A Generous Table for All: Hybrid Faith Formation

A GENEROUS AND
EXPANDED TABLE
A Generous and Expanded Table:
The Hybrid Faith Community
SCRAPCE
October 18-20, 2021

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Generation X, “Whatever.”

ABOUT
BRUCE
● My own social experiment.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Proudly Presbyterian...USA.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Yes, #tworship happened.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● See faith through a lens of
intersectionality and justice.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Pastor.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Pastor at @FPCPaloAlto.

ABOUT
BRUCE
● Generation X. “Whatever.”
● Pastor at @FPCPaloAlto.

ONE
MONTH
AGO
● Breakthrough COVID
infection and hospitalization.

ONE
MONTH
AGO
● Thanks to my wife.

ONE
MONTH
AGO
● Under the care of Dr. Vespa.

ONE
MONTH
AGO
● Under the care of Dr. Vespa.
● Better, but slower, for now…

ALL THE LINKS
Today’s Slides:
www.slideshare.net/breyeschow
Blatant Shilling of My Stuff
https://linktr.ee/breyeschow
on the Socials:
@breyeschow on all the things:
Instagram, Twitter, Faceback, etc.
eMail:
bruce@reyes-chow.com

ALL THE RULES
RULE #1: Video
Feel free to not use your video.
RULE #2: Chat
Use the chat to engage, interact,
and ask questions for later.
RULE 3: You do you.
Eat, stretch, and take toilet breaks
as you need to. Please.
RULE 4: Take notes — or don’t.
www.slideshare.net/breyeschow

AGENDA
M.I / What did we learn?
Languishing, Lingering, Learnings
T.II / What is important?
What will we take with us, what
have we learned about us?
T.III / What does it look like?
Faith formation practices for a
hybrid faith community
T.IV / Now what?
The WHOLE Body

WHAT DID
WE LEARN I?
SCRAPCE
OCTOBER 18-20, 2021

Languishing. Despair. Weariness.
&
Lingering. Grace. Hope.

Our ability lead communities that
are holding ever-changing levels
stress, tension, and trauma are
being tested like never before.
We will not manage
our way out of trauma.

NAVIGATING
PANDEMIC
LEADERSHIP
.
● Political Climate
● Racial Reckoning
● Personal Stressors
● Congregational Expectations
● Professional Discernment

I GOT THIS!
Immediate action!
Deep care and concern for the
people we serve.
Trying any and all things
whether or not folks asked for
them or not.
Grace, patience, and
understanding abound.

DEAR GOD
We overfunction.
Get overextended.
Feel overwhelm.
Try not to panic.
We Crash.
We commit to self-care.
REPEAT

DREAMING
Deeply embrace this time as a
real new normal.
Reﬂection on how you have
modeled adaptive leadership
and practices.
Begin to reimagine and dream
about the future.

NAMING
TRAUMA
We are leading our people
through trauma and the impact
of that on our own well-being,
sense of worth, and sense of call
are coming known in subtle and
obvious ways.
Be kind to yourself.

GRACE
TESTED
We are now fighting over the
best ways to move forward.
Freedom generates conflict.
Managing well the polarities of
conflict now is vital — and one
more thing to do (exhausting.)
Are we who we say we are?

BREAK OUTS
10 Minutes to Check-in
How is your soul today?
How is the soul of the
community that you serve?
What do you need us to hold in
prayer for you?

WHAT DID
WE LEARN II?
SCRAPCE
OCTOBER 18-20, 2021

“Once online worship is no longer
forced upon us as the only option us
congregation, will we have the
willingness, energy, and capacity to
birth, curate, nurture, and sustain a
long-term digital space?”
Put more succinctly, “What now?”

Exodus 36:1-7
MORE THAN ENOUGH
Hybrid Church

“Let Bezalel, Oholiab, and every
other skilled worker whom God has
given skill, ability, and knowledge for
the work of building the sanctuary do
all that God has commanded.”

Moses then called together Bezalel,
Oholiab, and every skilled person
whom God had given skill and who
was eager to come and do the work.

Moses gave them all the gift
oﬀerings that the Israelites had
contributed to the work on the
sanctuary. They kept bringing Moses
spontaneous gifts, morning after
morning.

Finally, all the skilled workers
building the sanctuary left their work
that they were doing one by one to
come and say to Moses, “The people
are contributing way too much
material for doing the work that God
has commanded us to do.”

So Moses issued a command that
was proclaimed throughout the
camp: “Every person should stop
making gift oﬀerings for the
sanctuary project.”

So the people stopped bringing
anything more because what they
had already brought was more than
enough to do all the work.

Exodus 36:1-7
Sanctuary: moveable and holy
Workers: skilled and present.
Oﬀerings: more than enough.
Hybrid/Online Church

What we have learned.
FIVE DISRUPTIONS
Hybrid Church

DISRUPTION AS
OPPORTUNITY
How do we embrace this
time as a time to embrace
change and grow?
Question?
Is this an opportunity
to do something bold
when folks are not
stretched out in their
experience?
What were once taboo
topics for change?

DISRUPTION
We have been given permission
and a mandate to adapt.

DISRUPTION 1:
RE-CENTERED PLACE
Who is centered?
Question?
How do you talk about
the “space” in which
you gather? Do you
infer that digital space
is not as “real” as the
physical one or simply
another place where
you happen to gather
in community?

RE-CENTERED
We have experienced space and
boundaries for the gathered
community differently.

Bounded or Centered
How do we see and experience
who is our community?

Do you believe
what I believe?
Community or
groups based on
agreements,
location norms,
style, rules.
Regulatory.

Do you care about the
same things that I
care about?
Community based on
shared passion,
content, common
experience, belief.
Relational.

DISRUPTION 2:
REIMAGINE RATHER
THAN REPLICATE.
How will “What we did.” and
“What we are doing.” move
towards “What we do next?
Question?
If you changed
sanctuary seating from
pews to chairs what
would change?
How does your space
impact how you
worship in person or
online?

REIMAGINED
We have been challenged to
examine how and why we do
what we do: worship, meetings,
pastoral care, etc.

DISRUPTION 3:
LEADERSHIP
Who must we now invite
more fully into the life of the
church and community?
Question?
Are we creating a “you
can attend and give,
but not serve” culture?
What talents, gifts,
passions are being left
oﬀ the table of service
and leadership?

INVITED
We have been forced to ask
questions about the relationship
between attendance and
engagements and what/who we
value leadership.

DISRUPTION #4
ENGAGEMENT
How can we ﬁght the “one
congregation” myth?
Question
Can you create
enough community
connection points
where having
someone solely
in-person will cause
pause because some
may be left out.

ENGAGED
We have been forced to think
about WHY and HOW people
engage in the life of the church.

As people don't return to church, we
must accept the reality that
obligation, habit, and the depth of
current relationships are not enough
to stay connected.
If it is important that we are here,
how shall we share that belief?

DISRUPTION #5
TECHNOLOGICAL
What is realistic?
Question?
More than zoom, do
you have the staﬃng
or lay capacity to
handle streaming,
video, Customer
Relations Management
(CRM), and other tech
needs?

SOUND, DESIGN,
VISUALS, ETC.
We have been forced to confront
issues of capacity both limits and
expansion.

BONUS
DISRUPTION
You are leading your
people through trauma.
Question?
How will you help to
name stress and
trauma of the day?
How are people
expressions the best
visions of themselves
— or not?

LEADERSHIP
We have been forced to deeply
discern our calling to ministry
locations and context.

There is a diﬀerence between being
resilient and pretending that we can
simply move on after the past year+ of
political and pandemic trauma. We
must take the time to recover. To do so
is not a gesture of fear or weakness,
but an act of courage and power.
TAKE TIME TO HEAL.

BREAK OUTS
10 Minutes to Check-in
How have these disruptions
show up in your ministries:
centeredness, leadership,
technology, engagement,
imagination?

REPORT
BACK
What did you hear?

As people don't return to church, we must
accept the reality that obligation, habit, and
the depth of current relationships are not
enough to stay connected. If we can shed our
ecclesiastical egos, we can receive this as an
opportunity to build intimate friendships,
implement just structures, and commit to
organizing life-giving interactions.
The time to embrace and embody joyful and
radical change is now.

FIVE HYBRID
ASSUMPTIONS
SCRAPCE
OCTOBER 18-20, 2021

A hybrid gathering experience is one
in which in-person and remote
participants have essentially the
same experience.
WHAT IS HYBRID?

ASSUMPTIONS
The desire for meetings and
gatherings to return to “what it
was before” is strong. We know
what we know and folks are tired
of the unknown.
“Church” is more than worship,
but worship still holds most
social capital and inﬂuence in
most congregations.

ASSUMPTIONS
Technology breeds competition.
Numbers are a measurement,
but engagement is most
important and must be evaluated
differently in every space.
There is a spectrum of options,
context matters, and leadership
must assess and translate for
their particular spaces.

HYBRID
“Hybrid” or blended anything
requires more energy, resources,
and commitment than many
congregations have the capacity
to do, so there may be more
effective options or a spectrum
of hybrid experiences offered.
You don’t have to do everything.

WHAT IS
IMPORTANT?
SCRAPCE
OCTOBER 18-20, 2021

WHAT IS
IMPORTANT
Theological Integrity: What
Gospel story are you telling?
A Culture of Adaptability: How
do you keep joyfully shifting?
Realistic Capacity Assessment:
Where/ how to you ﬁnd life?

We strive to be a Christian
community committed to
disrupting injustice,
seeking wisdom,
practicing empathy,
and expressing the beauty of God.
OUR EMERGING MISSION

HOW WE DESCRIBE
OURSELVES.
We are a Christian church
afﬁliated with the Presbyterian
Church USA. We are a
justice-seeking, LGBTQIA+
afﬁrming, intellectually curious
congregation that cares deeply
about one another, the Palo Alto
community, and the world.

ADAPTABILITY
The act of mobilizing a group of
individuals to handle tough
challenges and emerge triumphant
in the end. Ron Heifetz
Can you lead people through
change without adding
unnecessary anxiety AND
emerge having experienced
structural, cultural, and
communal renewal?

I do not believe people have a lack of
imagination, only that too many of us
in power done everything possible to
discourage them from trusting and
acting on it.
SO NOW WHAT?

@FPCPaloAlto
Older.
White.
Educated.
Wealthy.
Traditional, not fancy.
Social Justice Focused.
Open to technology, just enough
to be dangerous :-)

Pandemic
Adjusted pretty well thanks to
Tech Deacons and ﬂexibility.
Convergence of a congregation
openness, and my tech capacity.
Most have attended throughout.
Attendance up: 70ish to 100ish.
Zoom only and committed to
tech not being a distraction.

Survey (80+)
● Demographics: Longevity,
Attendance, Vaccinations
● Remote Implications: What
if we didn’t have it anymore.
● Gathering Comfort Levels
● Vaccination Status
● Option Descriptions
● Ranking Options
● Impact of Options
● Most Faithful Option

OPTION
DESCRIPTIONS
● In-Person Only
● Zoom Only
● Two services
● Streaming
● Hybrid

We landed on
HYBRID.
PROVIDING ONE HYBRID
WORSHIP EXPERIENCE was
the overwhelming choice
— even though folks have no
idea what that might look like.

CAPACITY
Have the courage to name your
capacity peaks and valley.
Find what gives you life.
Find what gives the community
life and encourage that.
DO MOSTLY THINGS THAT
YOUR ARE GOOD AT AND
BRING YOU JOY

CAPACITY
JOY: You are good at it and
it gives you life!
COMPETENCY: You are
good at it, but meh . . .
LEARNING: Not good YET.
TERRIBLE: This is life and
soul sucking and you are
terrible at it. Make it stop.

BREAK OUTS
What is the Gospel story you are
trying to tell?
What has adaptability looked
like?
What things are you good at and
it brings you joy?

WHAT DOES THIS
LOOK LIKE?
SCRAPCE
OCTOBER 18-20, 2021

RE-CENTERED
● Resisted desire and inertia to
center on physical location.
● Recontructured physical
location to bring in remote.
● Reconstructed “pulpit” space
and experiences.
● Commitment to language
and imagery that does not
center physical location:
local ﬂavor, global reach.

REIMAGINED
● Pruned and Planted rituals
and patterns for gatherings.
● Programming that addresses
needs that have emerged
during and because of the
pandemic.
● Increased ability to engage
different learning styles.
● Increased connections to
outside relationships use for
in-person gatherings

REIMAGINED
● Simpliﬁed use of resources
bulletin, paper, etc.
● Reconﬁgured physical space.
● Reimagined leadership
presence as DJ or curator.

INVITED
● Remote participants are
taken seriously: not just
attenders and givers, but
participants it the full life of
the community.
● A broader experience of the
community and world is
valued and engaged.
● Expanded Teams: Tech
Deacons, Onsite ushers, etc
● Live links.

ENGAGED
● Created, nurtured, and
named a hybrid and lived
community so that when the
desire to “go back” gains
strength, people have no
choice but to remember
those who have not been and
will never be physically
present.

ENGAGE
● Committed to options:
In-person, Remote, Hybrid
● Curated and created organic
spaces for intimate
interactions to develop.
● Meetings run well, time
honored, expectations clear.
● Design, social media and
electronic interactions must
be valued; no more a
begrudging afterthought.

DISRUPTION #4
TECHNOLOGICAL
What is realistic?
Question?
More than zoom, do
you have the staﬃng
or lay capacity to
handle streaming,
video, Customer
Relations Management
(CRM), and other tech
needs?

INVEST
Technology is only a means of
interaction, but the ways we
treat it indicate its value and
acceptance.
● Equipment
● Staff
● Training
● Practice
Technology should not distract,
but should enhance for all.

SOUND
Much is forgiven with good
sound quality
● Most soundboards are
enough for good sound.
● You need to have someone
who understands signal ﬂow.
● Someone will have to
monitor sound board.
There may not be a great deal of
investment here.

VIDEO
This is where you will have the
most equipment and cultural
challenges:
● Screens/projection that
provide mutually positive
experiences for everyone.
● Cameras that get close to
remote experience.
There may be more investment
when it comes to video upgrades.

SIMPLICITY
Sounds Board and Laptop
running sound in and out of
Zoom space.
Multiple logins: Main, Monitor,
PulpitCam, Lectern Cam, etc.
One PTZ or Wide Angle Camera.
Zoom Host and Tech Deacons.
Practice.

DISRUPTION #5
DISRUPTION AS
OPPORTUNITY
How do we embrace this
time as a time to embrace
change and grow?
Question?
Is this an opportunity
to do something bold
when folks are not
stretched out in their
experience?
What were once taboo
topics for change?

DISRUPTION
Time to take on the taboo:
● Time
● Style
● Order
A chance to remind folks of their
capacity for adapting.
See this as expanding what you
do, not as completely new.
Hybrid is in the air.

LEADERSHIP
Find ways to tend to and care for
your own spirit, body, mind, heart
during this time.
Seek sabbath.
Model unproductivity.
Extend and receive grace.
Cultivate your own creativity.
Take time to heal.

RECAP
Lingering, Longing and Learning.
Chat: one word or phrase to that
describes your spirit today.
Five Disruptions: Centeredness
and Place, Reimagining,
Leadership, Engagement,
Technology, and Opportunity,
What’s Important:
Your Story, Capacity/Joy and
Adaptability

BREAK OUTS
One concrete action or activity
that you might try/adjust after
our time together?
Any other questions, responses,
comments, musings about
anything that I have shared?
Thank you!

A Generous Table for All: Hybrid Faith Formation

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A Generous Table for All: Hybrid Faith Formation