We've been busy on social media. In the last 28 days we've reached 22,376 people on Facebook, including 15,733 people who have viewed our online worship services. We regularly bring between 200 to 700 people to our online services. And that's not counting our 1,078 Twitter follower and the 24,500 people we reached on Twitter this month.
Our online presence is a tool of mission, but it is not a marker of holiness — and not just because Facebook counts everyone that watches for 3 seconds as a 'viewer'. I don't think God will ask us if we worshiped in a pretty church building, or whether we liked a popular Facebook page. We'll be asked whether we loved our neighbour as ourselves, whether we loved God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; whether we fed the hungry and sheltered the homeless poor; whether we prayed without ceasing.
Now that's a big ask. And in a time where we are being asked to stay home to save lives, many of us are struggling to learn to be still rather than to keep busy. Praying at home challenges us to be still and seek God without some tools from our familiar spiritual tool kit: choral music, architecture and the physical presence of others at prayer. Without those tools at our disposal we can worry: Am I doing this right? Don't worry; you're probably not! But then again, we probably weren't perfect when we were in pews, either— we can rest in the confidence that we aren't perfect Christians. There's no such thing. As Christians we are, in the words of Bp. Simon Barrington-Ward, always "failing towards love." So make use of the tools we have at our disposal — join in prayer at 9am & 9pm; share our emails, posts, online services with friends; phone a neighbour; contribute to CBM or your local foodbank; and that most versatile tool, the one some of us had forgotten has been in the tool kit this whole time: being still and knowing that God is God. Some days we'll feel that Easter joy, some days we'll feel we've come up empty. The journey of faith, as Bishop Simon wrote, is "a shared movement of continuing failing and finding again, correction and re-direction." Enjoy the journey, knowing the Risen Christ is walking with you every step of the way!
Devin