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Instituting a Virtual Church

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Hi! I'm Rev. Joseph W. Taber IV, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lowell, NC. That video is almost 8 years old. I made it as an assignment for a seminary class entitled "Theological Grounding and Development of the Virtual Church," (Dr. Watkins loved long class titles). Now we find ourselves HAVING to reshape our traditions in order to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in this age. The institutional church will not emerge from this global pandemic unchanged. As we move forward there are two things about me that I need y’all to know. The first is that I’m a huge geek. Not, was a geek in high school, although I was that too. I’m still a geek. My sermon manuscripts have footnotes. I get excited about minor grammatical changes between biblical translations. I enjoy reading minutes from Session meetings. I have a favorite part of the Book of Order: F-1.0301. If you don’t have that particular line memorized, don’t worry, I’ll come back around to it. Righ...
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Welcome!

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Hi there! As Pastors, a lot of us have been struggling with the announcement that our places of worship will be closed. We're looking for ways to show people that while the church buildings may be closed, the ministry continues. Then, last week, Rev. Rosie had a great idea for the two of us to share the text we'd intended to preach in a conversation that was sent to our congregations so that they could receive a sermon, even if they didn't get to join. The video got a very positive response (hopefully I can link it here at some point) and from there we had the idea to expand that concept. So this will be a gathering place for spiritual leaders we know to share their thoughts, reflections, and devotions, hopefully enough so that all of our communities will benefit with daily devotional material to help us through this time of uncertainty, and at the same time, to lift each other up even while we are physically separated. Bear with us as we lay down the tracks in front of t...
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Living in Isolation

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I hope that you all are doing well wherever you're riding out social isolation. I know the media has been getting contentious about the subject, but I want to assure you all that, according to the best folks our national church has looking into things, this sort of isolation from each other is the best way forward. Avoid socialization with people outside your home whenever possible, keep washing your hands before and after such contact when it happens, and help us help our medical community to stay on top of this pandemic. On the spiritual side of things, such isolation can be a real concern. After all, we count on each other, feed off of each other's spark and energy, so instead of being a series of slowly quenching embers, we can be a single, powerful flame. How do we do that when we are not meeting, even when the reason we are not meeting is to protect the weak and vulnerable among us? The first and easiest thing to do is grab your directory and start making ca...
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