Livestream Changes

Cornerstone saints,

Our tech team has been working through some technical glitches related to our YouTube recording. Before we invested any more money, time, and manpower, the elders sat down recently and asked questions such as: How valuable is the YouTube Livestream? How much money and time do we want to invest in making sure it’s running well? Do we want a video recording of the service or is an audio recording sufficient? What seems wise and best for our body moving forward?

The result of this conversation is that the elders have reached consensus that we will drop our livestream service. It served us well amid Covid, but we think a simple recorded video to be posted as early as 11AM each Sunday will better serve our body moving forward. Over the next 6-8 weeks, we want to hear your thoughts on the value of a video, livestream, and audio options. In addition, we will offer time at the May 4th Congregational Meeting to let the members talk through this matter.
Here’s a bit of our rationale for the change:

1. We believe “church” is the physical gathering of God’s people for prayer, song, Scripture, and Supper. There is no such thing as “online church.” Therefore, if you are traveling away from Cornerstone, we believe the best place for you to be is in another physical gathering of God’s people. We highly encourage people on vacation to find another gospel-preaching church to attend (there are helpful church searches at the EFCA website and thegospelcoalition.org). We think you’ll be better fed and encouraged by gathering in person. So too, we think you may come across practices and elements that you can share with the leadership
   at Cornerstone to consider how we could improve our church.
2. If you are sick or incapacitated, please stay home and rest. Know that you are missed. We grieve your absence; the LORD is with you. We simply want to emphasize the priority of the gathered church (Heb. 10:24-25). The gathered church allows the saints to develop relationships, to not avoid difficult people (even their pastor), and thereby grow in the high mark of Christian discipleship—love (John 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 13). The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) gives this instructive word for the Lord’s Day: God wills that the ministry of the Gospel and schools be maintained, and that I, especially on the day of rest, diligently attend church to learn the Word of God, to use the holy sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian alms.
3. We hope that if you miss our gathering for illness or travel, you will come back later to watch the recorded sermon to keep up in our sermon series. You may benefit also from the recorded prayers, announcements, and other aspects of the service. Musicians and other leaders might also profit from re-watching in order to grow in their respective areas of service.
4. We recognize that this will be disappointing to those who get stuck at home on a Sunday morning because of pain or illness and would prefer to watch a livestream. It’s probably even more disheartening for healthy caretakers who stay at home when another family member isn’t well. This group of people made it
   hardest to proceed with this decision. Ultimately, it’s principle #1 that we value so highly that causes us to pause the livestream. That said, if things go as planned, the service will be posted as early as 11AM.

Please reach out to any elder to discuss this matter and bring thoughts to the May 4th meeting.

Thank you,

Pastor Matt for the Elders

P.S. After this the elder discussion, I came across another explanation from a church body that made a similar decision in May 2021. They have some additional reasons that I find valuable as well:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-church-will-unplug/