Issue 27 Changing ChurchBlog | A Wider Welcome – Essential reading for preachers
A Wider Welcome – Essential reading for preachers
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 16.06.21
I was in trouble with the church meeting. It turned out that our 365-year-old Baptist chapel had very strict policies regarding the filming of services, which I hadn’t realised when I decided to livestream my evangelistic Sunday evening address on the local Facebook page. The church’s blanket no-cameras policy was intended to safeguard vulnerable children and adults in the congregation and so I apologised profusely. Two weeks later, the country was in lockdown and our church was suddenly agreeable to thinking more creatively about providing a safe online presence. We began a year of livestreamed services together where the church enjoyed experimenting in all sorts of ways and discovered a wider audience than they had had through their doors in years.
Our church was not alone. Thousands of churches around the country and millions of churches around the world did the same, highlighting the need to continually find fresh ways to express the never-changing gospel in an ever changing world. The following three books have helped me think through other ways the church may need to consider changing in these times.
