Dear people of Spirit of Grace,

Recently, one of our hybrid community members experienced an unimaginably heart-breaking tragedy. Their 21-year-old son suddenly died in Spokane, where they live.

When I heard of their tragic loss, I immediately accepted their offer to fly me up to Spokane to conduct the funeral this Saturday. The prayer chain immediately began praying for all those involved. And our compassionate pastoral care team began calling churches in Spokane to help the parents find a place for their son’s service. This is what it means to live into Spirit of Grace’s vision of hybrid community: even though they are in Spokane and we are in Beaverton, I am their pastor and we are all her faith community. I know your prayers and support mean so much right now.

With all of the losses we continue to grieve after two years of the pandemic, we have also gained some things. We now have online access to worship thanks to the countless hours offered by our amazing tech team. Before Director Vinci and I were called to Spirit of Grace, you decided to welcome people far outside metro-Portland to join this community and they did!

It was such a gift to be together as a hybrid community for Easter worship. In total, 137 of us were present that day: 84 in person and 53 in the Zoom balcony. More than one-third of our Easter worshipers attended worship virtually!

What does it mean to live into hybrid worship and community?

While many of us want to gather in person on Sunday, others have not been able to find a community like Spirit of Grace where they live. They are grateful to be able to worship from the Zoom balcony.

In the past, many could no longer be actively involved in worship and community life because they couldn’t attend church in person. But now:

One of our college students not only attends but also helps lead worship on Zoom from three time zones away.

Long-time members recently moved to Washington, but they show up in the Zoom balcony to greet their friends any time they desire. It's also exciting to see extended family members from as far away as San Diego, the Puget Sound, England, and the Netherlands!

Members who are traveling join us from hotel rooms looking out at the mountains or ocean, or even from the ski slopes!

People who work on Sundays, like a hard-working nurse in Silverton, can join us from a break room.

People who were no longer physically able to get to church, like our longest-tenure members, can join us every Sunday from their care home.

Those who are sick or concerned about contracting an illness through communal worship can worship from home.

Living into a new dimension of our core value: being inclusive

We are figuring out what it means to be a hybrid community. For the most part, those who live outside our area and join us on Zoom will only have online ministry accessible to them. However, with each new situation that emerges, we continue to learn new things.

In the future, some aspects of our community life will be accessible only to those who attend in person (like our Easter Egg hunt and future Sunday potlucks). However, in this new hybrid church era, we will learn even more creative ways to create community while online (like the recent amazing “Drag Queen Bingo”).

If you would like to help nurture online community and connection, please let Director Vinci, me, or one of our Zoom balcony hosts know. Perhaps God is seeding in you the next great idea our community needs to embody God’s inclusive, authentic, and justice-seeking love.

In Christ,
Pastor Robyn Hartwig
PastorRobyn@spiritofgracepdx.org