I am concerned that our preponderance of virtual activity affects us more than we realize, especially concerning the church. Context is crucial when it comes to worship; let me give an example. If I were sitting alone at my kitchen table and took a small piece of bread and gave it to my dog, it would be a caring act. But, if I were at church participating in the Lord’s supper and did the same thing, it would be blasphemy. Context is critical in our attempts to live lives that glorify God, and we cannot understand corporate worship without understanding the importance of the setting.
I believe the more we go virtual, the more we might find ourselves displaced. Please do not get me wrong; some things work perfectly in a virtual world. The passing of intellectual information is one example. It is what we are doing right now. Whether you read this on a screen or a book makes little difference. The only thing that could have a more significant impact is if I communicated this to you in a handwritten letter. Then it would carry a little more of me because you would know that I and the stationery had been in the same place at one time, but I digress. Virtual options even provide some benefits relationally, but show me a married couple who thinks spending time together online is sufficient, and I will show you a couple whose love for each other has grown cold.
Though virtual reality is sufficient for some things, it is terrible for others. At best, it is a stopgap when the alternative is impossible; at worst, it severs the connection to the situation’s significance. Many people have begun “attending” church online. Virtual attendance means more and more people are now comfortable wearing pajamas, eating breakfast, and even trimming their toenails in the middle of the worship service. This disregard for reverence during worship shows how much we sacrifice in the virtual environment. The sermon’s information still comes through, but the spiritual discipline required in church attendance, fellowship, and the respect corporate worship deserves is lost in translation.
The problems of virtual reality are not new to the internet age. The inventions of the radio and TV were no better than the internet when it came to things like church. All that the internet has done is to make the problems ubiquitous. We must realize that a virtual setting displaces the church, and we must not become accustomed to it.
Virtual gatherings are always easier for us to manage, but easier is not always better. Going to church can be hard work. There are frustrations with people who have rough edges that rub us the wrong way, and we must leave our comfortable couch behind. The gathering of the saints for worship, which includes the preaching of the word and the ordinances, is one of God’s primary means of grace for his children. Though others have rough edges, so do we, and it is by close contact with each other in the context of worship and the Word that God files us down to form us into the image of the Son.
Scripture calls us to gather together, and in extreme situations, we should be thankful if we can worship remotely with our church body. Still, what we sacrifice in virtual church is significant. We must never forget that remote gatherings are not actually gatherings. Like the married couple who thinks spending time together online is sufficient, if we find ourselves satisfied with virtual church, the love for the body of Christ will indeed grow cold if it has not done so already.
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 