There is no doubt COVID-19 was eye opening to the local church in the area of worship ministry. Seemingly overnight the landscape of worship service production changed to demand digital delivery. But more importantly than that, it caused almost every local church around the world to be more concerned with those not in the building than with those in the building. Let that sink in for a moment. Everything done to the glory of God in crafting worship services was done only for people not in physical attendance. Some think technology was the big deal, but the truth is, it is just technology. It’s like air-conditioning. Livestream will eventually be adopted by many churches post-COVID, the same way air-conditioning was eventually adopted by most churches.
Externally, there was a fresh focus on who was not present on campus. Do not lose this focus. The Lord was gracious to let you develop a heart for the absent by letting those people become the people you already knew. Most worship leaders (and pastors) seemed willing to do whatever it took to get the worship service online so their people could encounter God and his Word through the local church. Here is the million-dollar question: Will you continue to care about those not on your campus when all the familiar people are back in the building? Will you talk to them, think about how to connect them to Jesus and carefully teach them the Word of God? Will you continue to see your church become more effective towards the lost both online and in physical services?
Internally, COVID-19 has changed the staff and serving team dynamic. Preaching suddenly became a team sport! We left the era of you preach, I sing, and we’ll all go home. The collaboration needed between staff and/or serving teams to produce worship services just went to another level. For solo pastors reading this, you know the value of the team because you are the team! It is time to pray and work for the Lord to send a gifted team member to help carry the load. For larger staff teams, the interdependence and planning required to broadcast a quality worship service just increased exponentially. Healthy and flexible teams found this to be more fun than they have ever had before, while among others it might have exposed cracks in leadership trust. Wise leaders will take note of their new team dynamics to capture momentum or stop and repair damage.