Abstract:
Every moment of crisis, throughout history, has had an impact on the churches, changing the ecclesiastical structure, theological thinking, homiletics or the way of interpreting the Scriptures. Thus, this research aims to investigate these impacts in a timeline from the New Testament period, punctuating among other crises: the Galena plague (165 AD), the Protestant Reformation (1517), the two Great Wars and, finally, the implications of covid-19, to identify proposals and solutions that allow thinking about the use of the virtual environment as a means of proclaiming the Word, as a platform for evangelization. For this, a bibliographic investigation was carried out in order to identify in the past what can be useful for the present moment, in which we discuss the communication of the Word from the Old Testament references. In the second chapter, we will deal with the homiletic style of Jesus, the apostles and the Apostolic Fathers and, in the third chapter, we will approach homiletics from the medieval period to the modern era. In the fourth chapter, preaching in the contemporary era will be worked on, and in chapter five, we will point out questions concerning the current Church. Finally, we conclude by seeking to answer the central question: To what extent have the crises experienced in the past and present led the Church to rethink its structures and what are the implications of covid-19 for the proclamation of the Word, for the structure of worship and for evangelism in the face of the growing demand for involvement in the context of cyberspace? We will also seek to respond to the following secondary questions: The hybrid format can be seen as the place where members can have the freedom to transit with the same quality of
teaching, reception and service between the face-to-face and the virtual environment, or it should be seen as a path that starts in the virtual environment, where thepossibility of interaction in a hybrid model is opened, but that definitely leads thosem who approach to the fullest experience of what it is to be a church, which can only be enjoyed in the face-to-face format? The conclusion reached is that cyberspace can be a channel for strengthening churches that seek to develop a proposal for a hybrid church, using the internet as a means to proclaim the Word, using the appropriate language for each audience in a simple and straightforward way with relevant content, stimulating the emergence of virtual evangelists, who see networks not only as a communication channel, but as a field for the development of the Church’s mission, where online links are created that flow into offline relationships.
