Church services local and remote

When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold early in 2020, most churches were not allowed to conduct regular in-person services for many weeks, sometimes months … and even longer in some churches. This was difficult for churchgoers in all kinds of ways. Learning together, worshiping, singing, fellowshipping with other believers, growing in faith, encouraging others and being encouraged; all these things became harder to do when the churches were closed.

All of that said, one thing that significantly improved was the widespread use of livestream services. We really appreciated this and benefited greatly from having access to so many good teachers of the bible across the country.

Speaking of studying the bible, we currently attend a local church, Calvary Chapel, where our pastor is an avid practitioner of expository teaching. This is a method by which the bible is taught in its entirety, book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. It seems to be a unifying principle among most Calvary Chapel churches we’ve attended or that we’ve followed online. Sadly, I think the expository method scares off many people, but we really enjoy studying the bible in this way. It elicits a much greater comprehension in us, of Man’s inherent nature, and of God’s supernatural purpose for Man.

Anyway, I digress a bit, but I mention this point about the Calvary Chapel method because it lends itself very well to either attending services in person or watching them online at any number of like-minded churches across the U.S. We usually go to our local church in person and then watch other services online, both recorded and live, throughout the week. This helps us study different parts of the bible and connect it with the material we are studying at our local church. In an upcoming, related post I’ll talk more about the benefits of studying the bible with the help of many good teachers.