Why Replicate When You Can Reimagine?

An Intentionally Online Only Worship Experience

It’s easy to replicate. But the invitation is to reimagine.

Back in 2020, when we were all learning how to host Zoom calls and stream worship, Bruce Reyes-Chow said something like that. I don’t remember the exact quote, but the idea stuck.

Most of us replicated what we already knew. We kept the same liturgies, the same structure, the same rhythm—just moved them online.

And that makes sense. Replicating something familiar helps people find their footing in a new space.

But replication is a starting point. The deeper invitation is to reimagine.

It’s one thing to copy-and-paste Sunday morning onto a screen. It’s another to cultivate worship that is native to the space where it’s happening.

What would you create if you were starting from scratch—knowing it would live entirely on YouTube? Or Zoom? Or Substack? Or wherever people are actually gathering online?

How would you think about attention spans? About time and space? About participation? About who is showing up and why?

What new practices might emerge?
What familiar ones would remain?
What would you need to release?

These are the questions I’ve been sitting with for the past few years.

And this Lent, I’m going to start experimenting.

I’ll be creating a weekly online worship experience—some weeks pre-recorded on YouTube, other weeks live on Zoom. Different mediums. Different practices. An attempt not just to replicate what we’ve always done, but to reimagine what worship might become in digital space.

The first online worship experience is online now (for Ash Wednesday). Join us for the following weeks on Zoom or YouTube.

I’ll be sure to share more about what I learn along the way. And I would love to hear from you as you lean into what it might mean to reimagine our liturgies and worship service rather than just replicate it.