1. Because the Bible commands us not to forsake the gathering together of the saints (Hebrews 10:25). Before you ask if meeting online is really the gathering together of the saints you should know that such a question sounds to me an awful lot like, “And who is my neighbor?” It’s not a good look. I’m happy to concede that our online gatherings are not at all what God designed, that they are woefully lacking when compared with the real deal. I understand as well that there are careful arguments to be had about Romans 13, the 1st Amendment and the relative merits of social distancing. But those arguments are not relevant here. If your church is “gathering” online only, gather with them.
2. Because while the togetherness isn’t the togetherness of physically coming together, it is far greater than merely logging on to an earlier service or listening to a podcast of a sermon. Real time interaction is, however de-humanizing it may be to do it online, far more humanizing than not doing it at all. Your capacity to identify and empathize with your brothers and sisters will grow when you are doing the same thing at the same time, in the same conversation with the same people.
3. To encourage my pastor. As a public speaker it is my habit to always seek out, early on, a smiling face. When I find one I will return to that face time and again along the way. It lifts my spirits, reminds me that I’m communicating something important, and that there is an end goal well beyond hearing my lips flap. My pastor is likely unused to speaking to an empty room. Knowing there are people listening in real time will help him to do better, given him some level of feedback, and help him rest easier in knowing that the sheep he loves and sacrifices for are receiving the food he is laboring to being to them. I am not simply downloading information from his mind to mine, wherein I can do it at any time, or get any information from any other shepherd. I am connecting. That I can’t connect as I used to do, being face to face, is a terrible reason to connect even less than I am still able to do, online.
4. To be fed by my pastor. I need to hear what the pastor God has given to me has to say to me about what God’s Word has to say to me for such a time as this. These are not ordinary days, but God is still pleased to use ordinary means. He expects me to go the shepherd He has given me to look for what He has to give me. And when the pastor says it’s feeding time, a healthy sheep doesn’t say, “Put mine in the oven to keep it warm. I’ll eat it later.”
5. To feel the pain of God’s judgment and respond in repentance. The last thing I want is for us to reach the conclusion that church online works just fine. No need to shower, shave, or even get out of bed. What could be better? What God has designed is better. He has taken away our ability to meet together. He has done this for more reasons than I could imagine. Those reasons, however, would include, to drive us to repentance. When we gather online it should be a comfort to us, that God has allowed us, in the midst of His judgment, this capacity. And when we gather online it should be a heartache to us, that God has taken from us the ability to meet face to face.
No one will notice if I blow-off online church. Except the One who calls me to worship Him, and me, the one called to come. Come and worship Him. Assemble together with the saints. Repent. Give thanks. Sing praises. And resolve that you will never again take for granted all the blessings He has wrapped up in corporate worship.
Yes, and to show the world that “the church” is not a building or an elaborate campus with multiple facilities, because the church is the body of Christ and the followers of Christ that work as His hands and feet in this present world. Christians should be taking a big step forward in meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of all those locked down by the government. You can’t lock down the church!