When the Stream Broke and the Spirit Didn’t: A GA Reflection
Fifty-one Nebraska Disciples gathered for the inaugural digital General Assembly last weekend — some together at FCC Grand Island, SouthPoint in Lincoln, and FCC Omaha, others from their own living rooms and devices, wherever home happened to be. For most of them, this was their very first General Assembly. Over 2,400 people registered across the whole church, and we were part of something historic: a different way of gathering around the table.
The stream started right on time Friday evening. That was the good news. Almost immediately, though, the sound dropped out, the video started jumping, and the tell-tale stutter of latency issues crept in. It felt, for a few long minutes, like the whole thing might be toast. The tech team made a call. Rather than patch and troubleshoot in front of everybody, they stopped the stream entirely and rebuilt it from scratch, live, while we all waited.
Here’s the thing about Disciples, though. Give us an open chat window and a little dead air, and we will find each other.
What began as a few understandable groans of frustration turned into something I can only describe as revival-adjacent within about ten minutes. Friends tagged friends. Someone dropped some Disciples history facts nobody asked for but everybody needed. Prayers stacked up for the tech team, by name. A game of Marco Polo broke out. Then someone began the wave. An actual stadium wave. In the chat box. For a broadcast that wasn’t broadcasting.
What I saw in that chat is what I cherish about this denomination — that we are in covenant with each other and this weekend was my reminder. Humor showed up. Patience showed up. Grace showed up wearing its Friday night clothes. By the time the stream came back, we were already church together.
The worship was full and honest. The voices in the pulpit and at the podium reflected more of the whole Body than I think I’ve ever seen at a General Assembly — different regions, different generations, different accents (yes, I noticed the accents, y’all know I would). The teaching was substantive without being dry, and the preaching didn’t flinch. We wrestled — really wrestled — with what Scripture and our particular tradition require of us when it comes to economic justice: as a core question of discipleship. What does it mean for a people shaped by table and covenant to actually pursue economic justice, not just admire it from a safe distance?
That question followed me home. I suspect it followed a lot of you home too.
So here’s what I keep coming back to. The technical failure and the theological depth of this GA are the same story. A people who can turn a broken livestream into an act of communal grace are exactly the people equipped to sit with something as hard and as holy as economic justice, without looking away. We already proved, on Friday night, that we know how to stay present with each other when things fall apart. We are the church we say we are.
Thank you, Nebraska Disciples, for showing up — from three sites and from your own living rooms, one Spirit, fifty-one strong, so many of you experiencing your first General Assembly. And thank you for reminding a tech team, a General Assembly of over 2,400 people, and honestly your Regional Minister, that grace holds even when everything else buffers.
Grace and peace,
Robin