By: Pastor Nathan Rose

Over the past couple weeks I’ve seen many churches live stream their worship services. Some people have asked if we are going to host a live stream service. For now the answer is no, though that could change in the future. Below are some of the reasons we have decided not to provide a live stream worship service.



1) We want to increase our longing to worship together.

Pastor Steven recently made a helpful observation: “Too often we let our culture creep in and think we have to remove all bad feelings and any pain as quickly as possible. The Lord often works through these types of painful circumstances. I think allowing some way for this to set in isn’t entirely bad.”

While a live stream worship service may not completely erase the pain of separation, it may mask the longing that we feel for our church. Instead, we desire that the Lord would use this time of separation to refresh our affection for one another and our commitment to gather together for corporate worship.

During this time of social distancing, let us mourn and long for worshipping our great God together in the presence of our brothers and sisters.



2) We are hesitant to create a substitute for our corporate worship gatherings.

Live streaming a worship service isn’t inherently wrong or sinful, but we don’t want to unintentionally communicate that an online service is the same as--or even like--worshipping with the gathered body in person. In other words, we don’t believe that a live stream is a real, actual substitute for a church gathering.

A live stream only requires a few people to be gathered together in one location. Everyone who joins the live stream participates primarily by watching or singing along as individuals. The saints are not gathered, and the worship is not corporate. In contrast, we believe the New Testament defines a church as an assembly of Christians gathered for worship. Gathering together is essential and necessary for the life of the church, and we want to be cautious about creating a substitute.

We also believe that when a local church gathers together for worship, something supernatural happens which cannot be replicated in a live stream. When we are together in person, we hear the voices of the saints sing together in worship, we pray together along with our pastors and those who pray, we read the words of Scripture along with the reader, and we are exhorted together by the preached Word. We want to guard against giving the impression that an online service can be a meaningful substitute for worshipping with fellow brothers and sisters. Instead, we want to redeem this unique season by encouraging our church members to worship together in their homes.



3) We see this as an opportunity to encourage family worship.

We believe family worship is one of the greatest gifts parents can give to their children, and this crisis is a chance for parents to start or reclaim this spiritually beneficial practice.

If you are unsure of how to lead family worship, it is quite simple. As long as you have the Spirit and a Bible, you can do it! All you need to do is get your family together, read a passage of Scripture, and then pray and sing together. Every week on our website we provide some family worship suggestions to help assist with this. If you want more tips, here is a brief video from Don Whitney that can help you with family worship, as well.

If you are single or do not have children at home, you should also do the same thing by yourself, with your spouse, or with the people you live with. Utilize this time to create good spiritual disciplines in your home to pursue the Lord as a family or as an individual.



4) We need our staff to use their time ministering in other ways.

Last week was one of the busiest weeks our church staff has experienced. We had to brainstorm creative ways to minister during this crisis and develop an effective communication plan. We constantly monitored updates from our local and national government. We answered numerous questions and communicated with our church body in a variety of ways. We made countless phone calls to check in on members to ensure they had their needs met, and then we had to meet those needs. After the week was over, there was still much more to be done just to manage our response to the crisis.

Due to the many challenges the pandemic has created for the church, our staff is already running low on bandwidth, and we did not plan or execute a live stream service. Many pastors who host live stream services have admitted that planning a live stream service takes more time than a regular service. While the first few reasons above are theological, this one is practical: by not doing a live stream, our staff can make better use of their time elsewhere, ensuring our church body is cared for and equipped for this season.



5) Other live stream worship services are available for our members to watch.

As mentioned above, we don’t think a live stream service is wrong or sinful; we just don’t think it is best for us. So if you want to watch a live stream service, go for it! It can be very beneficial and edifying, especially if used as part of your family or personal worship. Just keep in mind that it is not the same as actually gathering with your church family.

Here are a few churches that make their services available online. We trust these churches and hope they are helpful.

6) We have better ways to connect our people online.

Some have suggested that a live stream is a great way for the church to connect online. While connecting to a live stream simultaneously might provide the sense of online connection, live stream services provide no opportunity for member-to-member interaction nor any type of mutual participation. However, we do want our people to connect online, and we think there are better ways to facilitate that interaction! Below are a couple avenues we will pursue to connect our members online.



Pastoral Check-In on Wednesday Evenings Each Wednesday evening from 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM, Pastor Nathan will host a free video conference call for all our members. This will be a time for him to provide some updates, offer words of encouragement, answer questions, and pray with the church as a whole.



Virtual Small Groups We will launch virtual small groups beginning on Sunday, March 29, to gather virtually on a weekly basis! The purpose of these small groups is to help our members connect with one another. Each week these groups will read a passage of Scripture, provide updates on how they are doing, spend some time praying for one another, and enjoy some fun, lighthearted conversation.



To find out more about the Pastoral Check-In or to sign up for Virtual Small Groups, check out the COVID-19 Church Updates article!



Ultimately, there are a number of reasons we have chosen not to live stream services. While we may disagree on the best approach during this season, please know that there are no easy answers. Your pastors discussed this option at length and determined that there are better ways we can equip and encourage the saints of LBC for this moment. We continue to pray that the Lord works mightily in us as individuals and as a church family, when we’re gathered and when we’re apart.