An estimated 15% of parishioners haven’t returned to the pews although nearly every church is open two years after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered their doors, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Lifeway Research, a Southern Baptist-affiliated tracker of church trends, said almost all of the 1,000 Protestant pastors surveyed reported their congregations were open for worship, up from 98% a year ago and 75% in 2020. Fewer than 1% of church pastors said their congregations weren’t meeting in person.
While not all members have returned, attendance at weekly worship has reached 85% of the January 2020 level, the highest percentage in two years.
“While there are a handful of exceptions, we can definitively say that churches in the U.S. have reopened,” Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a statement. “While masks began to rapidly disappear in many settings in 2022, churchgoers have not reappeared quite as fast.”
Why the return to the pews is lagging is unclear. A February 2021 Lifeway Research survey found 91% of churchgoers said they would return to worship at a rate at least equal to their pre-pandemic level once COVID-19 no longer posed a threat.
But where 34% of Christians reported attending worship four times a month or more pre-pandemic, that figure dropped to 26% in an April 2022 poll. At the same time, 43% of Christians said they attended less than once a month, up from 36% before COVID-19 hit.
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“While some pre-COVID churchgoers have not returned to church at all, much of the decline in attendance is from people who are attending less often,” Mr. McConnell said.
At the same time, Lifeway said the survey does offer some signs of hope for churches. More than a third of pastors said attendance is at 90% of pre-pandemic levels, and 17% reported growth in attendance over the January 2020 numbers. Only 8% of congregations say their attendance is below half of their pre-COVID number.
Lifeway said the phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 6-30, with a sampling error of plus or minus 3.2%. Complete survey data is online at their website, the group said.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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