In the Current Issue: "Hybridity as a Post-Pandemic Norm for Christian Worship and Music: Practical and Theological Considerations"
The issue of Liturgy entitled “How the Pandemic has Changed Worship” guest-edited by Taylor Burton-Edwards contains articles that look at pre- and post-pandemic worship both in-person and on-line. This excerpt by Michael Huerter is well described by the title: “Hybridity as a Post-Pandemic Norm for Christian Worship and Music: Practical and Theological Considerations.” The full essay is accessible through institutional and individual subscriptions.–– Melinda Quivik
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The pandemic forced many churches into online spaces that felt unfamiliar as they navigated new ways of sharing community, performing rituals, and participating in worship. Church leaders faced questions about online religion that were no longer hypothetical but practical. How would they try to meet the needs of their communities? How would they reflect on and make meaning of the new mediated practices they were already engaged in?
At the same time, underlying practical, philosophical, and theological issues often remained unexamined. Principles that could drive local church decision-making about whether or how to make some form of hybrid worship an expected part of their life after the pandemic were underdeveloped. In other words, hybridity had become a practical norm because of exigent circumstances. But were there elements of hybrid worship that could and should become part of the expected norm of congregational life when the circumstances that initially required them no longer existed? And if so, what should drive a congregation’s discernment about how to proceed?
To be sure, there is not a single “right” way for churches to respond to online digital community and the hybrid realities of life in the twenty-first century. . . However, we can call upon underlying principles of Christian worship, rooted in our identities as Christians, as we continue to discern how online and hybrid worship will look for our particular communities. Such principles can help us faithfully respond to the shifting landscapes around us and guide us toward cultivating practices that are participatory, transformative, appropriate to the medium being used, and centered on God.
. . . In their 2022 book Digital Religion: The Basics, Heidi A. Campbell and Wendi Bellar describe the role that online church functions took in diverse faith communities early in the pandemic. Many Christian pastors spoke of the church as “an offline community, which temporarily needed to be transformed into an online community to meet the needs of its people at that moment.” While both online and offline church practices were seen as positive, they were largely perceived as “distinct and separate entities, differing vastly from one another in their character.” When “doing church online” was a new and strange experience for most people, it was easy to view it as very different from the offline church meetings that were so suddenly interrupted by the pandemic lockdown. The shock and change of crisis marked this new religious expression off from our accustomed practices. Given our collective traumatic experience, it makes sense that integrating these two religious expressions would be challenging and take ongoing work.
It is understandable that, for many churches and individuals, the idea of getting “back to normal” had a powerful draw. Online church felt, to many, like a poor substitute for the familiar format of a Sunday gathering. Campbell and Bellar note that another common point of discussion was the question whether worship and community online were legitimate manifestations of the church people had experienced before.
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Michael Huerter is Pastor of Worship & Engagement at Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. His PhD in church music at Baylor University in 2023 focused on the history, theology, and practice of online church, culminating in The Hybrid Congregation: A Practical Theology of Worship for an Online Era (InterVarsity, forthcoming).