AN EVER WIDER REACH - by Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor

Dear Old South Church IN BOSTON, Wherever You Are:

Ten years ago, looking at it from one perspective, you could say that Old South Church was divided into two communities: those who communicated on-line and those who did not.

In the 21st century a lot can happen in ten years. Today, Old South Church is unevenly divided among those whose PRIMARY or PREFERRED means of communication are all over the place: from texting to Facebook, from Instagram to Twitter, from instant messaging to email, including those who still prefer land-lines and the US Post.

Moreover-and without ever intending it-today Old South Church in Boston is EXCLUSIVELY accessed and experienced on-line by an increasing number of people. Our sermons and services are heard around the world. Our Web page and Email Forum, along with our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts are followed from every corner of God's good Earth.

For a church of our size, our social media platforms and content are, in a word, AWESOME. Punching above our weight class, we are reaching an outsized audience from across this continent and around the world. Precisely because our on-line infrastructure is so good, our ministries to a hurting world went VIRAL with the Marathon Scarf Project; then again with my prayer posted in the aftermath of the racially motived, mass killings in Mother Emanuel (Charleston SC); and, just days ago Old South Church was lavishly featured in Momastery's blog which has earned a massive on-line following. In case you missed it: http://momastery.com/blog/2015/08/26/just-show-up/

When Rev Frank Schaffer (a Methodist minister defrocked for officiating at his gay son's wedding) spoke from our pulpit two years ago, he said this: Old South Church is the Promised Land: a land of milk and honey for LGBTQ and gender non-conforming folk. These are people for whom judgment and hatred, rejection and spiritual abuse are a matter of life and death. What they experience through THIS church's social media can be the difference for them between an intentional overdose and the encouragement to keep on. For those who have heard only merciless judgment from Christian preachers, pundits and pulpits (and there are a great many such people), the Good News emanating from Old South Church is milk and honey.

Your Communications Committee and staff are committed to evolving, growing and providing substantive on-line content through all of our platforms. We don't expect everyone to access ALL of our platforms (any more than we expect everyone to worship at ALL of our five worship services) . However, there is no denying the power and force of our social media platforms. They are reaching an ever expanding, non-geographic, congregation.

Let's call these people Distance-Yearners. I have come to know some of these Distance-Yearners, but only through on-line exchanges. They ache for a church like ours, but have no physical access to one. They can't travel to this Promised Land, but with the aid of social media they can taste of its milk and honey. Today, even across the yawning distances of oceans and continents, these Distance-Yearners can know comfort, companionship and healing.

Perhaps someday, a church such as this will spring up in their village in India, or in their backwater town in Alabama. Until then our social media platforms will continue to reach around the world, bearing witness to God's Wide and Amazing Grace, proclaiming Christ's peace to these who are a far off: these often anonymous but very engaged, sometimes desperate, Distance-Yearners.

Our name is Old South Church IN BOSTON and it is unlikely that we will soon forego gathering and worshipping at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Streets at Copley Square. Yet the Good News that we shout from the Mountain Top of a Generous Christianity (Progressive Christianity, if you prefer) is no respecter of borders. Powered by the extraordinary phenomenon of social media, the Good News of God's expansive love reaches unto Nebraska and Alaska, unto Uganda and Argentina, and even unto the ends of God's earth.

Profound thanks to the members of our Communications Committee (the majority of whom are in their 20s) who enable Old South Church in Boston to shout God's Good News through our social media platforms: Chris Breen, Jackie Geilfuss, Brian Fluharty, Amy Perry, William Wei, Corey Spence, David Albaugh and Jim Hood. They are a Dream Team. And, I dare say, they are saving lives with this ministry.

Dear Old South Church IN BOSTON, Wherever You Are: You are Welcome Here.