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Brian and I met with Brent Bossi, The Downtown Church board chairperson, this week. I wrote down a comment Brent made and I stared at it for a bit. The comment came about because he mentioned that in his workplace, “All our meetings are hybrid.” I grew up in a time when the word hybrid was in relation to corn, peas, roses or some other crop. Those younger than me might be thinking of a Prius. This past year I have learned that “hybrid” now means both in-person and online. Both/and.
I am a big both/and person about many things in life, but both/and for ministry has been hard for me to embrace. I’ve made plenty of excuses and have had lots of “but” moments this year: but we have to be in the same room to build relationships, but it's too complicated online, but people are tired of zoom meetings, but that’s not how I do church.
One by one, the Holy Spirit has turned my “but” to “and.” And you can build relationships online. As a matter of fact you can build them across the country. And there are many people who understand how online/livestreams work. And for many, online is the best way to meet, to see one another, to cross barriers caused by the pandemic, travel, and schedules. And only doing church one way leaves out far too many people and puts ministry in an unsustainable box.
The next few weeks we are going to invest time, effort, and resources to increase our ability to be a hybrid church. Not just for worship, but for other activities, too, like classes and gatherings. No buts about it!
See you Sunday, online or in person,
Lori
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