Sunday Snow Day Short Worship by Way of Technology

On Saturday afternoon, my spouse suggested that I make some sort of recording for parishioners, since we weren't having any sort of worship service at Faith Lutheran in Bristol, Tennessee.  While I thought it was a great idea, I decided to wait until Sunday morning, so that I would have time to think about the best approach and write down a few thoughts/prayers.

I decided that it should be more than just a prayer for all of us stuck inside because of the weather, although I did want to do that too.  I decided on reading the lectionary selections for the day, having a bit of a meditation, and closing with prayer and a benediction.

I use the live recording feature of Facebook every morning as I do my morning watch devotional time that I started during Covid.  But that's with my South Florida church's page, not my own.  Happily, it was just as easy on my own page.

I tagged the church in the space where one puts the date/title and a short description.  As I broadcast, one of my morning watch people who usually watches the 5:30 a.m. broadcast joined us.  Within 15 minutes of finishing the broadcast, the member who manages the church's Facebook page had linked back to my post.

I was also able to capture the recording and put in on my YouTube page and then to send the link to the church's e-mail list.  You can view it here if you like--it's open to all.

Certainly more people have viewed it than just the church membership of roughly 40 adults.  Right now, the number of viewers is at 456, and I have no idea what counts as a viewer.  I've tried some experimenting on my own, but the viewer count doesn't go up--but perhaps that's because it's my page?

I did hear from church members who appreciated my effort, so that alone made me feel it was worthwhile.  If it reaches others who find it meaningful, that's great too.  On a week-end so full of troubling news and difficult weather, I'm glad I was able to minister in some form.