Gathered With The Saints

Reimagining Church in a Post-Covid World

In 2021, I completed and submitted my Doctor of Ministry project, which had been conducted during the most serious portions of the pandemic when social distancing and digital church were becoming our new normal. My thesis was entitled “Gathered with the Saints: Reimagining Church in the Age of Coronavirus.” It was a case study of a small egalitarian, liturgical church called All Saints Church of Christ, which I co-planted in 2016 with John Mark Hicks and others. The research aimed to tell the story of our congregation, who not only survived the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 but also grew our attendance numbers, geographical reach, and the commitment levels of our members through digital means.

As I reflected on our time as a Zoom church, I gained practical insights and deep theological learnings, lessons that still inform my theology and praxis as a worship minister in 2024. First, the main theological conviction to emerge was that “the body of Christ has always been both virtual and physical,” an idea that I credit to Dr. Jason Byassee.¹ This was true prior to 2020, and it remains so today. For Christian practitioners who follow an embodied and risen Christ, the ideal context for discipleship and worship is an in-person setting. But even the apostle Paul could not always be physically present with the first-century churches he planted and pastored from a distance. His “virtual presence” with them was more often mediated through a form of digital communication popular in his day: the letter.² Congregations would write to him with spiritual concerns and questions, and Paul would respond with answers, directives, and encouragement.

“But since we were torn away from you, siblings, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face”  - 1 Thess. 2:17,Author’s Translation

In some ways, his letters were a “poor substitute” for Paul’s physical presence; but in other ways, they were superior.³ Many of Paul’s epistles have been preserved in the New Testament, and we still have them today. Unfortunately, we do not have records of his face-to-face conversations and sermons.⁴ Imagine the body of work Paul could have amassed, archived, and distributed had Zoom recordings been available in Rome or Galatia! Paul’s connection with young believers was sometimes virtual, sometimes physical, but always interactive, meaningful, and responsive. 

Second, even as some congregations were rushing to get back to in-person worship or “real church,” perhaps even before it was safe to do so, other members of the body of Christ were being left out, as they had been before the pandemic. For elderly adults who are primarily homebound, people who are immunocompromised, parents of children with disabilities and sensory processing disorders, and people residing in assisted living facilities, the pandemic was a blessing; because for the first time (maybe ever) they were able to actively participate digitally in a variety of church services and online gatherings. 

One thing All Saints Church of Christ learned by hosting an interactive liturgical service, gathering each week on Zoom, and experiencing the voices, faces, and spiritual gifts of these often invisible and overlooked members of Christ’s body, is that virtual presence does not necessarily entail “unreal.” Our time together online was genuine and meaningful both to me, the worship leader, and to our worship participants. Relationships were forged and strengthened, stories were shared, spiritual disciplines were practiced, and community memories were preserved via Zoom recordings. 

Kathryn Reklis notes that the “Incarnation, and its relationship to sacramentality,” has long been the church’s “go-to historical doctrine to defend against virtual encroachment.”⁵ Indeed, there is good reason to ground our commitment to embodied, locatable Christian communities and relationships in the doctrine of the Incarnation, but only if one thinks of virtual or digital life as disembodied, unreal, and/or immaterial.⁶  Reklis challenges this notion:

What if this is not the right way to think about digital life after all? What if, instead of seeing the real vs. virtual divide in terms of embodied vs. disembodied, we think about the new permutations of digital and virtual technology informing our lives as particular [and very real] ways we experience embodiment?⁷

For example, if a teenager bullies a schoolmate online, it is actual bullying; and that child experiences real pain and consequences in the physical realm—bodily, psychologically, and socially. In contrast, when writer Deanna Thompson was diagnosed with stage four cancer a decade ago, her friends set up an online CaringBridge site for her. That experience introduced her “to the loving and healing presence of the body of Christ” mediated via digital technology.⁸ Thompson describes experiencing a real healing presence and an “actual” sense of community and support through a computer screen.⁹

As the space between virtual life and so-called “real life” gets harder to demarcate, we should embrace digital worship opportunities as practices that can enhance and build upon our in-person communities of faith. If an 82-year-old man dying of dementia in an assisted living facility can read Philippians 2:1-11 before the Lord’s Supper, and bring us to tears on Zoom, is this not an “embodied” and “real” spiritual experience and connection, even if differently so? 

At All Saints Church of Christ – whether in person or on Zoom – we say the Apostles’ Creed every Sunday; and as we do, we confess a belief in the “communion of the saints.”¹⁰ What this means is that we truly believe that we are communing or worshiping with every saint or Christian who has ever lived or who will ever live. Theological imagination is necessary, as we envision the historic and global body of Christ who simultaneously joins us each week in the throne room of God. 

One benefit of continuing to engage and connect with other Christians on Zoom is that it makes real for us the global “communion of the saints” that we previously were only able to access and imagine in our mind’s eye. Seeing Christians log on from Arizona to Angola, from Maine to Mississippi, and from Vienna to Vermont, enables us to better grasp the scene from Revelation 5:9-10, where all God’s saints are praising the Lamb who was slain, “persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” 

The final insight I will share from my research, one that could be applied to post-COVID church plants, is that active participation in worship is far more compelling (whether in person or online) than passive observation. In his book Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, Frank Viola argues for an ecclesiology that understands the church, not as a highly structured organization, but as a responsive spiritual organism whose DNA is “marked by the very traits that we find in the Triune God.”¹¹ In Viola’s view, the “Trinity is the paradigm informing us on how the church should function,” in short as a “loving, egalitarian, reciprocal, cooperative, nonhierarchical community.”¹² 

Today in many churches, much of the ministry is outsourced to the professionals who create a finely tuned worship production for congregants to passively hear, observe, and consume. One person (the teaching pastor) is given the microphone and the bulk of the time, sometimes as much as 60% of the service. Rarely do we hear a word from women, elderly folks, or children; and consequently we miss out on blessings we might have received from their spiritual gifts and unique perspectives. 

In contrast, Viola’s non-hierarchical, fully participatory model for congregational life and worship takes its cue from the New Testament. We know that the first-century church met in homes and that the worship assembly was a time when each believer offered their spiritual gifts to God and their fellow worshipers. Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, assumes as much in 1 Corinthians 14:26 – “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”

Viola’s book was pivotal for me when in 2016, I became increasingly disillusioned by the programmatic, consumer-driven, business model of “doing church,” which had been embraced by larger Churches of Christ in our fellowship. His vision laid much of the groundwork for what would become All Saints Church of Christ. In particular, we ascribe to his emphasis on “the every member functioning of the body.”¹³ From its inception and during our time on Zoom, our congregation regularly shares leadership in ministry, worship planning, Scripture reading, and preaching. As part of our belief in the “priesthood of all believers,” we host an open pulpit, and each person is invited to contribute their spiritual gifts and actively participate in our liturgical services.

One of the strengths and benefits of having a structured liturgy, something that is under-utilized in Churches of Christ, is that the focus is taken off the human leader, and instead, the liturgy becomes the leader.¹⁴ Eric Law notes that two advantages of having a liturgy are that worship moves from person-centered to form-centered and it “reduces the amount of training time for someone to participate in leadership positions.”¹⁵ We have observed this to be true at All Saints, where liturgy gives our services structure and roots us in the “Great Tradition” of the church universal.¹⁶ 

Christians across the ages have long understood habituation to be at the center of spiritual formation and discipleship. In the past few tumultuous years, when unprecedented change and unpredictability abounded, there was a comfort in knowing that the communal liturgy we enacted each Sunday would be rooted in the unchanging story of God in Scripture, culminating in the celebration of the Eucharist with our spiritual siblings. One participant shared:

Throughout the pandemic, the liturgy has been very meaningful for me. It speaks to me; and in my experience, it’s been formative and transformative. Just the repetitive nature of it. It shapes the way I think and the way I feel. Moments from the liturgy come to my mind during the week, as I’m thinking about my life at this time.

Another young mother shared, “Liturgy provides a predictable rhythm, a structure, something that is organized, and you know what you’re getting when you walk through the door or log onto Zoom.” The reading of the Word and the practice of the Eucharist are central and essential components of liturgical worship, with a focus on the saving activity of a gracious God. As John Mark Hicks puts it, “We let the Eucharist tell God’s story. Instead of the Eucharist being a place where we might hear any number of personal stories about people going fishing, etc., the Eucharist is elongated and is given emphasis, as the climax of the service.” Even on Zoom, everything is pointing to the “virtual table,” where Christ graciously offers himself in communion with his people.  

As we continue to witness the decline of congregations and members among Churches of Christ, we would do well to lean into some of the strengths and concepts that we inherited from our Stone-Campbell forbears. Their belief in the priesthood of all believers could bless our assemblies and perhaps even grow them, if we planted intentional and egalitarian churches where every person is invited to serve or lead according to their giftedness rather than their gender. Moreover, our Stone-Campbell unity impulse could lead us to utilize best practices from other Christian denominations – like liturgy – and connect us more deeply to the “Church universal.” 

As more and more of our physical buildings are sold off and their doors are shut, may we find comfort in knowing that the church has always been more than a physical entity. The church is also a spiritual reality that transcends time, space, geography, and history. The church against whom the gates of hell will not prevail has never been tied to a piece of real estate or even having 501c3 status. The Bride of Christ has always been about the gathering of the saints for prayer and praise, the reading of Scripture, faithful preaching, and the reenactment of God’s story via the Eucharist. There are digital platforms, homes, public places, and/or third spaces in which she may gather for all these things.¹⁷ With an openness to the Spirit and a dose of faithful innovation, the church in North America will not only survive but is invited to thrive in a post-Covid, post-denominational world. 

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Dr. Claire Frederick is an affiliate professor in the College of Bible and Ministry at Lipscomb University. She teaches Bible and worship ministry courses to undergraduates on campus, in the Global Learning program, and at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center as part of the Lipscomb LIFE Program. Dr. Frederick has served as worship minister for All Saints Church of Christ since Oct. 2016. She spent 15 years in the Nashville music industry as a published singer/songwriter before going into ministry and teaching full-time. She and her husband Kyle, live in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, together with their daughter Edie.

1. Jason Byassee, “For Virtual Theological Education,” Faith and Leadership (blog), Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, March 2, 2011, https://faithandleadership.com/jason-byassee-virtual-theological-education.

2. Deanna A. Thompson, “The Priesthood of All in a Time of Pandemic,” Discipleship Ministries (blog), United Methodist Church, April 27, 2020, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/the-priesthood-of-all-in-a-time-of-pandemic.

3. Byassee, “For Virtual Theological Education.”

4. Ibid.

5. Kathryn Reklis, “X-Reality and the Incarnation,” New Media Project, Christian Theological Seminary, May 10, 2012, https://research.library.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=theology_facultypubs.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Thompson, “The Priesthood of All in a Time of Pandemic.”

9. Deanna A. Thompson, The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016), 10.

10. “Apostles' Creed,” Christian Reformed Church, accessed Feb. 22, 2021, https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/apostles-creed.

11. Frank Viola, Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity (Colorado Springs: David Cook), 35.

12. Ibid, 41.

13. Ibid.

14. Eric H.F. Law, The Wolf Shall Dwell with The Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993), 100-101.

15. Ibid.

16. Ola Tjørhom, Visible Church-Visible Unity: Ecumenical Ecclesiology and "the Great Tradition of the Church" (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004).

17. https://www.missionalchurchnetwork.com/blog/the-importance-of-third-places#:~:text=A%20Third%20Place%20is%20a,Neutral%20Ground.