Adam Weber, lead pastor at Embrace and author of Love Has a Name. Photos courtesy of Embrace Church

Now, more than ever, love seems to be absent from our attitudes, words, and actions. We say we love others, but really, we don’t. Instead, we’re quick to shake our fists at drivers, judge the stranger who looks strange, and trash the person online who thinks differently than we do. Instead of loving, we hurt, belittle, and overlook people. Yet Jesus says that loving others (& God) is the most important thing. How do we do this?

Tune into Embrace online on Sunday, August 30, for week two of Love Has a Name, a three-week series about what real love looks like in the lives of real people. Join us for a message and live worship at 8:45, 10 and 11:15 a.m. at iamembrace.com/online. 

How is Embrace living into a new normal with the COVID-19 pandemic? One of the key areas that Embrace leaned into early in the COVID season, and continues to make a priority, is increasing the quality and engagement of live online services. 

The first Sunday after shifting to online-only services, Embrace launched a new online viewing platform, Church Online, in addition to continuing to live stream through Facebook and YouTube. 

In an effort to increase engagement with the growing online community, Embrace also added a four-minute live pre-service spot that includes content just for online viewers, and created a volunteer online engagement team that interacts with viewers across all three platforms during all three live services. As of August, online viewing remains Embrace’s largest “campus” and has quadrupled its online viewership since pre-COVID. 

In the absence of on-site kids programming during COVID, kids’ ministry teams from all four Embrace campuses collaborated on a weekly kids program that is posted each week to YouTube and doubles as classroom curriculum as kids and families gradually return to physical campuses.

Currently, Embrace offers nursery and early childhood programming at every service and elementary programs once per morning at all other campuses. Elementary programs will return to every service beginning August 23.