It is our practice in this online congregation to encourage each participant to indicate their chosen level of participation annually. In this way, we allow participants the flexibility to come and go, and we celebrate those who intentionally and actively choose to be on this journey of faith together year by year.  You are invited to indicate your desire to participate with Living Stream COB for the remainder of this year by completing the following online form: Living Stream Participation for 2025.

Since different people’s participation takes different shapes, we invite each person to choose the level of participation to which they feel called. We’ve defined four broad participation levels — Viewer, Friend, Associate Member, and Member.  The four participation levels are fully outlined on our Participation Page.  If you’d like to discuss your participation more before you complete the form, or if you wish to be more involved, feel free to contact our pastors directly–we’ll be glad to be in conversation with you!

Thank you for your participation in the Living Stream Church of the Brethren this year!

FINDING and POSTING CHATS:

We encourage all participants in worship to join us in chatting during worship! First of all, please let us know your name and from where you are joining us, so that we may greet you; and second, because our worship services are interactive, and we’d like each person to take part!

Chat with Vimeo is pretty easy. When you first load the video page, on the right you’ll be asked to “Share your name to join”… just type your name in the Name box, then just click “Join audience” (no need to log in or create an account!). The join sidebar then closes… but just click the Chat symbol at the upper right corner of the video page, and the chat sidebar will open up for you. To post your chat, look for the box at the bottom that says “Send a message” (you may need to scroll to the bottom of the page to see that, depending on your own computer’s screen settings). Just type into that box, and either hit or click the up-arrow there to post.

We’ve seen it happen once or twice that the chat will not accept your posts. In that case, just refresh your browser page (or close it and come right back in)… and generally that will fix the problem.

IF THE STREAM STUTTERS:

Most often, a stream that lags, buffers, or stops and restarts is due to a lack of bandwidth or computer resources on the viewing end (your end).  You can often eliminate streaming problems by reducing the quality of the stream, which saves both bandwidth and computing power.  Do this by clicking on the bandwidth control at the lower right corner of the video window (if available… it is just to the right of the full screen icon, and looks like cell bars or a gear wheel… and only shows up if the stream is at higher quality ). Choosing a lower option, such as 260p, resolves streaming issues for most computers.

IF THE STREAM DROPS/CRASHES:

We’ve occasionally had difficulty with the stream dropping during worship. If this happens, almost invariably there will be a small circling graphic over a blank video screen, like it is trying to reload the stream.  If this happens, the chat may be active for a short time longer, then all will stop.  To reconnect with worship, click the refresh button on your internet browser (it usually looks like a circling arrow), or simply close the window and come back to the worship page again.  You may need to do this more than once… just repeat until you get the stream again.  Please remember to do this after a crash so that we will all be able to continue in worship together.

VOLUME SETTINGS:

The Vimeo playback window has its own volume control, so if you are having trouble hearing, be sure that everything is turned up not just on your own computer, but also within the video.  To check this, during the playback of any video (live or recorded) on Vimeo, move your mouse to the volume control (bottom left of video), and make sure that the slider is all the way up…!

Additionally… laptop speakers are often fairly poor at voice reproduction. Using  a set of external speakers, or simply using earbuds, can make a very positive difference in hearing and understanding.  (If you are having trouble hearing, it is worth a try!) If you are having trouble hearing, you may also post a chat letting our pastors know, so if there is a problem they can often fix it on the fly!