I could add a new ‘P’ to this blog, ‘Producer.’ As a result of the pandemic I can no longer lead worship in my church building. It has been a weird change, transforming what I was just barely getting comfortable with to something entirely new. I now have to plan a service where I won’t be present and neither will anyone else. Instead, I have become video producer, a not-exactly YouTube star.

I am one of the fortunate ministers in the area, my background is in IT. A quick look around my house will find, three laptops, two desktops, a small server, and maybe five tablets. My main computer I built from parts so I could play a few video games which happens to make it perfect for video production.

But having the technology and even knowing how to use the software and cameras does not make me into an online minister. I have read missives from our Conference that say ‘don’t change anything from the way you do it live’ and ‘even if you cannot be in your church, make a space like a sanctuary for your videos.’ I get it, some of my congregation wants to be back in the sanctuary or at least feel like it is familiar. They want the same format. They want a bulletin in their hands with all the words printed. They want to have the exact same experience that they had in church…. but they can’t and neither can I.

Last week I asked a few friends who go to a different church, a church with an online service that is mostly formed around the original in-person format, what they do during the online worship. This church streams their service live via Facebook although much of the service is prerecorded. The general response was something like, “Well, depending on what is on right then I am either watching or doing something else.” Of course I wanted to know what the something else was, hoping it was meditating or praying or reflecting on their faith. “Oh maybe go to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee” and “Go let the dog out” and “Go and wash up the dishes” and finally, “I use some of the time to vacuum.” Not what I was expecting.

Yes, we have all seen in an in-person service, the occasional nod-off, or someone looking at their phone but at least we have those moments where they are ‘forced’ to come back to the service. You know what I am talking about right? “Please rise for the next hymn” or “Now let us come together to say the Lord’s prayer.” At least with in-person services we have a physical interaction with the congregation and have pieces of the worship to help reattach to the service. Now, instead, they can vacuum and no one knows.

As a newly minted producer I think I need to pay attention to this. Online worship is not like in-person worship and any effort to make it so will dilute the message we have. Yes, any effort to make it feel the same, to make it comfortable will make it less important which is not what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to help people find Christ. We are supposed to help them connect the dots in their lives with the Gospel and bring them closer to God. We are supposed to help them see their place as a disciple and instead I fear we are helping them tune-out.

It is probably true that many of us have been leading in-person worship services that have been helping people tune-out as well. Why? Because we are comfortable with the service. We can copy last weeks bulletin and use it again with just a few tweaks. We don’t have to to work all that hard. We could do the same thing online and at least we know some floors would get cleaned.

As a producer we have to acknowledge the medium we are using and its limitations. We also can acknowledge the medium and leverage its strengths. Want to have your message on Baptism in front of the river Jordan? That’s a green screen option. How about including more than one person in your video message, a dialog? Multiple frames are possible.

I guess what I am saying is that if we just apply the format we are used to in-person, people won’t just nod off, they will turn off. Instead we need to change so that our service invites people to listen or watch (those are two distinct options you know). We have to give up on the interactive parts which were forced parts of the in-person service and provide a new way for interacting. Maybe at the end of the service start a Q & A session for people, a threaded discussion.

Instead of lamenting about how hard it is to produce our services maybe we can take this time to produce something new and reach a broader audience. Maybe, just maybe I need to add ‘Producer’ to my blog and stop whining about it and instead thanking God for the opportunity!