Hello, and welcome to this episode of the Worship Band Builder podcast, where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship! I’m Eric Roberts. I’m joined by my co-host, Emily Roberts.”
PROMO: Digital Guitar Pass
Learn at home! See them all here
What will it be like your first Sunday back?
When should you go back to church?
Why is social distancing awkward and how to overcome that with friends?
Reach out to your friends and let them know you are there for them
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Eric:
Welcome to this episode of the Worship Band Builder Podcast where we are working with you to lay the foundations for skillful worship. I'm Eric Roberts and I'm joined by my cohost, Emily Roberts. Hello, you ever hilarious comedian? That's what she thinks. Comedian all day and night. I couldn't even get this episode started cause she's cracking
Eric:
good jokes the whole time. All right, but you know we're talking today. We're going to tell you the topic in a minute. Before we do that, let's talk about the digital
Emily:
do that. That is not entirely true. There were all kinds of interruptions and it had nothing to do with me making jokes.
Eric:
She was watching Netflix all morning and I couldn't get her to get in here and get the podcast. Well, if you want the digital guitar pass, then you can get it right now and it's really important because you're probably stuck at home. Why does that make it important? Because you don't want to sit at home and watch Netflix for the next, you know, month you could do the digital guitar pass
Emily:
I mean you could, you could catch up on all your binge-watching. You've probably already done that.
Eric:
I've been watching a lot of Netflix and uh,
Emily:
one of our friends put out a plea on Facebook the other day saying, please, I've watched everything there is to watch. Give me more suggestions.
Eric:
I don't think so. I could give her some suggestions. I won't do it on the podcast though because I don't want people to get offended by my suggestions. But um, anyway, you could, I would suggest that you get the digital guitar pass and actually the new guitar passes or the new digital passes for individuals are like drums, bass, guitar. We have one for all of those and don't have to pick guitar, right? Just go online, worship band builder.com or worship the king.com and click on digital guitar passes or digital. I keep saying guitar passes, whatever. Click on digital passes because then you can, you know,
Emily:
digital passes and really, you know, what else do you have to do right now? That's the problem I think with learning an instrument is always that you're too busy. Everything comes ahead of, man, I really wish I could learn to play guitar. Maybe someday I really want to play the bass or the drums or the piano or whatever. But we always have all this other stuff to do. Well for a few more weeks here. While we don't have so much else to do, it would be ideal.
Eric:
Yeah. Well we're in Tennessee and our governor, we're talking today about, well, the title today is gearing up to go back to church after covert 19. So our, you know, we're going to talk about that. Uh, our governor is being really one of the more conservative governors. He's letting us go back to society May 1st, but there's going to be like this rollout, so, you know, 15, 14 days of this and then phase two and phase three and every state's going to be a little different. But in our state where we were one of the last ones to be locked down and we're going to be one of the first ones to be unlocked. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for that. So, um, Ohio where our other hometown is, and all of our friends, they're really locked down and they're tight. Yeah. I mean, it's like they won't even let anybody, they want to put masks on people and do all this stuff.
Eric:
And that's fine. I've got a whole nother political channel for that. This is not about politics. Save that for later. I'll save that for my other project. But you know, like, um, at least when you're locked down you can play the guitar and you can learn it in instrument, drums, whatever, whatever. Because we are going to go back to church some point, hopefully someday. So what will it be like? This is some of the questions I have for today's conversation will be, what will it be like your first Sunday back and we'll talk about maybe our first Sunday back cause
Emily:
well, I hope that it is a joyous occasion. I hope that everybody just comes back and we smile and we shake hands and we give hugs and it's just, um, a day to celebrate being together.
Eric:
Yeah. I mean that's pretty optimistic. That's like pie in the sky. I mean, cockeyed optimist. Yeah. You could like hug everybody and then they'll say like, sit down. No hugging. I wonder, I wonder if, uh, I don't know who they would be. Anybody who's crazy about non hugging, non hugging. But you know my uncle Ron. Yeah. Uncle Ron will be like sit down. No hugging. This is uh, you know, this is interesting because some people are like me are really not interested in locking down and wearing masks and doing all the social distancing. I don't like it. And you know, I've been pretty good.
Emily:
Anybody like it? The mean maybe plus some of us introverts, maybe it's, it's kinda not, not so bad.
Eric:
Yeah. I mean I don't think I have, there are some great things that have come from covert lockdown and you know, just different things I've seen. And one of them is we have a lot more free time and people, I've seen a lot of dads at the parks and a lot of families at the parks. A lot of walking kids special. Yeah. Kids probably love it.
Emily:
I've seen dogs going for walks with their owners lately that probably haven't seen the light of day in five years. Dogs take your pick. I, I see people going up and down the street and I'm like, Hey, I didn't even know we had these neighbors and these dogs in our neighborhood. I don't think they're all new here, but they're all new to the water.
Eric:
I know. I think it's funny because we, in the beginning of this, I would see all our neighbors walking in their pajamas, like full families, like five people in their pajamas just taking a walk. I mean it's like, it's like
Emily:
that is a weird thing about this sheltering in place is that it really deflates your ambition to put on clothes. Yeah. I know. I've been wearing
Eric:
a hat for like two weeks. I know. If you guys have been watching the podcast, you'll notice my hat came on and then I've just been on. It's like, you know, but I had a bad hair haircut, so that's,
Emily:
yeah, you got to grow out the bad haircut. That's another good thing about covert is nobody's watching you grow out your bad haircut.
Eric:
Yeah. I was wondering today I tried to do my hair today. I was like, I bet. See if it still didn't look great. So I'm going to keep the hat on and I'm just going to keep it on. And uh, you know, so I'm in pajamas, my hat, just walking around the house on a shirt with buttons today I put on a shirt with buttons and it looks, yeah, this is, this is great. I'm still wearing shorts though. Um, so when we go back on Sunday, like I was talking to our, our pastor and our team and they were, I'm not sure exactly what they were doing, but a couple of weeks ago they were like, Oh well we'll probably be phasing back because there'll be like, you know, and he was right because now that I see it coming, it's a phased return. So he was talking about different ways of coming back and like having multiple services with less people. And we're a smaller church so we can get away with that. But I was talking to a church girl who's a church of 800 there's no way they can come back in groups of 50 they would be having like 14 services or 20 services.
Emily:
True. But they should have a bigger building where they could spread people out more. Right?
Eric:
Yeah. And I think, I think that some of these new comeback methods are, uh, capacity related. So 50% capacity. Uh, so if your building holds 800 then, or a thousand, then you could technically maybe have a group of 500. So even in our church art capacities, probably 200, 300. So maybe we can, maybe we'll only have to have two services. I don't know. So what it's going to be like, it will be weird because everybody's been acting really strange. Like they won't get near you. They're wearing these masks. They all look like they're all, like, it's just strange. So hopefully, um, it'll be normal. But when I go in people's houses and, and to work on their pianos or to whatever, while I'm working, they, they're normal and they're like, you know, we don't get it. We're ready to get out of the house. So people are probably gonna want to go back. The last good thing about the lockdown is the traffic. I mean like there's, I love this traffic. This is like, it's almost like Ohio traffic in Nashville.
Emily:
Yeah. You're, you're starting to get spoiled aren't you? Yeah.
Eric:
Cause I can go anywhere, anytime. And so maybe everybody else should just stay home.
Emily:
I used to think Cincinnati was bad before we moved here and now Cincinnati makes me laugh. This isn't nothing.
Eric:
It's nothing like that. So. Okay. What will it be like, we know it's going to be probably some different kind of things and we're doing this online thing. Uh, when should you go back to church? When should you go? When are you
Emily:
as soon as humanly possible.
Eric:
Okay. She's on it. She's ready to go back. And I think I, I am too ready to pretty much just as soon as they opened church, I'll probably go back. Um,
Emily:
I'm sure that there are some people who will be more cautious, you know, if, if you're more susceptible to illness for whatever reason, you're probably going to be a little more careful. But it sounds like, at least in the Tennessee, uh, phase back into, um, what do you call that? Interacting real life. Um, yeah. American freedom. American freedom. Um, so, and it sounds to me like, like church may not come still for what, several weeks, right?
Eric:
Yeah, you're right because it said, um, that entertainment venues were closed until like phase three, so that could be gym. So it could be another four weeks.
Emily:
I'm just not clear. If church falls under the heading of entertainment venue, are they just referring to places where larger groups of people meet when they say entertainment venue? I don't know. That's,
Eric:
and technically to be real technical churches actually aren't even involved in the shutdown. I don't think that they, I mean some of the state governors tried to like arrest pastors or do some weird Willy nilly stuff. Uh, but technically they, they almost rolled every one of those back to yeah, you, you w we can't stop you from having church. So I think that the churches are going to have to, you know, take the responsibility, do their own thing. Cause I don't, I don't think that the government is going to, the churches weren't listed on that paper and they probably were, weren't listed on purpose because they're not technically in most States, even by constitution lockdown. I wish I knew who to ask. Well, Walmart's not locked, I mean essential services. So go back to church when you want to. I mean you're, you're only going to go back as soon as your pastors and deacons
Emily:
go back today and you might be disappointed.
Eric:
Yeah, go back when you want to when they say you want to. But if you're older or if you, you know, if you're feeling, um, any, anything, if you've had cancer or if you've had any immune problems, then you know, I would, I would personally be waiting because most of these churches are now onto the live stream. So you can, you can do that. I think that some people are going back to church.
Emily:
Maybe we, maybe we could count that as another positive for the shelter in place is that churches that initially were not doing their services online have started doing that and offering that to people who were sheltering in place before sheltering in place was a thing there. We do have people in, in every congregation that just can't make it to church every Sunday.
Eric:
Yeah, we did. We didn't have a live stream until now and now we have a pretty good one and it's gotten better. It's evolved. It was, you know, it was like the first week it was past her just on his iPhone, I think, and on his computer. And then now we're doing a full band with all the mix. We're doing a live mix. Um, this week I'm playing with my friend Adam's, which I need to practice. He's up in Michigan. I don't know Adam, I don't know where you went. He's somewhere. But anyway, I'm gonna play, I got to get the electric guitars down. I haven't even practiced yet. So I'm in Trump's might've been the last minute. Yeah, I think he's in, I don't know. I, it might be enough.
Emily:
We'll figure it out. But it's really cool that you can actually do that.
Eric:
Yeah. So we're going to, we're going to play, I'm going to play the guitar. It's so there's been some cool stuff to happen and um, and you should go back when you're ready. I would say I would have never shut down church, but you know, then again I probably would have just been cautious but I'm 42 healthy, you know, very low probability of getting any coven by all the statistics. So you know, but I wouldn't tell your grandmother to go to church right now. All right, let's move on. Why is social distancing awkward and how are you going to overcome it with your friends? Why is because I have a feeling that when we get back together, there's still people that feel like there's a six foot social distancing and depending on what state you're in, I mean there are, some of them were like, yes, for 18 months we're going to wear masks and stuff. And so I think it's all awkward.
Emily:
It is. It's very awkward and it's a little bit random because I, I'm not sure why six feet was the chosen number. Cause I think if I, if I stand six feet from you and, and I sneeze or cough, you know, I mean what's, what's stopping it? Is there, is there a line at six feet where, where all the germs just drop, you know, 20 feet into there. But it has caused us, this social distancing has caused us to feel somewhat uncomfortable around other people. We're starting to look at other people as hazards or dangers rather than as human beings. And um, I don't know how easy it's going to be to just drop that when it comes time to start interacting socially again.
Eric:
Yeah. I'm just not sure when I meet with people, I was at worship practice the other day. I wasn't sure like who believes in this, who's really into social distancing and then who like wants a hug and everybody's kind of acting weird and it's already awkward. You know, in social settings when you, when you're in mixed group of family and friends and church people, you're just not sure. You know, you're not sure, like who am I going to hug and who's going to shake my hand and who's going to,
Emily:
well, that is true. That's, that's kind of a question. You, when you first meet people, like you find out pretty quick. Oh, they're a hugger. Good. I'm a hugger too. Yeah. You know, or Oh no, they don't do that. They don't even shake hands.
Eric:
Maybe I should just get a tee shirt that says I'm a hugger.
Emily:
Yes.
Eric:
That's the shirt that we need to have. D AKI had one.
Emily:
What he did when he was little, or actually he still had it until he might still have it. He was wearing it. Even just couple months ago. I had
Eric:
an active place. I'm a hugger octopus. Well, I'm not, I'm going to make some shirts. I've made some shirts I want to make, I'm a hugger and I'm going to make some other funny ones to, um, to go along with the covert crisis. Yeah. And, alright, so why is it awkward? I don't know. I guess we're just going to have to, I feel like for me at least, I've been pretty vocal about my beliefs on the Kobe thing and the lockdown and the American freedom. I think as I've met people in person, I've just been telling them I don't believe in social distancing or I'm, you know, and they're like, Oh yeah, you needed a why? Like let's just not be weird about this. Or, or if they're like, well, yeah, but I'm a little nervous, then you're like, okay, I get it. So I think it's going to have to be somewhat, um, a social, I don't know how, it's like a politeness or a social conversation.
Eric:
Like some people are just going to come out and say, I'm not wearing a mask and I don't care. I don't believe in this. I'm okay. Other people are going to wear masks and they're going to feel awkward. You know, it's going to, they're going to feel nervous and we got to let those people, I mean, let them have their moment of just, you know, let them be, if they want to be that way, to be understanding. That's what I'm saying. Not like they're wrong. I'm just saying let them be cause if you want to wear a mask, I have nothing against any of that. I just don't personally won't wear one right now. I mean if everybody was hacking and coughing at church, I would probably wear one. I've been in a lot of situations at my other work. You had a mask and I have these really good masks that I use for work sometimes.
Eric:
So sometimes I put them on just just because I get nervous around. Not at night. Not in public, no, not in public, but like when I'm, when I'm working in piano and I would go into a house if it kind of smells like cats or something, I put mask on for like allergies or if I mow the grass sometimes. Right. So I understand if you want to wear a mask that's fine, but just don't wear one around me. Just kidding. I'll probably just because I like to be a button pusher, I'll probably just make fun of people that wear masks because that's helped them overcome their fears. I'll come up with maybe like, like a, we could come up and like grab their mask and pull it and let it go. Snap it off. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So last thing is on this whole thing, reach out to your friends and let them know you're there for them. And we've had to do a little bit of that. We've had to do a little bit of reaching out, talking, texting, just because one thing I've noticed, and we're going to talk about this in our podcast next week, is how, you know how we've missed church, but I've noticed a lot of isolation and everybody's going through it and it's changed what it does to your mind, isn't it? It
Emily:
does. Sort of like, even though you have your phone, you can always call anybody. You can face time, you can send letters, you can even go to someone's house and stand six feet from them if you want to. But we don't, we have this weird shelter in place, a kind of brain fog that, that we're not reaching out to each other maybe like we should right now.
Eric:
Yeah. Zooms are getting kinda eh,
Emily:
especially for our single friends and our older friends and family. Um, I don't, you know, this is, this is hard on, on the grandmas and grandpas that are almost imprisoned in their, in their residences because it's not safe for them to go out. Now. We, we really need to make those extra phone calls, put the cards in the mail, whatever you can do.
Eric:
Yeah. Cause we can't even visit our grandmother and her in her assisted living. I mean she lives in Ohio, but it's not assisted living, but it's like, yeah, it's like a
Emily:
senior community
Eric:
senior community. Right? Yeah. It's not, I guess it's, they have different levels, but hers is just basically an apartment complex for older. Okay. So even that, we're not even allowed to go in there and she's supposedly not allowed to leave.
Emily:
She can leave, she can leave, but she's not allowed to visit with her neighbors right now,
Eric:
which is weird and maybe good because that's, that's sort of the population that, that is vulnerable to any, any covert that might actually be around if there is any in that area. So. Alright. That's it for today. Uh, just remember, we do have the digital pass. If you're sitting at home going, man, I don't know what to do. I've watched enough Netflix. Get on there, worship band builder, worship the King, and check out one of the individual digital passes. And if you liked this episode, which was so very enlightening, just make sure, yes, it was the best words of wisdom, words of just a share it like it. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and let us know what you want us to talk about next time.