The Downside of Online Worship
The Covid pandemic may have changed a lot of things about our lifestyles, but kissing should not be on that list. Yet here we are with the option to buy a long-distance kissing machine.
The idea of a remote smooch was the brainchild of Zhao Jianbo. He was inspired by the intense isolation in China’s Covid lockdown. Authorities had forbidden residents from leaving their apartments for months on end. Zhao missed his girlfriend, so he built a remote kissing device. He started a company to sell this device, assuming other people would want a remote kiss from their girlfriend, spouse, or maybe their grandmother. The device is called MUA. (MUA gets its name from the sound commonly made when blowing a kiss.) [Source] You can see how this works on YouTube.
If you think a kissing machine is stupid, know this: I feel the same way about choosing to stay home to watch a worship service. Yet I am amazed at how many people choose to stay home and watch a church service online rather than participate in person. There’s a closeness, a connection to other people that can’t happen when you’re staring at a screen. There’s a togetherness that can only happen in person. And there’s the amazing closeness and connection we feel to God when we worship together. No video or live-stream can match that.
I am not opposed to offering church services online. In three of the churches where I have served as an interim, I have pushed to provide a live video feed of the Sunday morning service. I want services to be available for those who can’t get out because they’re sick or they’re taking care of a sick child. Others are on call for their job. Others are out of town. There are others who are searching for answers or they’re looking for a church home. Online services provide a valuable ministry opportunity.
My beef is with those who have no legitimate reason for staying home; instead, they just want to stay comfy in their jammies, sip some coffee, pet the cat, and watch the service from the comfort of an easy chair.
Worship is both a private experience and a corporate event. Your week should be filled with dedicated times of private worship, even moments of a quick word of praise. But private worship is not enough. When you come to Christ, you are brought into His family. You are part of a body. We need those times to worship and seek God together. Sure, you can sing along with an online service, and you can even listen to the prayers and sermons, but doing so in a group enhances the whole worship experience.
I first discovered this principle in college. I was a film major, and in my “Social Aspects of Film” class, the professor talked about the group experience of watching a movie. For example, watching a comedy is different at the theater as opposed to watching it at home by yourself. We laugh more when we’re watching a comedy and others are laughing.
When I gather with others for worship, I can sense the Spirit of God at work as we sing … as we hear a word of testimony … as we pray together. The people around me affect my own worship! I can’t experience that at home.
Gathering with others is not just for my benefit. I gather with them so that I can support them as well with my own singing, my own testimony, and my own words of encouragement.
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them” (Matt. 18:20).
“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25).
Right now, my wife is downstairs watching TV. I think I’ll close this blog and go give her a kiss. No batteries required.
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This post supports the study “The Gathering for Worship “ in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.
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