HYBRID CHURCH & A video of my recent interview on Growing the Post-pandemic Church. #VirtualCommunion #Innovation #ServingStrong

By Scott Couchenour, Biblical Leadership Magazine, 2/21/21

If you would have told me I’d be sitting in my living room on a Sunday morning with the TV on and a cracker and some grape juice in my hands partaking of communion, I would have told you I’d be praying for you.

But look at us today. I mean, who would have thought there would be such a virtual expression of a sacred act of worship?

Are you okay with that? Or does that bristle your feathers?

I recently spoke with Bob Whitesel, award-winning writer, mentor & speaker and owner of www.leadership.church. Bob’s conviction is that the church must not go back to the way things were before COVID. They should be thinking now about a hybrid approach.

I asked him what he has seen as some of the most creative uses of technology since the arrival of COVID-19. Here was his response:

Read more at … https://www.biblicalleadership.com/blogs/virtual-communion/

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Some churches experiment with Communion options

by David Paulson, 12/18/20.

…On Sunday evenings during Advent, the Rev. Ian Burch, St. Mark’s rector, consecrates take-home Communion kits during a brief service of Holy Eucharist, celebrated with just a few church volunteers. Then from 4 to 7 p.m., he greets parishioners at the front door and directs them to a path threading around the nave past prayer stations and devotional artworks. Before leaving the church, they stop at the right of the altar where a table is set up to hold the kits.

…Some congregations, after choosing to forego Communion for most of the pandemic due to the public health risks, have begun experimenting with a return to the practice.

… The Rev. David Cox, rector of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb, felt parishioners’ longing for Communion after worshipping only online for months this year

…In Kansas, Cox is preparing St. Michael and All Angels for a unique Christmas Eve offering. Parishioners will be invited to park outside the church and tune their radios to the service of Holy Eucharist, which will be broadcast on a personalized frequency using an FM radio transmitter that the church purchased for little more than $100.

After consecrating the Communion bread, Cox will bring it outside and distribute it to worshippers in the parking lot. It may not be ideal, Cox said, but it is as close as his parishioners will get to experiencing a traditional Christmas Eve Eucharist this year.

Read more at … https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/12/17/after-pandemic-forced-eucharistic-fasts-some-churches-experiment-with-communion-options/

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Some churches experiment with Communion options

by David Paulson, 12/18/20.

…On Sunday evenings during Advent, the Rev. Ian Burch, St. Mark’s rector, consecrates take-home Communion kits during a brief service of Holy Eucharist, celebrated with just a few church volunteers. Then from 4 to 7 p.m., he greets parishioners at the front door and directs them to a path threading around the nave past prayer stations and devotional artworks. Before leaving the church, they stop at the right of the altar where a table is set up to hold the kits.

…Some congregations, after choosing to forego Communion for most of the pandemic due to the public health risks, have begun experimenting with a return to the practice.

… The Rev. David Cox, rector of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb, felt parishioners’ longing for Communion after worshipping only online for months this year

…In Kansas, Cox is preparing St. Michael and All Angels for a unique Christmas Eve offering. Parishioners will be invited to park outside the church and tune their radios to the service of Holy Eucharist, which will be broadcast on a personalized frequency using an FM radio transmitter that the church purchased for little more than $100.

After consecrating the Communion bread, Cox will bring it outside and distribute it to worshippers in the parking lot. It may not be ideal, Cox said, but it is as close as his parishioners will get to experiencing a traditional Christmas Eve Eucharist this year.

Read more at … https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/12/17/after-pandemic-forced-eucharistic-fasts-some-churches-experiment-with-communion-options/