Zoom meetings, live streams, hybrid meetings; these are all phrases that have had major implications and involvement in our lives in the past year. Living in a COVID-19 world has drastically altered the way we live our lives, the way we communicate with each other, the way we attend events. Zoom has gone from an invisible, unrecognizable name to an everyday ritual. After almost a year of living this way, many have been raising questions about our future: Are these digital changes going to become a permanent fixture within culture and society?
One particular group affected by these changes is a small group from Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church, located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Led by Kirk’s head pastor, Nate Phillips, this men’s Bible study group would meet every Thursday morning and have breakfast together. Of course, when COVID-19 hit, this community’s bond was ruptured and they had to stop meetings altogether. Like so many other communities, this pandemic forced them apart. As months continued to pass in this quarantined world, changes began to surface. Kirk’s worship services shifted entirely to digital streaming. Services became prerecorded and would premiere on Facebook live every Sunday. It’s interesting to note that before the pandemic, there was no need for technology and streaming services within the church. Yet now, hi-tech cameras and microphones are used so frequently to make their beautiful service videos, and even drones have been used to create wide shots of the church as the music plays.
As these changes became fixtures in the Kirk’s services, pastor Nate Phillips started to gain some ideas about how to keep meeting with his Bible study group. With the rise of social distanced gatherings, Phillips began to wonder if he could incorporate social distancing into meetings. He was reminded of summer camp as a kid, meeting around the firepit and being with a community, as well as the book of Acts (Acts 28:1), encountering the idea of Jesus meeting his disciples around the fire. Nate thought that these would be excellent ideas to carry into his Bible study group, and as outdoors became a safer option, installing a fire pit outdoors at the Kirk became a perfect way to meet up and socially distance.
Of course, he also had to factor in the idea that not every member would be comfortable meeting up at the fire pit. COVID is still a threat to many lives, and Phillips wanted to earnestly take account of this. To accommodate these varying comfort levels, he had the wonderful idea of fusing the technology of Kirk worship services with socially distanced meetings; a form of hybrid worship he called going “phygital”, a combination of physical and digital. Those who are comfortable will join pastor Phillips at the fire to do Bible studies, but even if they want to stay home, the meetings were being simulcast via Zoom so members could comfortably participate. “Having a digital option for the foreseeable future will be very important,” Nate says. “Once we’ve started, we can’t stop.” Nate and many others seem to latch on to the idea that “phygital” will become the new normal, and it’s important to be prepared for that new normal. Pastor Nate is actively working to prepare more places within the Kirk for “phygital” meetings, including the upper room and refectory. He also is working on adding physical aspects to worship services along with the recordings.
It’s a very interesting prospect moving forward; while it’s wonderful that varying comfort levels will be accommodated for, it forces the Kirk to implement new technology and work much harder at providing comfortable services for all. There are many different modes of engagement in this pandemic world, and as Nate Phillips states, this will likely continue even after the effects have subsided.
For the fire pit meetings, the Kirk uses a laptop hosting a Zoom link connected to the Internet using a Verizon hotspot. They use an Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone connected to the Zoom host laptop near Nate to pick up his voice and to hear those calling in on Zoom. This Speakerphone has about an 8 foot range. A Bietrun UHF wireless microphone is also passed around to members around the fire pit to adequately hear them through Zoom. The wireless microphone comes with a Rechargeable Receiver that is plugged into an iPad that had also joined the Zoom meeting as a participant. A Logitech Conference Cam BCC950 is also used to pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) the camera angles in the Zoom meetings and capture all of the members. Finally, two 42″ Tall Portable Truss Counter tables were used to use as stands for the camera and laptop.