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News—Online worship: Technology and the arts
A medical doctor, Dr Low Wye Mun serves with the Worship & Music team at Holland Village Methodist Church. He was the moderator of Episode 2 of Conversations. / Illustration by Lau Peng Leong
Online worship
Technology and the arts
When attending an online church service at home in front of your laptop, TV or tablet on a Sunday morning, have you been “sitting around in your singlet, with one leg up and coffee in hand”?
Dr Mark Chan may have painted an extreme picture but his joke encapsulated the purpose of Conversations Episode 2: Technology & the Arts, a session hosted by Methodist School of Music (MSM). It was a rich and lively discussion, focused on music and language in the context of the televisual platform, and how these might be harnessed to: • enhance worship in a deeper and more meaningful way • bring about a more cohesive worship experience.
The panel speakers were: Dr Mark Chan, Ernest Lau Professor of systematic theology at Trinity Theological College. He teaches hermeneutics, homiletics and intersection of theology and contemporary thought. He worships at Covenant Community Methodist Church.
Rev Raymond Fong, Pastor-in-charge of Wesley Methodist Church. He has more than 25 years of involvement in church worship as leader and musician. In the 2020 MSM Certificate of Christian Worship, he encouraged all to “do less, and go deep”.
Ms Shirley Bong, head of the Media Communications & Youth department at the Chapel of the Resurrection. Her MLitt studies in Theology & the Arts focused on the place of emotions in Christian contemporary worship.
The basis for our online church worship
Following Conversations Episode 1: Insights & Reflections on online worship (Methodist Message, November 2021), Episode 2 explored the relationship between worship and technology and the arts in the ‘digital sacred space’ that the pandemic has compelled us to embrace.
Indisputably, the online worship (OW) space allows inclusiveness and outreach access when we are unable to attend on-site church services. Whatever the form of the OW service, the speakers agreed it must be underscored by two things: • the common purpose of worshipping and glorifying God • the desire to gather as the people of God in worship.
A deeper and more meaningful worship
Stressing the importance of ensuring a firm theological foundation for online worship, Dr Mark Chan shared OW experiences that impacted him. Those experiences were “personal, moving, spiritually enriching, I felt I was seated in the sanctuary, a part of the corporate worship… the worship was not a performance for me, I was a part of the worship.” The recordings were simply made with just a camera, but they embodied the ideal that “worship is the people of God gathered to perform for an audience of One.”
He raised the matter of arts in worship as being part of a larger issue of arts in Christianity. In this, Dr Chan questioned whether churches were giving enough attention to the aesthetics of the worship space, and if they could do more with the digital tools available to creating meaningful OW.
Suggesting that orchestrating an OW is a “production” just as much as “preaching is a performance”, he stated that technology has its own language and it is not neutral. If we are conditioned to appreciate high quality videos, but the church has a very different (lower) standard, it can detract from the worship experience.
We must always remember the “God-ward dimension” of true worship. To prevent the danger of OW becoming merely the consumption of a religious programme rather than participative worship, it is better to present a de-centred but synchronised worship where congregants gather at the same time instead of viewing a pre-recorded service.
Still, in putting together an OW service, there is value in not having a fully-live service but also to integrate pre-recorded segments. The other speakers showed and shared examples of how dance, dramatised readings of Scripture and painting captured on video can engage gathered worshippers in a creative way.
Ms Shirley Bong responded enthusiastically to the discussion on creative thinking in developing OW. Of central importance to worship is a sense of community and coming together as a worshipful body of Christ; thus the church must adopt the liturgy and form that is most appropriate and effective in bringing this about in different age groups.
For example, congregants like the elderly were drawn to OW when they saw the familiar faces of friends although the productions were kept simple due to resource constraints. Whereas the virtual connections for younger worshippers were better achieved through Zoom where the ability to interact was maximised with animated activity that held onto shorter attention spans.
In a unique bridging of worship groups divided by age, Ms Bong recalled an event when the church youth recorded songs to bless their parents and grandparents. It substituted for the temporary physical separation caused by Singapore’s earlier circuit breaker period.
Towards a more cohesive worship experience
Reiterating the fundamental need for robust theology as the basis of all OW services, Rev Raymond Fong shared his personal experience and guiding principles.
When his church settled on the hybrid mode of both on-site and online services, they had to address the question of connectivity—should the OW be pre-recorded or streamed live? Then, resource allocation had to be considered.
Ultimately, the church’s purpose and vision must be wellarticulated and shared by the OW teams, to establish the best connectivity and to engage worshippers, drawing them in to “join the liturgy to offer praises to God”.
A key practical point he made was to “watch your transitions”. Small breaks in the on-site service (movement of worship leaders, changing positions) could be distracting and reduce the engagement of the online congregant. Thus, besides planning the service, production planning is equally important to bring about a cohesive OW service. Harnessing basic technical steps (video cameras, text or lyrics slides) will help with seamless transitions. The speakers also addressed the importance of posture. Besides the choice and delivery of words spoken, another aspect of posture is the physical expression (“body language”) of the worship team. To improve on the posture of the worship leaders and team seen online, pre-viewing and post-service reviewing of live-streamed and recorded worship sessions were resoundingly affirmed.
In conclusion, while OW could be seen as a “tele-visual art,” there is the danger of such church service offerings being treated as spectator events. Acknowledging that congregants are accustomed to “consuming” webbased music and messages of significant professional, technological and artistic levels, the speakers had important messages to share:
• Knowing and addressing the worship needs of specific groups of congregants is more important than delivering what may be seen as a high-end
OW product
• Having OW services shown at times synchronous with the on-site church service creates an intentional, planned sense of communal gathering on the part of those worshipping from the digital sacred spaces of their homes
• Congregants who join the OW service should be asked to prepare themselves spiritually, adopt a respectful posture in keeping with the church service, and participate alongside congregants onsite when invited to stand, sing, clap, raise hands and simply praise God.
From the ideas aired we look forward to further exciting explorations of the arts, technology and church worship services in both the physical and digital realms.
The full recording of this session is available on YouTube on the Methodist School of Music channel at
