Snow Days. What every elementary, middle, and high schooler hopes and waits for.... But we keep catching these snowstorms on Saturdays. Which gives no one a day off from school and gives every church the opportunity to worry about services, parking lots, road conditions.....
Since Restoration meets in an elementary school gym, we go by what the county mandates. And when the 6/7 inches fell all day Saturday and the county officially closed for Sunday....we put plan B into action.
Live stream.
From Tim's basement.
I called up Woody, who was on for percussion, and made my way through the slushy muck over to Tim's house. He had cleared an area in the basement of wii remotes and furniture, and squeezed his laptop in amongst the markers and crayons on a little craft table across the room. We ran the songs, talked through the order, and with a back drop of stairs and batman signs (left over from a six year old's birthday party the day before), we hit live and went for it.
Leading worship for an online community is definitely a different experience. There was no one in the room except for Tim, Woody, and I, and yet by the amount of texts and emails we were receiving, we knew our still new community was online and with us. This was not the typical live stream in a big church in front of a congregation in which people can observe the gathering from their homes..... This was low tech, stripped down, absolutely no fancy tricks or gadgets....we were hopeful to facilitate a time of worship; prayer, singing, and teaching in the living rooms of people we have come to love so quickly and dearly.
What a great reminder we are not the building we choose to worship in. And how beautiful that with a little creativity and willingness to do something different, we were able to be together as a community. By our counts, we had just as many, if not more people join in during the actual live stream as we have had these previous Sunday mornings. AND I had some New England family tell me they were on with us....not to mention my host mom Sharon, who conveniently tuned in from some resort she's currently at in CANCUN! If we can provide an opportunity for so many people in so many different places to connect with God.... well, maybe these snow days aren't so bad after all.
And because the temperature warmed up Sunday, we still headed out for lunch after our live stream.... I mean, Sunday lunch out waits for no one. :o)