Online and multi-platform models

What is it?

Our ordinary lives and schedules have been upended amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and we can no longer gather in person with the people and communities we love. Even as different places begin the process of reopening, and even as we yearn to be together, the reality is that we don’t know how long gathering in large groups is going to remain unsafe. Congregations across the country and the world have figured out how to continue to gather and worship when they can’t do so in person. For many, this has meant shifting programming online via various online platforms, and this is absolutely possible for dinner church, too. In these times when communal cooking and sharing the same food around the table together isn’t physically possible, there are plenty of ways to bring the core pieces of dinner church to an online platform. 

Why is it important in a dinner church?

Dinner church is a particularly embodied, participatory, and intimate form of worship, and holding dinner church online doesn’t mean simply taking an existing dinner church liturgy and running it on Zoom. The logistics and flow have to be adjusted to fit the realities of gathering online. Breakout groups might need more structure so that they don’t feel awkward, especially to newer participants. Singing together is much harder - though not impossible! Music that Makes Community hosted a wonderful webinar about songleading on Zoom that explores some ways to lead songs and do communal singing online. The time it takes to fully complete a ritual may be longer or shorter online, depending on what it is. All of these things are easy to adjust; they just take some intention.

The ways that we interact with each other are different online than in person - it’s harder to read body language and non-verbal cues, we’re all in different physical spaces so might be distracted by various things going on, we might worry about talking over someone else. An online dinner church might need a bit more structure and direction, at least at first, so that participants feel comfortable participating fully because they know what to expect. 

You might be thinking that starting a dinner church service online would be tricky, and that you’d rather wait until you’re able to gather your community together in person. It might seem like it would be easier to transition an already-existing dinner church online than try to start one from scratch. That’s understandable - what does it mean to offer a service centered around sharing a meal when we cannot be together to physically share that meal? At the same time, we at Nourish think that dinner church worship is particularly suited to these times - and your community might be willing to try out something new when things are already different. Because it is a more informal style of worship, people might feel more comfortable doing it from home. While we all yearn for more connection in these times, unstructured time on Zoom can also be overwhelming or anxiety-provoking. The simple structure of dinner church worship provides some grounding and direction that invites folks into deeper connection and community. 

How do different dinner churches do it?

Simple Church in Grafton and Worcester, MA has been offering a shortened version of their regular liturgy via Facebook Live. Pastor Zach gathers at his table at home, often joined by his family, and participants watch his video stream from their houses. Pastor Zach begins by welcoming everyone with several songs, interspersing them by saying hello to folks who start watching. Throughout the service, he invites people to share their thoughts and prayer requests in the comments, and he interacts with them verbally, liting up prayer requests and reading comments out loud. He reads scripture and gives a short reflection, and bookends the meal with the sharing of the bread and the cup for communion. 

The Longmont Unitarian Universalist Presence in Colorado has been meeting on Zoom since early March. Zoom worship works best for small to medium-sized groups so that everyone can interact; it can get a bit unwieldy if you have a big group of people, though smaller breakout groups can help with that! The LUUP minister, Rev. Emily (also a Co-Founder of Nourish), adapted their in-person liturgy for digital interaction. She changed the order and timing slightly for a better flow, removed the unstructured eating/chatting time, moved some sharing to the text-based chat box, invited people to get props from their own home, and used breakout rooms to simulate tables. 

Through it all, they were invited to sink into ritual. Emily made sure to be close to the camera at eye level and look directly in it, to replicate the intimacy of being in person. Some of the rituals invite people into the beauty of making a mess together, like when we unmute everyone to say our words of gratitude together. Others leveraged the Zoom platform:

• We talked about the invisible string of connection that binds us across all time and space, and then made that string visible across our Zoom screens.

• For our flower communion, we played a photo slideshow of our members with flowers of any kind, then talked about how we are the bouquet, the flower arrangement. Emily led a mindfulness meditation where members looked at another face on the screen and appreciated the fullness of the inner and outer beauty. Then people wrote blessings in the chat to their person (not personalized).

Both of these rituals were so powerful, and not possible in person. Being online does not just have to be a worse version of gathering together. There is powerful potential for innovation and transformation.  

There are also options for multi-platform dinner church models that are worth exploring. These might not be possible for your community now, but we invite you to think about how and when they might work. One option would be for small groups to gather together in person; they might be made up of families who live together, groups of friends who have formed an isolation pod , or small groups from the congregation once small gatherings are safe in your area and for your people. The various small groups would join together online for the beginning of worship together. In the middle of the service, each small group would have discussion around their individual tables, and everyone would come back together at the end to close the service.

One of the things we love about dinner church is that it is able to adapt to the needs of the community! You could begin a dinner church service that is wholly online now, transition it to a multi-platform model when that feels safe, and eventually hold it fully in person when that is a possibility.

What now?

Nourish can help you figure out an online or multi-platform model that works for your community’s needs! Set up a call with us!