Live Broadcasting - Things are different

Things are different.  Some of you who may have never watched this service on Facebook are having a different experience as well, but it can be worship.

Don’t let it just become viewing.

But it’s different for me as well.  You might think, he just gets up there and talks.  That may be true, but now, I don’t worry about there being a misprint in the bulletin.  Nobody ever points out the misprint before I make a hundred copies, but come Sunday.

What else is different?  There are not a couple phones ringing, even if they are just vibrating on silent.

There are no babies crying.

There are no elders talking during the sermon. 

There are no kids doing coloring sheets.  Normally there about five kids a coloring.

And nobody is coughing.  In the course of any Sunday here in Oklahoma, there are 6 people coughing.

And now that we have 45 gallons of hand sanitizer, I don’t get to see people sanitizing their hands.

And nobody is nodding off during the sermon.

You might think that I just see a sea of people.  Nope, it’s more like a swarm.  At any given time, somebody is going to or coming to the bathroom.  Most of them have younger bladders than mine.

And of course, nobody is checking updates on Facebook, nobody sitting in the pews that is.  I know, you told me that you were reading the scripture while I was preaching.  This ole guy isn’t quite as oblivious as you might think.  You might be scrolling, but I haven’t seen an online Bible yet that lets you like each verse.

And, here’s something you probably don’t see on most Sundays at least from sitting in the pews—that’s the 10 or 12 looks and signals I get from the sound booth.  I don’t know what the signals mean or why he is giving me a look.  OK, it’s not always him giving me the look.  Sometimes I give him one.  I wonder why is he playing that song in the middle of my sermon.  It’s not that I don’t like Waylon Jennings, but it just didn’t seem to fit in just there.

And then of course there are the dozen thermostat changes or at least people hoping that somebody turns the air up or down.  People are fanning with a bulletin and putting on coats at different times during the service.  I have often joked about how sometimes as I walk around the building, I find some thermostats set to heat and some set to cool.  One time after a Wednesday evening, I found one set to heat and one to cool in the sanctuary.

This morning is a little different.  Here we go with apologies to Frederic Austin.  There’s no:

12 thermostat changes

11 looks from the sound booth

10 facebook updates

9 bathroom runs

8 heads a noddin

7 people sanitizing

6 folks a coughin’

FIVE KIDS A COLORIN’

4 elders talking

3 babies crying

2 phones a ringin’

AND A MISPRINT IN THE BULLETIN.

 You know what else is different.  The online broadcast is not just a nice to have.  It has a little more significance now that our personal contact has been lessened.

Our church Facebook page also has increased in value.  Instead of scrolling through your own feed or stalking someone else on their feed, scroll through the church’s Facebook page.  Some of you are watching this broadcast there now. 

You will find not only updates to what’s happening in the life of the church now, but hundreds of messages, most of which were preached in the Burns Flat CPC at one time.  There are some old videos of services, but I don’t care how long this quarantine lasts, you won’t run out of messages to read.