Recently, the Barna Research Group revealed findings from their annual “State of the Church” report. As you might imagine, the results were different from what you might expect because obviously 2020 has been such an upside-down year.
COVID-19 lockdowns hit churches hard. Almost all had to close their doors for a period of time. Most were able to do “virtual church,” live streaming sermons and music over the Internet. Others improvised with “drive-in church,” or began meeting outside under tents and canopies sitting in socially distanced lawn chairs.
Now that COVID cases appear to be declining in most parts of the country, churches are finally opening up for indoor worship before cold weather sets in.
In the wake of all the COVID craziness, Barna reported that 35% of church-goers are still attending their pre-COVID church, while 14% had switched churches from their pre-COVID church, 18% started viewing multiple church services, and an astounding 32% had stopped attending church during COVID altogether and have not returned yet! Another interesting find was among those who dropped out of church completely reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, fear and emotional burdens in their lives than those who stayed faithful with church.[1]
What stands out most to me from this data is that about one-third of church-goers have fallen by the wayside. Not only are they not streaming preaching and singing, but they haven’t returned to in-person gatherings either. It makes me wonder if dropouts have stopped reading their Bibles and praying too? In short, most pastors and ministry leaders should expect to lose a third of their people as the church emerges from quarantine. The reality is that COVID has been a great winnowing process which has separated the core believers from the casual ones.
This data also drives home a few vital lessons that we must learn going forward.
· Our default position is to drift away from spiritual devotion. The writer of Hebrews warned against this, “1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it . . . 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Heb. 2:1, 3) COVID closings made it easy for casual Christians to become dropouts because church gatherings were their only source of spiritual nourishment. Unless we are actively pursuing God individually outside of church through personal Bible study and prayer, then it doesn’t take long for spiritual desire to grow cold.
· Crisis reveals the true nature of our character. 1 Peter 1:7 reminds us that trials are like a refiner’s fire which tests the genuineness of our faith. COVID has been a testing like we haven’t seen before and it has revealed the hearts of believers—those who are living by fear and those who are living by faith—and which churches were strong enough to endure the trial and those which were not. The fact that many have fallen away from church shows that they were not really serious about serving the Lord anyway and many churches were much weaker than what we initially thought.
·
Virtual church
is a temporary alternative, but should not be mistaken for the real thing. Having the technology to broadcast preaching and
singing in order to keep the church going through COVID was a blessing, however
it can never take the place of gathering in person to worship, pray, and hear
the Word of God preached. Hebrews 10:25 states, “not neglecting to meet
together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the
more as you see the Day drawing near.” Church is not about a building—I get
that—but it is and always has been about God’s people meeting. The simple truth
is that the longer we stay away from physical gatherings the more disconnected from
God’s people we become and the more disobedient to God’s Word we are. No more
excuses. The time to return to church is now! If we don’t go back soon, there
may not be anything to go back to. -DM
[1] “State
of the Church 2020,” Barna, 29 September 2020 <https://www.barna.com/research/new-sunday-morning-part-2/>
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