of once a quarter.

    My early church experience was Anglican then Lutheran, and I still struggle with once per month, and I’ve been part of the Church of the Nazarene longer than either of the other two traditions (or both put together). John Wesley’s calling the Eucharist a “means of grace” struck me as affirming that the Eucharist is a mystery.

    Discussions within the denomination include too often weakens the power (and I think aligns with a memorialist perspective). Then there are those of us who are on the more spiritual (real) presence or further still to consubstantiation.

    It gets particularly interesting as the denomination, as a whole, is reaching back in to is Wesleyan identity. With the Wesleys (John and Charles) being Anglican (Church of England) clergy, the symbolic is losing sway, and the mystery is regaining ground.

    Mystery As Welcoming

    There are three strands of Christianity that are growing in the West: Assemblies of God (Charismatics), Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox. All 3 have participative experience as part of their worship expressions. Yes, Charismatic is distinctly different from Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox. And I am basing this on anecdotal evidence rather than statistics.

    All 3 also have a high mystery content. Yes, again, the charismatics are different than the other two.

    I think that the mystery is attractive to many younger people (not just me), because in the era of science and computers we seek something that transcends data points. Some people find that in nature (with or without God). Some people find that in music (again, with or without God).

    I am not certain of a lot of things. I don’t know if this makes me a bad pastor. I’m sure for some it does. I don’t know if this makes me an even worse Christian. I’m sure it does for some.

    I find the mysterious helpful. In a book from my childhood

    At last she stood up, gazing across the lake; she could not see its farther shore. “It is so large,” she said.
    Luthe rose to stand beside her. “No, not so large,” he said, “but it is a private sort of lake, and hard to see. Even for me.” He was quiet a moment, looking across the water. “I think perhaps the reason I stay in this particular uninhabited valley of all the uninhabited valleys in the Hills is that it comforts me by reminding me of things I cannot do. I cannot see the farther shore of the Lake of Dreams.”

    Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword

    I think I’d be okay, like Luthe, in a place like that. In some ways I am. Other areas, I grant, I’m no different than anyone else.

    Americans (the US ones) want their surety. And, yet, in their desire for surety, they still desire the unknowable.

    Perhaps…just perhaps…we might be willing to once again live in the mystery that is walking with God.

  • Bifurcated Mission

    Bifurcated Mission

    The Church of the Nazarene is pretty heavy on missions. In particular, going and being a missionary somewhere. We have missionaries in many areas. We say 165 world areas, that we aren’t talking about the missionaries in countries or groups of countries that are not friendly to Christians and/or Christians from outside.

    I’ve had a few conversations in the last week about missions, and I realized something really important. I realized that I am bifurcated between physical mission and digital mission.

    Not once did I connect the two!

    What interests you about missions? Where do you want to serve?

    Great questions for the physical missionary, but I neglected something I tell others about…digital missions is as important as physical ones.

    I operate with digital just being part of myself that, when asked those questions, I didn’t even think of including digital as a field I was already pursuing and engaging with! I was appalled at my own neglect of that.

    It wasn’t and isn’t because I don’t think digital is important, but that questions asked in certain contexts (when talking about physical missionaries, for example), the digital missions pieced doesn’t get included.

    I say that because I know it’s hard for others to connect them, as well. This domain is nazarene.digital, but

  • Word Problems

    During my schooling years (and my kids’), I had a distaste for word problems. Math problems written as a paragraph always hurt my brain. I just had a disconnect with them.

    Pride Month Wranglings

    This came to mind with some conversations I’ve had myself, plus what I’ve seen online regarding this year’s recognition/observation/celebration/condemnation of Pride Month. In the US, June is Pride Month.

    Prior to the second Trump Administration, many prominent businesses changed their logos, had celebratory posts on social media, did press releases, and so on. This year (2025, the first year of the second Trump Administration), the celebrations/recognitions are notably muted, though last year was muted, too, but few really caught that.

    For those companies that changed direction, was it about staying on the Administration’s good side, or was it about being free to be themselves, or was it all about the money.

    I’m cynical. I always thought it was about the money. Here I have to agree with the LGTBQ+ community, the real LGTBQ+ allies are likely the ones that haven’t changed, though that isn’t a sure thing, either.

    What’s Your Stance On…?

    I’m sure someone who is actually reading this, is now asking, “What’s your stance on LGTBQ+?” Which is the point of this post. The post is not about my stance, per se, but about the question itself.

    I’m part of a denomination that has a stance. I’m part of multiple non-profits that haven’t taken a stance on this particular (and also many other) issue.

    I’m part of an association of pastors and leaders that currently has the following “stance”:

    We are a gathering of various traditions, each rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all agree that the Apostle’s Creed unites in belief and that for the purpose of PMA, we will view other matters as non-essential to our fellowship.

    What We Believe, Plateau Ministerial Association

    This wide open statement, oddly enough, divides the local ministers.

    Seeking Not To Divide…Divides

    There are local ministers who will not attend (and have completely withdrawn) because of one member’s stance on a non-salvation issue. The association doesn’t have a political stance, so people don’t attend. The association doesn’t have a stance on LGTBQ+, so people don’t attend.

    This is where the church—in the US, at least—has fully baked-in the wider culture’s orientation of animosity.

    In our association, we have LGTBQ+ affirming, we have Traditionalist (not seeking to be antagonistic), and anti-LGTBQ+. Some would seek to divide over this issue. While the tension is hard, I don’t want to divide over this, at least for this association.

    The Why of Stances

    Let’s be honest with ourselves. Stances exist to proclaim who is on the inside, and who is on the outside. That can be good.

    It can also be bad. It can be very bad.

    Where the nuance exists is that just because there is a stance doesn’t mean against.

    Just because someone is a part of a particular denominations, for example, than I am, doesn’t mean I’m against them. I differ from them.

    I’ve had former congregants leave because their beliefs did not align with the Church of the Nazarene. I’m okay with that. I didn’t think they were against me or the denomination.

    There is, granted, a tension with stance and against. No one wants the tension. I don’t want the tension, but it is reality.

    There is not one member of my family that I agree with 100%. Just start with food likes and dislikes.

    The culture, though, has escalated beyond the tension to aversion, aspersion, demagoguery, and enemy-making.

    If you are an organization that believes that one has to have a stand on a particular issue, remember that no matter how popular that stance might be, it still includes division. Make sure you know why you’re dividing, from whom you’re dividing, and how it impacts your mission.

  • Contending For The Truth In Love

    I was recently watching Gavin Ortland’s “Are Catholics Christians? Why Protestants Can Say Yes.” Setting aside the point of his video, and even (mostly) his ministry and conclusions, there was something he said that really resonated with me.

    …let’s conduct our disagreement going forward in a way that honors Christ where we contend for the truth, and we do so in love.

    Gavin Ortland

    Contend for the truth…in love. It seems so simple. Orland acknowledges that he falls short, as do we all.

    I’m part of a number of groups and people that stretch, shall we say, me. Okay, I flat out disagree with much of the content they share and propound. Yet, I have found it to be critical to my growth as a person, Christian, father, husband, and pastor.

    The language seen is “sinner”, “sin-lover”, “heretic”, “bigot”, “hater”, “hate-filled”, and most of this is from purported Christians to purported Christians. The presupposition of so many is that who ever the target of the person’s words are is coming from a morally or theologically wrong position. By wrong, I don’t mean in error or differing of opinion. By wrong, they put themselves in a place of condemnation and judgement of the other.

    The Hard Part

    By my words before, I could easily be accused of putting myself in the same place of condemning and judging others. I recognize that, but I’m also not sure what else I am supposed to do. Do I think any of these people will themselves be condemned to Hell (whatever iteration you presuppose)? Not because of their words, necessarily. It is still about their heart and their relationship with God.

    While I am glad, on one hand, that the church universal (dare I say, the church catholic) is publically discussion theology and ethics, I think we have neglected to contend for the truth in love.

    This is far more than LGBTQ+. There is MAGA and Trump, politics in general, Christians behaving badly (take that however you want).

    In my denomination, there has been public trials in regard to LGBTQ+ (granted, being publicized by the person on trial kind of minimized the publicization). There are ongoing issues with misuse of Pentecostalic gifts while condemning non-problematic ones (in other words, throwing the baby out with the bathwater). There are issues about how we view the Scriptures.

    My denomination long called itself a “big tent” denomination, but there are multiple camps trying to shrink the tent. My heart aches because too many are not contending for the truth in love, they condemn.

    I am currently in a space where I wonder if our denomination can get to a point of discussion without declaration. We are in danger of abandoning,

    Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.

    Proverbs 27:17 NRSVue

    Via Media

    My denomination draws heavily from John Wesley. One of Wesley’s phrases was via media. In other words, the middle way.

    Let’s set this in its proper context, and that is the Church of England. The Church of England had a philosophy of via media. It was walking the line between the Roman Catholic Church and many of the offshoots of Protestantism. As it became the official church of England, in many ways it ceased being the via media by the very nature of its societal and governmental (the CoE has ex officio seats in Parliament) position. It’s hard for many of my Church of the Nazarene friends to see that the Church of England used to be the via media. Granted, in many respects, the transformation of the Protestant Christian landscape, it seems kind of odd that the Church of the Nazarene is in any way a via media denomination.

    Yet, if we really want to hold onto via media as core to our identity as a denomination, then we need to relearn contending for the truth in love.

    Loving Contention

    How do we contend for the truth in love? First, remember Proverbs 27:17. That’s a good starting point. Some translations of this verse use friend as the sharpener. While that might not be accurate insofar as the Greek is concerned, perhaps that ought to be the place we begin our contention.

    The starting point of love, however, isn’t our fellow man, it’s God. Some argue, with good reason, that if we love our fellow man, we are loving God. When one holds onto an imago dei concept (that each person has the image of God in them), this makes good sense, except when it doesn’t.

    Except When it Doesn’t

    When doesn’t it make sense that loving a person is equal to loving God? When loving that person allows, permits, or (especially) endorses behavior that appears contrary to the Scriptures. Depending on who you are that reads that, you will come up with an issue that I must be implying. You’re probably right, as long as you recognize that whatever that one issue you inferred is one of many I implied. I won’t put any issues here, because there are far more than even the issues I’ve stated elsewhere.

    This continues to be the hard part for me, as it is for many pastors I know. We love our people. We see the many places their lives do not conform with the Scriptures. It’s not as if we are perfect, either. We, too, have aspects of our lives that need to be further conformed to Jesus, sometimes more desperately than our people.

    Just as we are to be held accountable, so too are all who are in the Body of Christ.

    Elevating Sin Over Love?

    There are plenty of issue where this happens. Perhaps elevating is overstating it. Perhaps. Yet, if we all “know” it’s wrong (whatever it may be), but nothing changes, and we continue to say nothing, then where does that leave us?

    We don’t want to talk about a person’s sin publicly (or at least not to identify a sin with a particular sin), which makes sense…except for public sin. We also don’t want to condemn. That’s above our pay grade (so to speak).

    Go and Sin No More

    Does this apply anymore? Do churches care about this? Do the people care about this? I want to say, “yes.”

    Where do toleration, acknowledgment, accepting, admonishing all start and end? Within those, where does love start and end?

    What if every Christian has to account for other people’s sins (in particular Christians) that they did not call out? This might seem extreme hyperbole, yet Ezekiel can be seen as the archetype of a Christian watchman (yes, I’ve seen that many places).

    We are to be a community, and a community holds its people to account.

  • No Perfect Witnesses

    No Perfect Witnesses

    In my denomination, there has been a lot of conversation regarding the Last Supper/The Feast of the Gods vignette 2024 Olympics Paris Opening Ceremonies. Perhaps conversation might be overstating it.

    There have been a lot of words, and I’ve shared the words of others.

    What is prompting this particular post is It’s Not What You Think It Is by Andy Lauer on the Holiness Partnership1 website.

    I have to admit that my first response was not overly positive. Lauer’s article kept circling in my brain, however, and I have come to the point of recognition that it is worth reading and pondering.

    Yes, it might be a tad over the top. On the other hand, I think that there was too quick of a response by those against the Opening Ceremonies, and by those (like myself) who felt the need to mitigate the expressed outrage.

    So, we are clear, I do think the Opening Ceremonies were kind of meh. I think it was an overreach that didn’t work out well. I also did find The Last Supper/The Feast of the Gods vignette tasteless, but its entire context within the fashion/catwalk larger vignette had already turned me off.

    Jan Hermansz van Bijlert’s Le Festin des Dieux (The Feast of the Gods ) does seem to be very much based on Leonard da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Van Bijlert is not unique in this as this seach page on Artsy shows. Thus, one of the claims many have made that the vignette wasn’t about The Last Supper might be correct on the surface, yet The Last Supper is very much a part of it.
    In his article, Controversy, Context, and Creativity in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, John Squires preaches (he’s a pastor) about context, context, context. In response to much outrage, I shared his article with others, so that there was indeed some context.

    Squires is correct, context is key. The context is a broken and fallen world that does not have a functional relationship with God. Sadly, as much of the acrimony surrounding this vignette showed, it seems to apply to Christians, too.

    Many, such as myself, were responding to what was perceived has angry, hurtful, even hateful responses to the vignette. We saw this as damaging our ability to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. We understood that the world would first respond to Christian outrage with more outrage and shutting of doors to conversation.

    What we didn’t do, however, is ponder. Honestly, neither did a lot of the outrage against the vignette.

    We have been well trained to react, respond, react, respond. Maybe later we’ll think.

    We are not perfect witnesses. Those that tried to defuse the anger and those that were angry were actually not on opposing sides. That’s the part that really struck me with Lauer’s article.

    It’s not that we all don’t see a fallen world. It’s not that we all don’t see a world that is turned from God.

    Where people, such as myself, got a bit lost, perhaps, was that there is a distinct difference between trying to defuse, trying to understand, and trying to apologize. By apologize, I’m referring to the classic apologia, which seeds to defend or justify.

    It’s that last word, justify, where it seems that Lauer and others are rightly disturbed. Much of the defusing appeared (and may well have been) an attempt to justify the vignette.

    There are a number of conversations in the Christian world, including the Church of the Nazarene, where justification is equated to explaining, seeking to understand. This is vignette was one of them.

    Let’s be clear though. Squires, and many like him, used language that seemed more justifying than explaining.

    It’s not that I don’t understand that, but this impacts our witness.

    I get that there are many disagreements among and within the many Christian traditions (denominations and non-denominationals). I am becoming more convinced that it is not that we disagree, but how we disagree.

    Yes, there will be times where breaking of fellowship will occur, and I hope all parties involved are deeply grieved by that. I hope that the grief and sorrow is far outweighed by the sense of justification and righteousness.

    While I think this vignette is relatively minor, the hubbub that occurred around it is the point of greater reflection.

    We are imperfect witnesses for Christ. How we witness is very important. We may well have the right answers, but the right answers are only heard within relationships, and often not even then.

    As we come to the next outrage, let us think deeply if we are reacting and responding, or thinking, praying, and witnessing.

    1. The Holiness Partnership is a collective dominated by a group of Church of the Nazarene pastors who seem to be of a very traditionalist mindset. This can be good, as it ought to keep a balance to the progressive wing of the Church of the Nazarene. However, there is some concern, that the Holiness Partnership might have too much influence and control within the denomination, outsizing its numbers. ↩︎
  • Touchy VR

    Touchy VR

    I shared this article a number of years ago.

    Virtual reality objects you can FEEL just like on Star Trek’s holodeck move a step closer thanks to new ‘universal law of touch’

    I shared it to a Discord group I’m part of again today. I’ve searched for this article so many times on my own Facebook page, that I knew that it was time to put it here.

    Then there also This VR accessory is designed to make your mouth feel stuff, which uses a different methodology (I also shared it years ago).

    Both technologies have the potential to “dis-embody” us. They also have the potential to embody us in ways we cannot yet see.

    Will this lead us to being pod people of the Matrix? Maybe. Does that invalidate our experiences?

    This is a core question I am trying to resolve.

    As a person who treasures the Eucharist (i.e., Last Supper, Communion, The Lord’s Table), I see a huge win on one hand experiencing the Eucharist in VR (a VR Means of Grace). On the other hand, what does that do to our theology? How does transubstantiation (Roman Catholic view), consubstantiation (Lutheran view), spiritual (Methodist/Anglican), work in VR?

    I’m pretty sure I know where the Roman Catholic church will land (physical), but the rest of us, perhaps not. I have no answer, and I likely won’t until I experience it.

  • ZCal for Deputation

    Our District Deputation Manager asked me to setup a way for churches to better directly schedule a missionary speaker. Being the nerd and cheapskate that I am, I decided to use ZCal.co for this project.

    Having already made enough mistakes myself getting this setup, I decided to make some quick and dirty videos covering setup. If you want to do something like this, you will need to have either a Google or Microsoft Account that has email and a calendar (though ZCal does allow you to additional calendars of either type).

    A strong recommendation is that this be setup with an account that can be handed off to another person who might handle deputations (as when one steps down from the NMI Board). In other words, don’t use a personal account of yours, instead setup an account that will handle the deputations. This does mean it needs to be checked, however. So make sure that you access it regularly.

    With that, here we go!

    This video shows how to setup a calendar for a particular missionary. This is a long video (~18min), but is pretty much a step-by-step, including pitfalls (I make them in the video).

    This video shows how modifying invites works. This is an important tool for the deputation manager, as rescheduling might be necessary due to transportation issues (our district is, by car, 8 hours tall x 4 hours wide, for example) or missionary changes.

    This video shows how the user/church/NMI person would get an appointment to have a missionary at their church.

  • Rule of Life

    I’ve long been interested in the monastic life. Not sure I could handle it, honestly, but then again, God’s not calling me to it, either. That is normally a prerequisite. However, there are certain aspects of it that entice many of us, because we understand that there is indeed something very different about such a kind of life.

    A very brief history

    The Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions have long upheld the importance of monastic orders. The Protestant traditions, on the other hand, killed off the monastic traditions. This even includes the Lutherans, whose founder, Martin Luther, was a monk.

    Today

    Modern and Post-Modern Protestants continue, however, to show a fascination with it (again, myself included).

    This is why Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, and others have books that are shared and read among Protestants, and sometimes even shared from the pulpit. Contemporarily, John Mark Comer, for example, has written popular books—The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Practicing the Way—that are very monastic in tenor. From the non-Christian monastic tradition, we have Jay Shetty’s Think Like a Monk. There are plenty of others.

    Where it appears

    In my smaller circles, in both the Church of the Nazarene and digital church expressions, there is a strong interest in the monastic life and way.

    The big draw, so to speak, seems to be the Rule of Life. However, the Rule of Life most seem to be referring to is their own Rule of Life, which is actually not very monastic.

    The founder of a monastic order writes the rules. The postulant, novice, and professed follow the rules. Yet, the dominant view is that we make our own rules. This submission (despite its baggage) to the rules is part of what makes a Rule of Life and the Order that defines it what they are.

    The Nazarene Rule of Life

    As I have looked at others’ Rule of Life, I came to the realization that The Church of the Nazarene has its own Rule of Life. It is called the Covenant of Christian Conduct.

    Now, I admit that the “Christian Conduct” in the title is often a struggle (including for me). Its implication (which I have had to confront) is that those who do not adhere to it are not Christian. This, of course, is false.

    When one reads the Covenant of Christian Conduct, one realizes that it is a Rule of Life. Historically, we’ve tied it to membership within the local congregation of the Church of the Nazarene.

    Becoming a Rule of My Life

    As a relatively new person in the Church of the Nazarene, I was not around when the Covenant of Christian Conduct was used as a goad (sometimes abusively it seems), which caused many to rebel against it. This is why Rule of Life may often not apply to a congregation (or even a denomination).

    The reality is, though, that we often choose to submit to rules that we do not like so that we can get along with others. In particular, we do so to get along in a particular community where we have found a semblance of home.

    When I came to the Church of the Nazarene, the remaining dominant rules were against smoking and drinking. Smoking wasn’t the biggest issue, as I had my dallying it with it long ago. Drinking was an issue, but it didn’t take me very long to determine that I would submit to this rule. Yes, submission was still a choice.

    The Hardness of a Church Rule of life

    While I have long come to grips with the Covenant of Christian Conduct (though, still not the title), I know many within the wider body of the Church of the Nazarene, and even among the clergy still struggle with it. Much of it has to do with how the Church of the Nazarene has tied it to membership. People want to belong to the community but not necessarily adhere to the Covenant of Christian Conduct.

    We, as a denomination, seem to have come to a point where we hold that it is our ordained and licensed clergy that must uphold the Covenant of Christian Conduct, while lay members do not. I’m okay with that.

    The truth is that every church, organization, and even culture (religious or not) has a rule of life. Culture’s rule of life is a lot more nebulous, and in the US it has a tendency to change very rapidly, defying the stability of a deep rule of life.

    I don’t know how to define it, but we generally view Rules of Life as if we must agree with all of it to submit to it. We actually lose a lot of its value when we make it about us as the individual, rather than us as the group.

    I know that people will continue to adamantly oppose the Covenant of Christian Conduct’s stance on alcohol, smoking (tobacco or marijuana), sexuality, and a myriad of other things.

    Rule Versus Covenant

    In an era of Home Owner Associations, covenant has lost much of its spiritual weight. The religious aspect has an understanding that God is in the agreement between parties, thus making it a 3-way agreement of life lived. Covenant remains valid withing a Christian church due to the religious covenantal understanding, but I’m not certain that even we in the Church of the Nazarene understand it that way any longer, even among our clergy.

    Supposedly, a covenant could not be amended either, but Home Owner Associations and the Church of the Nazarene amend their covenants. Thus, to be theologically more aligned with the concept of covenant, Rule is a better word for our association.

    They Do Not Like the Rules

    Last, but not least is the issue many pastors have, “people thing our rules are silly (or stupid or something), and won’t join the Church of the Nazarene.” As we watch church attendance decline, with or without our covenant in place; as we watch society’s fabric fray as its rules change at a shift of wind; as we question the future of the church as we know it; perhaps we made it too easy to get on and off the bus.

    I know that people don’t want to be known for what they are against. It is a philosophy I understand and with which I am in alignment. Yet, I do believe there is a big difference in being against alcohol and being for temperance, for example (as alcohol is a big cultural piece here in the Pacific Northwest). I get that people who like their alcohol and their culture).

    Semantics

    I know this is all about semantics, but we should not devalue semantics, as the nuances will create completely different understandings. I also realize that as many Christian churches are becoming generic what makes us different is now almost strictly about the preacher(s) and the music. As the Church of the Nazarene tries to also become more generic (to be more open and attractive), the Covenant of Christian Conduct may end up being tossed into the trash bin of history, or it may become something that makes us different…as long as we’re okay with being different.

  • Counting Online Worshippers

    Counting Online Worshippers

    In February 2019, the general SDMI (Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International) board sent out a directive for counting online worshipers.

    The criteria for online attendance should address these items: personal identification, minimum duration, opportunity for participation, follow-up from host congregation.

    Churches may include in their regular worship attendance the number of confirmed devices or individuals who have:

    1. remained connected during at least 50% or 30 minutes of the streamed gathering or recorded content
    2. engaged the broadcasting church by:
      • Online registration or identification
      • Provided an opportunity for personal participation or communication (Chat rooms, submission of prayer requests, etc.)
    3. received weekly personal contact/follow-up by a designated individual from the hosting congregation

    Church should indicate on-campus and on-line attendance separately when reporting monthly worship attendance.

    Churches should take care to actively engage online participants in the same manner they do those present at their physical gatherings. Intentional efforts should be made to enter them into discipleship processes and, where possible, move them from the digital gathering to the physical gathering of the local congregation.

    Based on observed (and sometimes confessed) behavior, I wonder what would happen were we to apply the same requirements of those who visited physically.

    Let’s take item 1 regarding remaining connected. How many people are really and truly connected at our physical services? I have spoken to many who are flat-out are disengaged during the singing of worship songs. I have known others who have calculated the average amount of singing and will show up at the service at that average time, trying to minimize (or eliminated) any presence during the singing. Yes, these can be exceptions, however, with what we know about attention spans, it really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that people aren’t engaged for the full service when physically present at them.

    Item 2 is actually quite interesting. In my short experience, by this measure, most people seem to be “engaged” (again, as defined by item 2). This item is different insofar as being an “opportunity” not necessarily an action. As for saying “I’m here”, that is one of the beauties of online, is that the church’s capability to “prove” attendance is actually part of many platforms. However, connection cards—whether digital or physical—are really only somewhat successful.

    It is, though, really Item 3 that is the most significant. This item would fall under the area called life groups (or discipleship groups or small groups or…). Most churches, that I am aware of, know that this particular subsection of the church is vital to both the health of the larger congregation, the church as a whole, and the growth of individuals toward a fuller expression of Jesus Christ.

    This is probably part of the Church of the Nazarene’s Wesleyan heritage that creates a focus on this. However, it’s this heritage that also, sadly, displays the shortcomings of the current Western church culture at large. The “official” metric for Sunday School (the Church of the Nazarene term for all things not Sunday service) would be quite interesting were we only able to include those that attended both a Sunday Service and a life group of some sort. Many church’s official attendance would be significantly reduced.

    Now, to be honest, that may not be a bad thing. Imagine if the reported metric was attendance and it only counted for those who did both? How would the church (digital or physical) change its behavior? That is an interesting thought experiment itself.