Post Pandemic…Get Ready for the Church Attendance BOOM, New Study Says By Stephanie Martin for Church Leaders
As America marks one year of pandemic-related shutdowns this week, new research offers encouragement for pastors wondering whether in-person church attendance will eventually bounce back. Churches, along with almost every other sector of society, had to drastically alter their operations because of COVID-19. But as vaccination percentages increase and the virus threat decreases, worship services are likely to fill back to pre-pandemic numbers.
That’s a key takeaway from a recent Lifeway Research study of 1,000 Protestant churchgoers. When gathering in large groups is deemed safe again, 91% of respondents say they plan to worship in person as frequently as they did before March of 2020. Of those, 23% indicate they expect to attend services more than they did prior to the pandemic. By contrast, only six percent of churchgoers say they’ll attend less than before, and only one percent say they won’t return to in-person worship at all.
Churchgoers ages 18 to 29 top the list of survey respondents who say they’re most likely to attend church more frequently when COVID-19 is no longer a concern, at 43%. Among evangelical Christians, 28% say they’re likely to attend in-person worship more often than they did before the pandemic, compared to 19% of non-evangelical Protestants.
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Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, says that after a sharp decline in church attendance this January, many pastors were “wondering if those who haven’t returned ever will.” Two-thirds of U.S. churches that offered in-person worship in January 2021 reported church attendance figures of less than 70% of their January 2020 totals, McConnell says. But hearing that 91% of worshipers plan to return “when it is safe to do so,” he adds, should offer church leaders some much-needed hope after such a tumultuous year.
Church Attendance Through Livestreaming
Regarding church involvement during the yearlong pandemic, 87% of the churchgoers surveyed report staying with the same congregation, and 83% say they watched a live streamed or online worship service at least once during 2020.
Back in September 2019, the number of churchgoers who said they participated in a virtual church service rather than in-person worship at least 18 times or more in the past year was just four percent. In the new study, however, 32% report that’s been the case.
