As the US outlook around the coronavirus pandemic changes day by day, pastors are quickly adjusting their expectations about how the disruptions will impact their ministry.
Oregon pastor Tyler Braun explained that “on top of just navigating the right-now urgency of how to pivot”—the push to move services and giving and small groups online—pastors are grappling with the inevitable fallout on their members and community.
At New Harvest Church, where he leads worship and family ministries, Braun worries people will be forced to experience grief in isolation, lose out on finances, and face the coronavirus restrictions “well into the summer.”
A new survey by Barna Research found over the course of just a week, most church leaders went from thinking they’d be back to meeting as usual in late or March or April (52%), to projecting the changes would extend to May or longer (68%).
“There is this realism that’s setting in,” said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president.
But while most pastors are realistic, they’re also optimistic, according to Kinnaman. “One of the cool things about pastors we’ve learned over the years is that they are by job description and by disposition more upbeat, positive, hope-filled people,” he said. “So they are often pretty capable of putting a good face in a tough situation, and they, like other leaders, are going to face a lot of tough decisions in the coming weeks as the crisis continues.”
Though most had already called off normal activities at church, pastors also implemented swift changes in policies around smaller group meetings over the past several days.
The percentage who still allow the church building to be used for “small meetings and gatherings” has dropped by about half (from 18% to 8%), according to Barna’s Church Pulse survey, hearing from 434 Protestant senior pastors and executive pastors in the US. A plurality say the church staff will be working remotely for the foreseeable future (up from 25% to 40%).
The question of restrictions (not just for worship but also staff meetings, Bible studies, even the group assembled to livestream services) has been an urgent one for pastors as more stories emerge of coronavirus spreading in church settings like choir practices and funerals.
A recent poll conducted by Denison University political scientist Paul Djupe and two fellow researchers found as many as 17 percent of US worshipers across traditions were still attending in-person gatherings of some sort as of early last week.
Compared to other traditions, evangelicals weren’t significantly more likely to say their churches were still open, but those who also ascribe to the prosperity gospel do have stronger feelings against churches closing to comply with government orders, a case which played out in Tampa on Monday. Nearly half of evangelicals with prosperity gospel beliefs agreed that “freedom to worship is too important to close in-person religious services due to the coronavirus even if more people die as a result.”
Source: Christianity Today
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