In late July, LifeWay Research conducted a survey amongst Protestant Church pastors titled "Pastor's Views on How COVID-19 is Affecting Their Church." Over 400 Pastors were surveyed, and it was concluded that the unity of the church seemed to be the most pressing issue currently brought about by the novel Coronavirus.
The largest agreed upon pressure point from the church at 27% revolved around "maintaining unity/conflict/complaints." Pastors reported that "half the church is opposed to any reopening," while the other half is "frustrated that we haven't long since reopened." Additionally, some concerned parishioners are urging for their churches to disobey closure orders, and to go on as if "the virus isn't real."
While a larger portion of churches face this growing issue of how to maintain unity within the congregation, there are a few that have found this dilemma to be irrelevant. Although Pastor Scott Sauls of the Christ Presbytarian Church from Nashville Tennessee did not participate in LifeWays survey, he commented in an interview that "It's not been a divisive season for our church in particular... I think what's made it a relatively peaceful, unifying season is that our church offers three options."
Sauls' church has adapted to the pandemic by offering the congregation different ways of attending that can fit to their individual preferences and concerns with the virus. Christ Presbytarian Church gives the options of attending an in-person worship, an online live stream, as well as an outdoor live streaming service.
Although Sauls' church may have found unity to be a relative non-issue, the survey by LifeWay did reveal several other significant impacts to the church brought on by COVID-19.
Among other concerns, it was found that the virus has greatly impacted the congregation economically. In fact, 74% of pastors reported that "an attendee's income has been affected by reduced hours at work," and 48% reported attendees losing jobs. This economic downturn has reflected upon the churches as well, in which 34% of pastors commented that offerings have been significantly less than this time last year.
As the world, like Christ Presbyterian Church, has learned to adapt to the spread of the virus, LifeWay has reported increasing percentages of in-person worship services. From the onset of the virus in March and April, in which it was reported that a mere 4% of churches were meeting, up to 73% by the weekend of July 19th. However, LifeWay Research executive director Scott McConnell states his concerns over the increases in attendance as many churches that had reopened were forced to close down again due to viral spreading as well as new state regulations.
With that being said, McConnell commented "We'll expect to see some churches needing to stay closed. And in some of those that have opened, needing to close for a period of time... while their community rebounds for a while."
