Hybrid Church - what will, can or should church look like after lockdown?
As many of you know CiC International is part of several inter-denominational groups: the Free Churches Group, Churches Together in England, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and the Evangelical Alliance. We also have links with multiple other church-support organisations like Cinnamon Trust, Street Pastors, Food Banks, and so on.
As part of my role on staff I attend many committee meetings of these organisations. Often they put on other events that are about improving the life in God of all the denominations in the United Kingdom.
Two of these events took place recently - it was a very inspiring look at how church is being re-invented during and after the lockdown era, and looks at how we might re-invent, with excellent reason, some of the ways we do certain aspects of church.
Here's a link to the event recordings:
Edging into Hybrid Church Webinar - part 1
Edging into Hybrid Church Webinar - part 2
In it the team from the EA, CTBI and HOPE also interview a number of folk who have been doing a hybrid (in-person and online) form of church for many years.
A couple of useful documents (below) also came after the first event, with all sorts of links to resources that might help you and your leadership teams re-imagine how you could connect and pastor the online community that is seeing your church or ministry as 'theirs'. I haven't had time to check them all out, so if you don't like them or they don't work for you, no worries! I just didn't want to keep back anything that might be helpful.
I for one, am really grateful for online church, having been sick with ME/CFS for the better part of six years attending church can be very difficult, but I can attend from my bed or occasionally my couch or even my study!
This is all so much more than just broadcasting a Sunday service, but how we genuinely effectively and efficiently reach out to real people who, for a whole host of reasons, are not able to attend church in person.
Finally, I think this is relevant not just for our church leaders, but for all our itinerant and chaplaincy-based ministers as there will be new ways in which we will need to be prepared to operate in order to meet the needs of those we serve.
CiC is already starting to operate in a deliberately hybrid manner. You may have noticed that we now carry out all our annual reviews through on-line video meetings, this is also true of our Board and Council meetings and will be true of our Annual Members Meeting - which enabled us last year to have our first truly global AMM!
We will be starting to gather in larger numbers in person again too, but that will be for 2022 and the initial plans for that were revealed in last week's email. In the meantime, if you know of any local CiC ministers and can arrange to meet up in person, outdoors at a cafe or in a park, please do so! We need to encourage one another as much as possible in these times.
The challenges we will all face in a hybrid world will concern how to ensure that genuine fellowship can happen in a virtual world, as well as a physical, in-person world.
This will raise issues of internet, data and equipment poverty, alongside the issues of food, heating and housing poverty for our members. We will see creative ways of meeting needs being pioneered, alongside traditional broadcast media.
Genuine internet pastors, supporting communities almost entirely online will exist and be no less real forms of church. I believe that the independent, creative sector of church that CiC represents and facilitates will be at the forefront of developing these new ways of worship, prayer, preaching, pastoring and establishing the Kingdom of God in our generations.
I am praying for you all regularly and hope that you will be encouraged as we move into this new phase.
With my warmest greetings as always,
Yours in the Lord Jesus,
Trevor Howard
Executive Vice-Chair of Board