After the Pandemic

The apostle Paul had been informed about the expression of the love of Christ through the people of the church of Colosse, and this motivated him to pray in this way...
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God...

This is the model, a picture painted by Paul, of what the Christian life ideally should be.  We have the capacity to be "fully pleasing Him," which involves being fruitful - that comes as we abide in Christ and allow Him to produce fruit through us to the glory of God.  Even in affliction - and the Church has certainly had its share in the past year - we can recognize that God has been and is still moving and desires to show Himself faithful to and through His people.

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In the book of 2nd Peter, chapter 3, the writer encourages believers to be steadfast in the Lord and devoted to growing spiritually. Peter writes:
(15) ...consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Even though there is great optimism that the end of the coronavirus is approaching, still there will be months until we reach the point of normalcy or a new normalcy.  And, what will the Church look like at that time?

I remembered my conversation with Arnie Cole last year about that topic. He is the CEO of Back to the Bible and Director of Research for the Center for Bible Engagement.  In a press release issued last May, there were the three main areas listed that his organization anticipated that churches would face:

(1) a dip in weekly worship attendance among regular weekly attenders, (2) an increase in online attendance when the pandemic ends, and (3) an increase in traffic from occasional attenders.

The release gives this background on those three projections:

Cole has learned from earlier congregation studies that 60 to 80% of the people sitting in the pews on a given Sunday are people who attend every week. The remaining 20 to 40% do so at most once or twice a month. "With this in mind we anticipate that many churches will see a dip in weekly worship attendance, post-pandemic, and those with the highest concentrations of regular weekly attenders will see the largest decreases," he explains. "But on the positive side, churches can expect to see a portion of their occasional attenders more often."

The report included a number of statistics; for instance, it states: 

Cole reports that 68% are participating in online worship services during the lock down period. Most (77%) anticipate that their church attendance will be the same after the pandemic. A minority (16%) expect to attend more often and 7% anticipate attending less. Considering the data for both regular and occasional attenders, most churches can expect a decrease in attendance and a high percentage of people who used to attend only occasionally.

One of the key points: "Among those who attended church in person before, 21 to 44% expect to watch more online when the pandemic ends."

Again, this is a projection.  I acknowledge that conditions have perhaps changed since this survey last year. And, while these may contribute to the formation of a model for anticipating what could occur, our churches have strategic decisions that they will have to make.  Surviving COVID is one thing, but how to move forward is something else entirely, and our church leaders need prayer and the direction of the Holy Spirit. 

But, there is certainly ministry opportunity here - one of the interesting points of Cole's research is that there is the anticipation that the more infrequent worship attendees may come back to a stronger degree.  That being said, then it's important to establish communication in order to move them from infrequent to frequent.  That's really a challenge for all churches, isn't it?  The church certainly grows by adding members through conversion, but involving members in greater levels of participation and discipleship becomes a challenge.  

Personally, we can also consider how we move forward and grow in our Christian life.  None of us should be standing still - otherwise, as it's been pointed out, the currents of this world will cause us to drift backward.  We can increase our participation in the things of God, exhibiting spiritual growth, and if we have lost ground during the pandemic, it's a good time to reclaim our position and grow deeper.