Thursday, July 8, 2021
Making Church
Ashley Wade
Lessons learned from producing virtual church.
Never have I heard the expression “making church” until 2020, when it emerged as everyday vernacular for me and my team.
We go to church. Lead church. Sing at church. Pray at church. Worship at church. Volunteer at church. See our friends at church. Tend our spirits and faith at church. Provide opportunities at church. Make safe space at church. Learn at church. Play at church. Cook at church. Talk at church. The list goes on…
But when all the “at church” phrases disappeared in a pandemic world, we learned that church needed to happen, despite our many different physical locations.
We have all said it many times and heard it many more times: the church is not a building. The church is a community. A body of people who come together to worship God and work to build a better world.
I believe this, and I believe that St. John’s believes this… however, being quite suddenly and semi-permanently separated from that physical space was a shock to the system. We had not invested much time or resources in our online presence. We had been an in-person squad, systems that worked well for decades, continued to serve us. We were comfortable with what we knew we could do and do well.
I learned that worship is absolutely a central binding force for our identity as St. John’s. Creating worship services became a weekly process that involved pre-recording liturgy, readings, announcements, and music. We learned to create our own digital graphics and expanded our communications efforts to highlight this work. What used to take a team of people a couple hours on a Sunday morning, now took a cumulative 30 hours each week. Well, at least we had some job security… silver linings abound.
The reality of this transition was painstaking, exhausting, mind-numbing, exciting, inspiring… that very human “both/and” reality that I love to label as “very Episcopalian.” There were baby steps to take before we fell into our rhythm, but soon my weeks felt full of photography and videography sessions, music recording sessions and new equipment and software to manipulate and master. Little ideas that created mountains of work for multiple people (ahem… virtual Christmas Pageant…) The creative outlet was a gift to me. The work gave me purpose. And oh, how we wanted to do the dance together, in-person, breathing the same air. Nothing we “made” could fill our cups. We did our best, packaged it up, sent it out, and checked the numbers. Heard your amazing feedback. Kept on cranking. Tried to stay positive.
I’m a slow processor… I know that I’m still absorbing the events of the last year+ on a spiritual and intellectual level, and I know that the implications of the pandemic have changed the world we are all coming back to now. My dear mentor/friend, Abby Siegfried said in such plain words that will never leave my head, “We get to CHOOSE how we go back.” That choice is a gift, and a responsibility.
We made a lot of choices over the past year. What to do. What to set down. How to do what we do. How to do it better. What matters. What matter less. What does it mean to be a church when we can’t be physically together. We grew in confidence. We grew in numbers. And now, with the addition of Olin Johannessen as Director of Technology Integration, we are going to enter a new era of church at St. John’s. We care about and need all members of our body. Our virtual offerings, and the way we build out our tech capabilities will further break down the walls that divide us and grow our community outside the boundaries of St. John’s and Portsmouth NH.
My days of “making church” in the pandemic fashion are actually numbered. As Olin prepares the church and buildings with proper infrastructure to livestream our services, I will return to focus more on our in-person offerings as your Director of Children’s Music & Ministries. My role this year will continue to evolve as I manage our communications efforts online and in-person, as well as put energy behind our youth and children’s ministries. However, virtual church will be here to stay. “Virtual” will be an option for connection across the board, so no matter who you are, where you are, or when you are… you are always welcome at St. John’s, and especially at God’s Table.