Being the church in confinement...

I don't know about you, but some of my most vivid memories of these coronavirus lockdown weeks are going to be of computer screens full of multiple faces (like this one I posted on 3rd April) as home confinement forces us to connect online instead of in person.  My work has always involved a certain amount of connecting by Skype or Zoom - for coaching and mentoring, for teaching teleclasses or for international leadership meetings - but now, suddenly, church is happening online too. Sunday morning is our online worship service; Monday evening finds me connecting with our house group; I can even join the prayer meeting of my home church in Scotland. If ever there was a time that proves that the church is not the building, the church is the people, that time is now.

Our local church here in Alhaurín de la Torre is bilingual; that's how God led us when we were planting the church more than twelve years ago now. In fact, we have around 20 different nationalities in the congregation, but we deal mainly with two languages: Spanish and English. That's not quite so challenging when we meet in person: when we gather for Sunday worship, everything happens up front in Spanish and the powerpoint slides for the worship and the preaching are in both languages. However, those who need a bit more help in understanding the message can wear headphones and hear an English translation. I am one of four people who take turns once a month to sit in the church "office" and be the person who translates for the English speakers.

But now, suddenly, we're meeting online instead of in person, and we've been on a journey of finding out how that can work for a two-language congregation. First time round, we tried having the worship leader and then the preacher translated by a spouse or other family member who was sitting next to him/her in their home. We experimented with having the translation typed into the chat window for the English speakers. Finally, this past Sunday, we had worked out how to have closed caption subtitling - with someone typing the translation, which appeared as English subtitles during the worship and prayer times. When it came to the preaching, we separated into two virtual "breakout rooms," so that half the group stayed with the guy who was preaching in Spanish, while the other half opted to "join" another room where they would hear the English translation of the message.

Yesterday's message, given by one of our elders, Sergio, was particularly good, and I share it in the post below for your encouragement. It's about how to keep being church, even when you're in confinement.