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When God Closes a Church Door,
He Opens a Browser Window
There will be empty churches around the world
on Palm Sunday.
Pastors like Troy Dobbs at Grace Church in Eden Prairie,
Minnesota, preached to empty sanctuaries as church
services moved online. Image: Adam Bettcher /
Getty Images
Bobby Gruenewald and his team at Life.Church
developed the popular YouVersion Bible app as
well as the Church Online Platform, which was
used to stream worship to more than 4.7 million
devices last weekend, quadruple its typical reach.
(Update: The weekend after this story was
published, March 21-22, total attendance rose to
7 million.)
.....Gruenewald said when they built Church Online
14 years ago, they imagined it would help tech-
savvy churches get their messages to a new
crowd, allow services to go on in the aftermath
of natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes,
and provide a way for Christians to gather in places
where their activities are restricted.
.....“But we didn’t anticipate a time where in our
country nearly every church’s doors are closed.
That was unthinkable,” Gruenewald said. “It’s like
there’s an ark being built, and we didn’t know it
would rain.”
(Palm Sunday message from 2019…one year ago
but the message is true for today)
"The Lord Needs It,"
a Sermon for Palm Sunday, (2019)
Easter rolls around once every year, but so does
Palm Sunday. How does a preacher keep those
stories fresh and relevant for his or her
congregation? By combing through familiar
texts in search of something that stands out
in a new way. For Jim Somerville, Pastor of
Richmond’s First Baptist Church, the thing
that stood out in this year’s perusal of the
Palm Sunday story from Luke 19:28-40 was
the idea that Jesus needed a donkey. When
Jesus sends the disciples to fetch one he says,
“If anyone asks tell them that the Lord needs it.”
But why would the Lord need a donkey? And
what else might the Lord need that we haven’t
considered?
Jesus Entering Jerusalem on a Donkey
