In a pre-pandemic world, when people mentioned attending worship, I assumed they were speaking of an in-person experience.
This assumption in no way minimizes the many ways in my lifetime people have heard and/or seen services of worship without being physically present – from the days of audio cassette tapes to the more recent options of livestreaming. I was taught that these supplemental approaches worked well for niche audiences, such as those who were homebound, ill, or traveling. Since the goal was to record the in-person experience for someone to experience elsewhere the emphasis was on the in-person experience thereby further reinforcing its primacy.
Evolution of Online Worship
It is beyond the scope of this blog post to consider the many ways in which online worship has evolved. I think, however, it is important to note that many congregations engaged in strategic planning and action in this area for the first time during the pandemic. Creating content exclusively or even primarily for the online experience of worship continues to become more common, but at this stage is primarily offered by very large congregations. As smaller congregations who learned to think about online as primary when in-person wasn’t possible have shifted back to in-person as primary, many have devoted their limited resources primarily to the in-person experience.
Returning In-Person: Plateaued
In an article titled “More houses of worship are returning to normal operations, but in-person attendance is unchanged since fall,” Justin Nortey unpacks the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey, which was conducted in early March 2022.
Some of the findings include
- The percentage of congregations fully open and offering their worship experience in the way they did prior to the pandemic has continued to increase (growing from 6% in July 2020 to 12% in March 2021 then increasing to 29% in September 2021 and to 43% in March 2022)
- The return of worshippers to the in-person worship experience increased until September 2021 then plateaued
- As many as 1 in 5 (21%) of worshippers may still be substituting online worship for in-person (perhaps some in this group have permanently transitioned away from in-person)
- All groups have not experienced the return to in-person worship equally. For example, Mainline Protestants – a group who was more likely to have closed and to still have in place safety protocols – was unique to have continued growth in the return to in-person attendance from the outset of tracking to present (growing from 56% in September 2021 to 68% in March 2022).
So What?
It is too early to know for sure how the pandemic has changed people’s views about in-person worship, and how such changes will impact their behavior.
As I consider my own experience, I recognize how my views have evolved over time and as I’ve learned more about how those I know have responded. And, I now see that taking a full year off from in-person worship has actually led me to value the lived experience of in-person worship more deeply.
In March 2021 – 1 year into the pandemic – I wrote “Giving Up Worship in Indoor Sacred Spaces,” which included several assumptions
- “When it is again safe for people to gather indoors to worship together, I imagine many people will opt to do so. And, I also know that many who have not stepped foot in a church in a year or more will either not return or will not return as often.”
- “Indoor as primary will be replaced by hybrid as normative.”
- “Changes will occur more often and be implemented more rapidly.”
In 2021, I gradually returned to in-person worship (even stretching the definition of that term)
- January – first in-person service featured participants remaining in their vehicles for a parking lot service (see “New Year, New Worship Experience“)
- March – “First In Person Worship Experience in a Year” (Outdoor)
- March – “First Indoor Worship Service in a Year”
- April – “Reopening for In Person Worship: 5 Congregations”
- April – “Pandemic Regathering: 8 Experiences”
- June – “My “Next Normal” Communion Experience” (first time to receive communion in-person directly from a pastor or priest)
- July – “My First Complete In Person Worship Experience”
- October – “Pandemic Worship: 10 Sacred Spaces” (the first ten congregations I attended worship with during the pandemic)
It was not until 2022 that I attended worship without the use of social distancing and/or masking. And, even as congregations I know best have transitioned from requiring to recommending masks and begun to return to passing the peace and more interactive and interpersonal communion experiences most have not yet found a stable next normal.
In-person worship will remain a vital component of the life of most congregations for the foreseeable future. Who will attend, and how often is unknown but likely to be less than in a pre-pandemic world. Whether the pandemic will contribute to accelerating the decline in worship attendance that was already well underway or not is still to be determined.
Questions for Conversation
- When did your congregation return to in-person worship?
- How does your congregation’s in-person experience differ today from what was offered in a pre-pandemic world?
- How has your own attendance pattern changed over the last few years (overall, in-person, online)?
- How has your view of in-person worship been changed, challenged, or transformed during the pandemic?
- Under what circumstances are you likely to choose online worship over in-person?