Church members dial in for fellowship

Key Points:

• Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, provides Sunday worship service through the church’s conference phone line so participants who can’t attend in person can stay connected.
• The dial-up service has been most helpful to those who have physical ailments or geographic limitations that prevent them from attending worship in person.
• Church member Tina Boone coordinates the calls. She goes beyond simply making sure the technology works, providing a time of fellowship for her callers.

COVID-19 ushered in lots of change in the world, and churches had to adapt. One change at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church is now an integral part of the church’s ministry.

Tina Boone joins in prayer with callers on the phone and the congregation in the sanctuary at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., while hosting dial-in worship for remote participants who don’t have access to the church’s Facebook livestream. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

During the pandemic, Gordon Memorial regularly hosted worship services through Zoom and Facebook Live, but the church’s pastor, the Rev. Paula B. Smith, noticed that there was still a void needing to be filled as some members didn’t have access to the online platforms.

This led church member Tina Boone to set up Sunday worship service through the church’s conference phone line. Members could dial in and hear the entire service through their telephone.

Tina Boone stands to join in singing the opening hymn, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” from her post in a conference room at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn. She uses her cell phone, connected to the church’s conference line, to share audio from the Facebook livestream of worship and to help callers understand what’s happening on the video feed, which they can’t see. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Even after the return of in-person Sunday service, the church continued providing phone-in services on a weekly basis, which Boone said she appreciates.

“COVID did a number on a lot of people and we saw it unfold, so still having the conference call line for service is a great thing for those who physically can’t get to church to still fellowship,” she said. “That’s been the beauty out of COVID: It taught us that you don’t only have to go into church. You can worship in other ways and still be OK with that.”

Boone said since beginning in 2020, she’s had as many as eight callers on the line, but most weeks that number is anywhere from two to six or seven.   

Tina Boone makes notes on her copy of the order of worship while hosting dial-in worship at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

For church member Anita Edmondson, the conference phone line has been a blessing.

“I don’t have Zoom or Facebook, but I do have a phone.” she said. “I would like to go back into the church, but I no longer go into crowds due to COVID and I don’t move around as good as I used to. It’s now too challenging of a walk from the parking lot into the church for me.”

Edmondson said the commitment of Boone and the church to provide Sunday service to members who can no longer physically attend allows them to maintain a relationship with their church community.

“If they didn’t bring in service through the conference phone line, I wouldn’t know what was going on up there,” she said.

Tina Boone smiles while hosting dial-in worship at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn. The COVID-19 pandemic “taught us that you don’t only have to go into church. You can worship in other ways and still be OK with that,” she said. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Boone takes her role seriously, going beyond simply making sure the technology works. She cares about her regulars who join the conference call and she welcomes each one by name.

She starts the call early at the church before the worship service begins, so that folks on the line can visit with her and with one another for a few minutes, much as they might if they were attending in person.

“It’s a moment of fellowship. They’ll come on and they’ll catch up and they’ll talk to each other. That just makes me happy,” Boone said.

She asks the group for prayer concerns and then tailors a prayer for her callers before the regular service starts.

Once worship is underway, Boone sets the phone next to her computer, which is playing Facebook Live. She plays the sound through a Bluetooth speaker.

Boone monitors the livestream so that she can participate as part of the congregation. She prays when the congregation prays, stands and sings the hymns and takes communion, all while monitoring the audio for the conference call.

“I try to make it as comfortable for them as possible, because they are just listening, so that they can feel what’s going on,” Boone said.

On a recent Sunday, the Facebook stream dropped offline a couple of times and Boone told her callers what was happening, alerted the tech person in the sanctuary and then rolled the Facebook recording back as far as it would go once the livestream was restored. She summarized for the callers what they had missed.

The reach of the church’s conference phone line extends past city and state boundaries as well. For church member Brenda Clark, who now lives in Michigan, the conference phone line has served as a link to her beloved church from afar.

“I was using the conference phone line for service back when I was still in Tennessee and I thought, ‘Oh, how great. I can still listen to the service now that I’m living somewhere else,’” she said. “I hope they keep it going.”

Boone said she doesn’t have any plans to stop the dial-in service.

“I feel like if there is one or two people that it’s making a difference with, it’s worth making the effort,” she said. “I feel like it’s a blessing, like it’s my ministry.”

Jordan is a freelance reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. He helps with Gordon Memorial’s Sunday conference calls when Boone is not available. Photojournalist Mike DuBose contributed to this report.

News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.  

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