…As worshippers go virtual
As some leaders of churches in recent past beat their chests for having one of the biggest worship centres or cathedrals in town that seat several thousands of worshippers at a time, checks by BusinessDay Sunday have shown that worshippers have rather gone virtual and those cathedrals are no longer filled to capacity even on special worship days.
The trend is changing and so is worship. However, many churches and worship centres are not readily moving with the trend.
Attending a physical church service is no longer the norm for many, especially with the younger generation (Millennials and Gen Z).
Attending online church challenges the conventional way of worship that has to do with attending a physical church. Only years ago, you would invite someone to attend church as a way to introduce them to the gospel and Jesus.
This, of course, can and does transform people. However, that isn’t the only way transformation happens with the emergence of online/digital evangelism.
However, when the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic occurred in 2020, it exposed the need for a flexible and hybrid church. It also tested the capacity of the churches to respond swiftly to both the physical and spiritual needs of worshipers.
One of the top lessons learnt from season of Covid 19 is the need for ministries and churches to be internet savvy. The end-time church will need, amongst other things, to ride on the back of Information Technology (IT).
But, the post-Covid era has seen many ministries and churches struggle to get worshipers back to the pre-Covid era. Pastors now have to contend with empty seats against the usual church attendants.
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While many of the smaller churches are struggling to maintain an online presence, some have easily blended the physical and virtual worship on the back of their large online presence and following.
For many of the big churches and some of the youthful churches; every church activity is now an hybrid of physical and virtual, which allow churches to live stream services on all social media platforms.
Some of the churches also have Church apps that help worshipers join their activities from anywhere in the world.
“After Covid, churches did not find it so easy because the attendance dropped to the extent that there were no money and things were so hard at the early stage. The only way is to feed people,” Chidi Anthony, presiding bishop, Kings in Christ Power Ministries, Lagos, said.
Anthony told BusinessDay that poverty, high cost of living pushed many worshipers away from the church post-Covid, and that the church should reach out to the physical needs of the people.
“To my own personal church, I don’t know about others – we started giving out palliatives, supporting people and encouraging them; then the church started picking up,” he said.
Anthony further said that Covid-19 changed a lot of things in the church. However, he urged that the Church should affect worshippers both physically and spiritually.
“The major reason people go to church is to make heaven at last and also for God to help them.
“It is high time that the church need to know that in the church there are people that the church need to help,” Anthony said.
However, Julius Adegunna, the publisher of Praise The Lord (PTL), a Christian publication in Lagos, told BusinessDay that churches must begin to think outside the box.
According to him, everything is going online, and everybody is trying to take his or her place online.
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The Virtual Church
The heart of the virtual church is reaching people with no local church in their community for Jesus and providing them with platforms to belong to the family of God.
However, some persons who are still tied to the old and physical mode of worship have asked, “Does attending church online count?” According to the people in this school of thought, your church attendance is not about counting for something.
But, the virtual church provides a platform for people who for any reason could not attend a physical church meeting.
However, that might have changed since the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic when the world was on lockdown.
Churches and other organisations were forced to re-tweaked their mode of service and other activities in response to the restriction in movement on the back of the lockdown.
“Church should rather invest more on online evangelism which is the most realistic thing to do now,” Adegunna said.
According to him, another reason which makes online church more ideal is the problem of insecurity across the country. “I think the modern Church should embrace Online Service. The world has gone virtual,” Adegunna said.
The idea behind the virtual church is to provide a platform for those not able to attend a local congregation the opportunity to actively join a church body from anywhere.
Additionally, the virtual church allows for new believers to grow in maturity and if a local church body arrives in their area they will have grown in their understanding of scripture of the value of attending a local church body.
“It’s high time the church will affect lives – when we affect lives, we will rebuild the church again.
“There are two things human beings don’t forget easily – who affected your life positively, and who affected your live negatively.
“Now the church needs to regain its standing by affecting lives positively both physically and spiritual,” Anthony said.
Attending church services online is all together an excellent experience to fellowship, worship, and study God’s word with the brethren that could lead to spiritual multiplication.
The virtual church is Church without walls, ministry without borders. It is one platform that provides the opportunity for fellowship anywhere in the world without limitations.
The online church is a platform designed to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth and creates opportunities to expand the reach of the gospel, thereby igniting the fire of cyber evangelism across the world.
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The future of large Cathedrals
The fear of many analysts is that time would come when there might be no need for the current cathedrals that beautifies our cities.
“How many people were physically at Shiloh and Redemption Camp against those who watch online,” Adegunna asked.
Having a cathedral that sits 50, 000 or more worshipers could be become a liability rather than the assets are currently are.
This is drawing examples from the West where church buildings are being taken over by club houses and other social activities instead of their original purpose.
“If you look around us in Lagos, you must have seen many churches taking over abandon warehouses and other structures for church purposes. Same way, if the churches dont respond appropriately to the digital migration currently taking over the world; we might at some days find ourselves at the point where our church cathedrals will be taken over for other purposes,” a social commentator who pleaded anonymity told BusinessDay.
He further said that the current rate of digital migration might leave the Church with huge financial burden of day-to-day maintenance that might force the church to either give you their cathedral partly or completely for other purposes.
“Its already happening here in Lagos. One of the recently commissioned cathedrals in Ikeja has a business wing. This is because the church has factored running cost in the overall design of their cathedral. I expect other churches to start thinking about how to make their cathedral self-sustaining going forward,” he said.
Anthony further said that building a large cathedral is not in any way the solution to the socio-economic challenges the worshippers are faced with.
“Big auditorium is not the solution. Truth of today is that we are working based on the best man of God being the one that has 200, 000 seaters or one million seaters. No, that is not what I count as prosperity in the Church. So, building a big cathedral everywhere is not even the solution, rather it is to affect lives,” Anthony said.
According to him, the large cathedrals would be of no value to any church if the worshipers are staying away for other reasons not associated with spiritual needs.
“People are also staying away because of the socio-economic situation of the country, where many have to trek to their various destinations.
“Some will even say to you that the church is a scam, because the church is not affecting their lives financially. Everything is not spiritual, we need to create an avenue to empower people,” Anthony disclosed
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