We had no choice. Back in the ‘90s, our then-toddler daughter kept catching colds at church. This was no surprise. After all, kids are viral airports, where infections land and take off with great regularity. In fact, quite a few of those infections flew straight to us. No big, we could handle it.
The one who couldn’t handle it, however, was our daughter. After several mere colds turned into full-blown bronchial infections requiring hospitalization, we learned she had asthma. Once we’d left her crying in a hospital ventilation tent (we weren’t allowed to stay all night), there was no longer a choice. We:
- Bought a home ventilator
- And stopped attending public worship
For almost two years, we “did church” at home every Sunday morning. We read Scripture, discussed it in depth, sang, prayed, and sometimes cried together. I knew I’d married a deep-thinking woman, but was constantly delighted at Trudy’s spiritual insights. Did we miss interacting with others? Eventually, yes. But at first we were simply entranced at how meaningful and sweet a time it had become. We also loved worshipping in our jammies with a steady supply of gourmet coffee and biscotti at hand.
Our daughter eventually turned into a wonderful asthma-free adult, by the way.
In 2020, COVID-19 ushered in our second Doing Church at Home era. We hated the reason, and missed the live presence of others. But once again we were reminded just how much we loved worshipping together. Only this time it was with the help of a newfangled device called “the internet.” Oh, yeah…
And our coffee was still the best.
This is encouraging.
Thank you
My pleasure, J.
I’ve done a few of those at home (with the live stream services) but it isn’t the same. Love doing it in jammies though.
Beautiful.
Thank you, Christina.
Interesting, when you did church at home, was it just your family? Acts 2:46, 5:42, they went from house to house, do you think it was meant to be that way.
Yes, it was just the two of us, L.G., not a “home church.” Although I have been to a few of those, and was a regular member of one a year or so after my conversion.
A big benefit of conducting your own church service at home is that your involvement prevents you from daydreaming! 🙂
Good point, Nancy!
Your final comment reminded me of the advice the minister gave us when my husband and I joined our Unitarian Universalist congregation ten years ago: “don’t tell anyone you know how to make coffee!”
;>)
For us, after a couple of weeks, the new shiny fun of home church wore off. Glad to hear another perspective.
” basically, you can’t leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can”
“Stores are closed, except those that are open” etc, Just give me toilet paper by the cart full. Good column Mitch
Thank you, my Anonymous friend.
Incredible how that came full circle. I feel most people still do “church at home” these days since they’re uncomfortable with organized religion but still want to maintain a relationship with God and worship Him.
How wonderful that you and Trufy were on the same page, spiritually, so you could do that. And what a great lesson for your daughter, that church isn’t a spectator sport. It just goes to show, God can use anything, even asthma, to accomplish His purposes.
I appreciate the option to attend in person or online even at my own church. Either way is as meaningful as we make it.
Yep. I find Christian Pastors and listen to Sermons on Sundays. My God connection is on point even without a car.
I love it; worship continues even when life is difficult, it’s where God desires to find us.
Blessings Mitch
You too, Pete.
Thanks for sharing this Mitch. That’s exactly how they did church back in the day. More important than the place of meeting was how they did it. If you take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 11-14 you”ll see that it was an interactive gathering where everyone contributed and no one sat passively. Oh and it was over a meal also. Sometimes I think the Lord allowed Covid for us to get back to the roots of 1st century Christianity – but just my opinion. (Leo)
You make a great point, Leo.
I love that when you couldn’t attend church physically, you simply had your own! That must have been a very meaningful experience for all three of you!
Our daughter was too young to participate (and the second time around she was an adult with her own home), but it certainly was for us, Ann.
I have been doing church online for several years. I love it! I like that churches are giving people more options now. I have talked with lots of people who are so happy churches are online now. Their reasons are varied: health, work schedule, lack of local churches for their religion, no car, don’t want to go alone…. Without church services online, many of these people would not be attending at all, or only rarely. Some people think everyone should go in person, but I disagree. Online church services work for me!
Love that – why stop it.
I once tried that, but everyone slept through home church. My fault for feeding them good breakfast first. 😆
;>)
Lovely written as always, my friend…and I am glad your daughter healthily outgrew the asthma.
Doing Church at home during Covid-19 was definitely a new experience for me that I grew to Love.