Haven't darkened the doors of a sanctuary since the single digit days of March ... Still grateful and thankful for pastor who cut short his out of state spring break trip when local officials abruptly prohibited in person worship on Monday of that week. Returning by car, his first live streamed service went off without a hitch Wednesday evening.
Thank for the faithful labors of pastors who follow this sage advice ....
From: Arthur Carl Piepkorn, The Conduct of the Service, St. Louis, Concordia Seminary Press, 1965, p. 6
"When a ministration takes place outside of church, the effort should be made to reproduce the conditions of church as far as possible, and as much of the ceremonial as conditions permit or warrant should be retained."
Saturday evening we virtually attended a small mid central state congregation served by a friend we met as he began his study for the holy ministry. Despite the fact that his congregations resumed in person worship a few weeks ago, pastor and organist still met a couple days prior to record the service so it was available in a timely manner to his numerous high risk senior saints members. With no technical assistance, he makes use of three cameras and his self taught editing skills resulting in an almost in person worship experience. Following the edit process, is a 5 plus hour upload process due to poor internet service ... Text received that within a half hour of completion of the upload, the up load abruptly terminated ... necessitating another 5 plus hour up load process. Thankfully he allows ample production time ... and always has his service available by regular service time.
Sunday morning's service was a pre recorded 'premiere' service so initial viewing is experienced together with fellow congregation members along with national and international fellow Christians joining us ... truly Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Following this excellent duplication of in person workship, the congregation joins together via Zoom for brief fellowship followed by Bible Class.
Living an a metropolitan area reliable internet is some thing taken for granted in the past ... much more appreciated these days ... especially on Sundays and Bible study days.
Thank God for the sacrifices pastors make to serve their flock ... praying that our pastor's travels this week are safe ... and he and his family's plans are not interrupted again so he can serve the flock God has entrusted him.