Digital disruptions and innovations for the post-pandemic Church

Rev Dr Bernard Chao is a lecturer in Practical Theology at Trinity Theological College. Bernard is an ordained elder of The Methodist Church in Singapore (Trinity Annual Conference) and has been a Methodist pastor since 2005. He also serves as Associate Brigade Chaplain of The Boys' Brigade in Singapore.

We are living in the frothing confluence of massive social, philosophical, ecological, economic, and technological disruptions. These disruptions are reshaping our lives. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted some of these disruptions, especially in terms of how people communicate, socialise, and enact their lives and religious commitments. As Methodists in Singapore, we too have had to reimagine corporate worship, church programmes, ministry, and missions.

A recent study, State of the Church in Singapore 2022, surveyed 144 churches representing 318 congregations or some 104,653 attendees.1 Published in October this year, the study reported that 67% of the churches surveyed had experienced a decrease in in-person worship attendance. 74% of the churches have continued to offer livestreamed services. Churches indicated that between 13% and 43% of their pre-pandemic attendees have not returned to in-person services.

However, the pandemic was a hotbed for innovation with 88.2% of churches experimenting with new initiatives for member care. 48.6% of churches undertook new ways to reach out to their immediate neighbourhood. 49.3% of churches initiated new outreach beyond their immediate neighbourhood. Furthermore, 31.9% of churches launched new missions initiatives outside of Singapore despite pandemic difficulties. Clearly, the impact of the pandemic is real and ongoing. This pandemic has caused significant digital disruptions and catalysed innovations. Here, I have identified and named two sets of disruptions and innovations for us to reflect on as we move into ministry in the post-pandemic world.2

Digital disruptions and innovations

for the post-pandemic Church

From physical to phygital spaces

Covid regulations in the past three years resulted in severe restrictions on, and for a period, a complete cessation of, in-person worship services. The loss of our physical sanctuaries and meetings spaces disrupted our sense of the church as a location and the church as a social space. Working from home and attending church by watching YouTube livestreams or through Zoom meetings, the church as a third place became conflated or confused with our second place of work and our first place of home.

Our social spaces have been disrupted and we can all feel the unease, tensions, and conflicts that have resulted for individuals and families as we compete for physical space and Wi-Fi, and seek relief from our de facto imprisonment. The result of our pandemic-driven familiarity with digital ways of meeting and doing work has been an expansion and merging of both physical and digital space. Working from home and Zoom meetings are here to stay. This represents an emerging hybridity of space. A phygital reality is emerging. This

is an opportunity for missional innovation. However, some would view this as a problem, and this has something to do with how we have viewed technology within the church.

Technology and digital platforms

Our churches have been slow and patchy in engaging the digital world seriously for decades. We have witnessed the ubiquitous expansion of the Internet, the growth of gaming culture, and the explosion of social media. These have been accompanied by online commerce, streaming services, and now, digital currencies. For a long time, any suggestion of a digital expression of church was considered taboo or questionable at best. More recently, it has been viewed as a curiosity. We are intrigued and try bits here and there, but we have not faced up to the digital realities, nor developed a coherent theology, let alone constructed new liturgies and practices.

The pandemic has changed all that. Patterns of life have shifted permanently, with new norms and acceptance of working from home, holding leadership meetings online, and offering all kinds of ministry programmes online. Digital modes offer convenience, reduced travel time and cost, accessibility to those with children, the homebound, and the differently abled. Church services continue to be livestreamed online and offered via Zoom meetings. Many pre-believers have "tried out" church for the first time, and online evangelism efforts like Alpha have seen incredible response. Our fears, resistance, and attitudes toward technology and digital modes of meeting have shifted significantly.

Theological innovation and shaping new sacred practices

Developing theological practices that will adequately address these disruptions and innovate towards new practices of worship, community, discipleship, and witness, will not be easy work. But it is a necessary and a spiritual task. It is a following after God who is still "doing a new thing" today (Isaiah 43:19).

As we consider phygital spaces, the use of technology, and digital modes of interaction, we will confront many new questions: Can the church be properly gathered together when we do so online? Is our online presence and fellowship with others any less real and authentic when we can see, hear, and talk with one another? How is God present and active in a church gathered digitally but dispersed physically? Are our old liturgies and practices adequate? Are our new liturgies and practices valid?

As we rethink and reshape our theology and practices, we will discover that God is bigger, more powerful, present, and creative (and still creating) than we often allow for. We will realise the poverty and limitations of some of our past thinking and norms. As we do so, we will need to be guided by an unwavering commitment to the scrutiny of scripture and a steely patience because it will take time to develop a sense of the sacred with any new spiritual practices.

During the pandemic, there was much talk about coming to grips with the "new normal". I suspect that most of us were just pandering to the language of innovation but were all secretly pining for the return of our "old normal". Will the epiphanies, lessons, and innovations you and your churches have experienced during the pandemic be quickly forgotten and abandoned?

I pray not and suggest that we recognise the moment we are in. These digital disruptions of the pandemic offer us as followers of Jesus a missional opportunity to move away from church-centric thinking and programmes to a mission-centric trajectory. As Methodists, we have a rich and storied tradition of missional innovation. Let's not stop now.

1 This study was a collaboration between Trinity Theological College, Singapore Bible College, Biblical Graduate School of Theology, and Salt&Light. I was part of the research team. The report can be downloaded here: https://saltandlight.sg/sotc2022/

2 I have previously spoken about these disruptions and innovations at an online dialogue called Conversations organised by the Methodist School of Music on 25 Sep 2021 on the topic "Online Worship: Insights & Reflections;" and a pastors' seminar organised by Singapore Bible College on 12 Aug 2022 titled "Ministry in a Post-Pandemic World".