What is it like post-pandemic for mid-sized churches?
Post-pandemic musings from a pastor trying not to be anxious
I’m catching snippets here and there of the authentic struggle in mid-sized church life these days. One pastor friend in Detroit said simply, “We are tired.”
A friend in South Carolina said, “Our volunteer leadership structure fell apart during the no gathering phase.”
We do have some limited statistics at this point. We know that worship attendance nationally in person is about 75% of what it was pre-pandemic. We know that around 15% of regular church-goers pre-pandemic walked away and don’t plan to come back.1
We also know that in 2000 the median worship attendance in churches in the US was 137 and in 2020 it’s 65. In other words, below the surface of any pandemic impacts, church participation and worship life has been seeing significant decline for decades in the US.2
That’s basically a free fall in church participation, and it’s not going to let up.
Here’s my confession as a pastor: the winter of 2021 and spring of 2022 I honestly had this up-and-down feeling of “maybe they’ll all come back.” And we had some limited signals they might: we had a big outdoor bonfire service for Christmas Eve and great attendance at Easter.
But nevertheless our average weekly attendance is around 75% of what it was pre-pandemic, and additionally, those who are attending are maybe around 60% new people. Which confirms what I heard a church analyst say recently, sooner or later church leaders are going to realize current attendance is the new normal attendance, and you have a new church.
This is your new church.
Now, I still do hold out hope that some of what we are seeing is the impact of the continuation of the pandemic into 2022. The virus keeps ramping back up and morphing, and also the trauma of the last two years is still being lived in the body of everyone, which has an impact.
But we are now at this new stage: long-time active church-goers dropped out of the habit and haven’t returned, while new church members who didn’t have as much of a regular worship attendance habit joined, so now that church is back in person you have many active members who aren’t regular church-goers. That’s kind of new.
I write all of this not because I’m a church attendance guru (I’m not), and not because I have any kind of prophetic wisdom at this point (I don’t), but primarily because I’ve felt a little alone not knowing if this shared low-key anxiety about church attendance/participation and church volunteerism is just me or if it’s a wider sociological pattern post-pandemic. If you’ve got insights or testimonials please share them in the comments. I’d love to hear how everyone is doing.
Nevertheless, I do have some basic theses I offer up, things I’d like to see happen in 2022. They’re just dreams of what might happen in our church and others.
I do wish young families who joined the church during the pandemic would discover with us that presence and participation is crucial to forming their children in progressive Christian values. You connected here because of shared values. Your children will learn those values better with you if you’re here.
As a pastoral leader I need to wake up every morning and repeat to myself the non-anxious mantra, “Small is good, small is all (the large is a reflection of the small).” There is always enough time for the right work with the right people. There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have.
Recovery takes at least as long as the disaster. The pandemic started in March of 2020. We still need to take things at the pace of recovery at least until 2024.
On the other hand, we are in a crucial moment in our nation, and we need all our progressive organizing communities ready and organized. If we aren’t active and organized we will likely acquiesce to authoritarianism, which will adversely and severely effect progressive communities and those they care about.
It takes a village. It can’t be just me or our small staff. Mid-sized churches rely on the leadership of the community as a whole. That’s their beauty and strength.
Things are going to remain unpredictable. The lessons we learned as a highly nimble community are good ones. We can keep being flexible.
We’re in a blue ocean. We’re drawing younger people and families with kids, a co-hort who other than connecting with us are increasingly not connected to communities of faith. This is an opportunity and also a challenge.
We’ve got a great mission. Trust God to draw the right people (and pets and all of creation) into sharing and strengthening it.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/march/return-to-church-plateau-in-person-virtual-pew-research.html
https://careynieuwhof.com/12-disruptive-church-trends-that-will-rule-2022-and-the-post-pandemic-era/
As always Pastor Clint, well written and much food for thought. I am one of the group who worshipped regularly at our church in Denver, but thanks to the pandemic, I have not been a regular at Good Shepherd, due to weather, having out of town company and being able to attend Zoom service from Christ The King, in Denver. Hope to do better this summer.
Thank you Brandyn for proving exactly what
I envision. GSLC Is the reality of the potential.