Pastoral Letters

The Importance of Physical Worship

July 18, 2021 Author:Elder Liu Kerh Li
Due to Covid-19, we are gradually becoming accustomed to shopping online, getting meal deliveries, working from home, attending online classes, keeping in touch with relatives abroad through video calls. We even attend church worship service and Sunday schools through videos. These advances in network communication have allowed us to achieve many tasks without ever stepping out of our house. It is also a crucial step in preventing Covid-19. Above all, it brings to our lives unprecedented convenience. This is a scenario that was out of our imagination just one and a half years ago. Suddenly, the world is contained in our smartphones or computers, and network communications have subverted the “distance” between people and across space. They blur the line between working and leisure life. At the same time, society has gained more channels of communications. People, however, are more isolated. People are beginning to see drawbacks of over-reliance on network communications. Many enterprises have found the work-from-home model reducing efficiency. Staff members may spend more time working from home, but results are not as expected. This is because they lack interactions with other colleagues and team spirit is absent. Therefore, many enterprises, even the internet giant Amazon and tech giant Apple have been trying recently to reduce reliance on this model. They require their staff to return to the office for a period of time. The staff may not agree with the organisation’s policy because they are “deprived” of the convenience. The decreasing efficiency due to the model, however, is clear. Perhaps, there may be many who are shirking duties while the boss is not around. Oftentimes, however, it is the lack of team interactions that leads to lethargy. This in turn results in a decrease in work efficiency.

Physical interactions can never be replaced by interactions through the internet virtual space. Last year, Singapore’s elderly suicide rate increased due mainly to loneliness. The measures to stop the pandemic has cut off the elderly’s emotional communication channels, making them more lonely and choosing suicide. The church has also stopped service due to the pandemic. I wonder if our brothers and sisters have felt disconnected from each other or felt spiritual loneliness? We thank God that we can still worship and attend classes together online. The truth, however, is these online sessions cannot completely replace the experience of worshipping together. Although we are only spending two or three hours out of a week together, the sense of participation during physical gatherings and classes are a great help to our spirituality. When we worship God physically together instead of through videos, the atmosphere in the worship hall, the presence and singing of other members (members are not permitted to sing for the time being) help us worship God more intently. Furthermore, knowing that others are around, we become more serious and committed towards worshipping God. During face-to-face classes, we share our thoughts, life and testimonies more naturally. Eye contact and body language enrich the complex of our interactions. Physical sharing also requires us to concentrate on listening to each other instead of multi-tasking like on video.

After the pause of two months and one week, we thank God we are finally coming back to worship God together once again. I hope these past 5 weeks of “separation” have made us cherish more every opportunity of coming together physically for worship service, seeing our brothers and sisters, and going out to care for others. In this pandemic, we do our utmost to uphold our responsibilities in attending to personal hygiene and following every safe-distancing measure. This will assure everyone who is attending physical services that their spiritual and physical health are well taken care of. It may be more troublesome in having to adhere to such measures just to attend church physically as compared to worshiping online. Physical worship and lessons, however, help us to be more disciplined and focused in worshipping God. This also strengthens communication between brothers and sisters. Therefore, I encourage you to come for physical worship. We truly believe that when we do God’s will, God will keep brothers and sisters in the church safe! Come! Come back to church to worship! “’Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).

translated by Davina Seet