Face to Face

To what extent is a virtual service a substitute for an in-person service?

Over the last several months, we’ve experienced several positive aspects of virtual services:

  • They have the potential to reach many more people than our in-person services. Our Resurrection Sunday service, for example, was viewed by several times as many as would have been present live.
  • Some have commented that it is helpful to be able to pause the video and discuss a point with others, or to rewind if they didn’t quite understand something.
  • Neighbors who have not been interested in attending have joined some of our folks in watching the service.
  • Some say they can see or hear the preacher more clearly in a streamed service.

On the other hand, we also have experienced problems with virtual services:

  • It is much easier to drift away when services are virtual.
  • It is much harder to know if you are not “there,” and impossible to know if you are not paying attention.
  • There is almost no interaction among the congregation in the service or afterwards. The interaction is solely between the speaker or singer and those listening.
  • Personally, I greatly missed the communication from congregation to preacher when recording in an almost-empty room. Yes, I missed the conversations that normally happen after the service. But a gathered congregation also communicates much to the preacher during the sermon: engagement, interest, excitement, joy – or drifting, boredom, distraction, and apathy.

Because of the benefits, we plan to continue streaming our services as we transition to having more and more of us meet in person on Sundays. Because of the problems, we will encourage folks to attend as soon as they consider it wise to do so.

But can we say more? Does Scripture give us any guidance on this issue?

Of course, the apostles and prophets had no conception of Zoom meetings – or even of telephones, for that matter. When they wanted to communicate, they either had to meet face to face or to write (and praise God for what they wrote!).

We can learn something about our own situation, however, by noting their preference for face to face meetings over communicating in writing.

The phrase “face to face” appears seventeen times in the English Standard Version (translating several different Hebrew and Greek phrases). We can draw four points from these verses:

First: Meeting face to face is a great privilege. “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Clearly speaking with God face to face is a privilege – but note that speaking face to face is mentioned as an important part of human friendship also.

The second point is a corollary of the first: We should desire to meet face to face. Now, we rightly long to meet one another face to face, as the Apostle Paul longed to meet the believers in Thessalonica:

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you (1 Thessalonians 2:17-18).

For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? (1 Thessalonians 3:9-10)

But if we long to meet with our fellow believers, how much more do we long to see God face to face! As Paul looks forward to the eternal state, he writes with barely concealed excitement: “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12 – see also 1 John 3:2 and Revelation 22:4).

Third: Communication is better face to face. Paul says as much in the passage quoted from 1 Thessalonians 3: There are ways he can bless them, ways that he can “supply what is lacking in [their] faith,” that are unavailable to him via letters. Similarly, the Apostle John writes, “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12). As mentioned above, this point is true even of preaching.

Fourth: We have a responsibility to encourage one another face to face. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us:

We must consider one another, how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting meeting together, as is the custom of some, but encouraging, exhorting, and comforting one another – and all the more as you see the Day draw near” (own translation).

Now, the author is not only talking about meeting together in weekly worship services, for in Hebrews 3:13 he says we should encourage one another daily. And praise God that today we have the additional means of phone calls and Zoom meetings to encourage one another when we can’t be together physically.

Furthermore, it is perfectly possible to come together physically and not fulfill this passage. Too often the gathered church is an audience, interacting with those up front, but not interacting with one another either before, during, or after the service.

To this end, note the contrast the author draws: On the one hand, there are those who have developed a habit of not meeting together. On the other hand, there are those who do what? Not just meet together, but encourage, exhort, and comfort one another! They think about one another, how they can help one another to become what God intends.

The bottom line: Know the privilege of meeting together. Strongly desire to meet face to face, and therefore to communicate more effectively. Know your responsibility to consider one another, to encourage one another – and live out that responsibility in the best way you can daily. Meet with us Sundays face to face as soon as you can wisely do so.

And know that every in-person worship service, every gathering of believers face to face, is a foreshadowing of the new heavens and the new earth, when we will see Him face to face, when all the redeemed from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will fully love one another and greatly praise the Lamb and the One who sits on the throne.

Representing Christ at the End of the Lockdown

How do you react to our meeting on Sunday morning once again?

Some are ecstatic. Some have concerns. Some will decide not to attend.

All those reactions are understandable. All can be the result of assessing the situation biblically.

All our lives, we make decisions based on our assessment of risks and the benefits associated with taking those risks. Let’s say Frank plans to drive to Atlanta to visit a friend. The latest forecast includes a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch along the route. Frank may decide to postpone the trip. He’ll be more likely to do so if his tires need to be replaced, or if he really doesn’t see well in poor weather conditions. On the other hand, if Frank is not just visiting a friend but traveling to a grandchild’s wedding, the trip can’t be postponed until next week – he’ll be more likely to travel, since the cost of not traveling is missing this one-time family event.

The decision to attend a worship service this weekend is similar. If we are biblical we value meeting together highly. We all long to praise God with one voice. We all have greatly missed interacting in person with other believers.

And yet there is another option: continuing to worship “together” via the stream. While we all acknowledge that participating virtually is inferior to participating in person, we assess differently the added value of being together physically.

There are even greater differences among us on the assessment of risk. We know this virus is much more dangerous for those over 60 and for those with certain other medical conditions. Also, some who aren’t in a high-risk category themselves interact regularly with those who are, and must be especially careful about exposure to the virus.

So we will make different decisions about attendance this weekend – and that is fine.

Remember the exhortation of the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus:

Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1b-3).

So may we show who Jesus is by the way we are humble, gentle, patient, and forbearing with one another, as we display our essential unity in Christ.

Furthermore, in these trying political times, when there are sharp differences of opinion about the danger of the virus and the usefulness of the shutdown, may we also live out Paul’s exhortation to the church in Philippi:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3).

There are appropriate times and places to discuss disagreements about the virus and the public policy response. May we limit such discussions to those times and place – and, in those discussions, may we be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, in humility honoring those who disagree with us as either fellow sinners saved by grace, or lost folks who need to hear of and see Jesus.

We are called to be salt and light to the world around us. As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Let us live that out this Sunday and throughout the time of the virus, among brothers and sisters in Christ and before the world, so that we do all to the glory of God.