Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Olin Johannessen
Let it shine!
“Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”
This lyric, taken from the well-known spiritual “This Little Light of Mine,” sits with me as I endeavor this short love letter to, and about, our online community. Having grown up in this community of St. John’s from a young age and now one year into my tenure as a layperson on staff, I count myself as lucky to be part of a community that creates, embraces, and promotes light and love. As one of the individuals who helps bring our in-person worship experience out to the internet, it feels like we as an SJC community can truly let it shine, everywhere we go.
I believe that one of the most meaningful elements of our work in the digital realm is connection. As a lay/clergy staff, we work each week to talk strategy and planning, and to map out our offerings: worship services, daily reflections, online music video offerings, social media presences, bi-weekly email communications, and the list goes on. Our work, of course, is centered around the cornerstone programming of in-person church and the various ministries we support: Sunday School, Parish Choir, Youth Group, Common Table, Choir School, Reading Between the Lines, Outside the Box, Cooking for Cross Roads House and Dover Children’s Home, and several others. The in-person offerings are essential, yes, and also our community of St. John’s doesn’t exist solely in-person any longer. The pandemic forced us into a posture of innovation as it did with countless industries, and while some things seemed lost for a time when we couldn’t gather in person, what we gained was the confidence and support to be able to take the amazing work being done by so many members of our congregation, and share it out with the wide world beyond 101 Chapel Street in Portsmouth.
Thinking about the here-and-now and what SJC has the ability to do in terms of connection, we reflect that our church isn’t only a place to sit and listen to Rob and Anne once or twice a week; our church is worldwide, our message is love and light, and we have the pleasure and honor to share it with you all in so many forms each week throughout the year. Our communication is strong and meaningful; our Daily Reflections offer meditative musings from an ever-evolving range of topics; our Gospel reflections are reaching out in a short and easily digestible format to bring Jesus’s message to you each Thursday; our talented and visionary cadre of musicians is sourcing selections from an increasingly wide range of musical traditions to deliver beautiful music and message through fully-produced recordings of songs almost every week; and of course, our Sunday services are bringing the beautiful tradition of St. John’s into more people’s lives each week, complete with high quality graphics of our readings, high fidelity audio, and smooth camera work to capture all worship leaders and participants.
We would not be this beloved community of St. John’s without all who join us in these digital offerings each week, and our fulfilment as a staff and clergy remains high and ever higher as we continue to hear from individuals near and far who consume this content, whether on a cell phone, a tablet, a laptop, or an internet-enabled television set. We are proud to be your home and we hope you feel the same.