Peter DeHaan. Visiting Online Church. Rick Rooster Books, 2021.
Author Peter DeHaan presents Visiting Online Church as a journal or diary, Like most of us who became involved with online church or online school or online work, it begins in March 2020. Most churches closed and many provided services or masses online. Some had been doing this for years and were quite sophisticated. Others posted sermons recorded at the pastor’s home on a cellphone.
In the next year and a half or so, Dr. DeHaan viewed hundreds of online services and videos from a wide variety of churches. He also surveyed participants to see what their reactions were. These observations and surveys were of many different kinds of churches, Protestant and Catholic, Mainline and Evangelical. From these observations, he draws a number of conclusions and recommendations.
He emphasizes time and again that online experiences are no substitute for person-to-person experiences. To use the “Christianese” term, the biggest problem over the pandemic was lack of fellowship. Even when churches had live meetings, they were socially distanced, and people were wearing masks. That made it difficult to see their faces and hear exactly what they were saying. And no hugs or handshakes. It was hard. This was true for both indoor and outdoor meetings.
Because he took notes and surveys, though, Dr. DeHaan has made a number of observations which could be helpful to people doing church services online or thinking about it.
Because of the differences, he suggests, “Don’t feel a need to replicate and in-person service online” (31). There are perhaps ways to make the online experience more presentable. After all, “Producing online content allows for options that aren’t available for in-person gatherings” (53). For each of these observations, and many others, he gives concrete examples to show how this might work.
An observation that probably predated the Covid restrictions says, “Streaming is the new front door to church” (67). If people were looking for a church, in the past they may have consulted the Yellow Pages or a local directory. In recent years, they probably used the Internet and checked out a church’s web site. Now, with so many churches posting services online or streaming their service, people can watch a service and decide whether that is a place they would like to go.
This means that churches that have a minimal Internet presence may want to consider what they can do online to attract people.
While most of the book is about what appears to work and not work online, Dr. DeHaan does share a few relevant sermon notes. One sermon he heard spoke about how people were getting restless and annoyed by the various quarantines. That sermon talked about the Israelites being forty years in the desert. They were understandably frustrated and annoyed with the sameness and apparent lack of progress.
Our minister points out three things. First, the people aren’t wrong to be upset about being in the desert. Second, the problem begins with what they do about their feelings; they complain and blame Moses. Last, Moses responds differently. He takes his pain to God and honestly shares his heart. (83, cf. Exodus 17:1-6)
He notes in the survey that for those who attended church regularly, the sermon or homily was not as important as the worship and the fellowship. It is almost a Christian cliché that the cross represents the two important relationships for a believer, the vertical one with God (as illustrated in worship) and the horizontal one with others (as illustrated by fellowship).
He also made a reasonable recommendation for churches that post things in American Sign Language. For most churches, the signing is in a sidebar or corner, but that makes it hard to see, especially for someone using a cell phone. He suggested putting the preacher in the sidebar. Hearing people who might be watching will still get what the preacher is saying just fine while making it easier for the hearing-impaired.
One of the hardest things about online church is the lack of connection with what he calls the worship experience. Worship is more effective in a group. Even singing along with the songs at home, while better than nothing, is still not the same. He criticizes churches that do not post their worship sessions online; however, for any copyrighted songs or arrangements, churches must pay a royalty just as anyone else does. For some churches, the cost or complications from this make it easier or more legally compliant simply to not post them.
Visiting Online Church notes that the online experience caused by Covid has changed things. Even though in the United States most churches are open, a certain number of congregants have not returned and are not planning on returning. They seem content to visit their church online. For others, churchgoing was more of a routine than a commitment, and now they have new routines.
Visiting Online Church is a personal notebook, but it has many ideas and suggestions for those streaming or posting services online. One thing is clear: We are not going back to the former way of doing things.