By Aaron Earls
LifeWay Research
NASHVILLE — The vast majority of U.S. Protestant churches say they are holding in-person services, but churchgoers have yet to attend in the numbers they did before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
According to the latest survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research, 87 percent of Protestant pastors in the U.S. say their church met in person in September, while 13 percent did not hold physical gatherings.
Since the beginning of March, LifeWay Research has been tracking how COVID-19 is affecting churches. While few Protestant churches gathered physically in April, most began meeting in person again by May with more than 7 in 10 pastors saying they did so in July.
“More and more churches across the U.S. have found ways to meet again, but things are not back to normal,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “The impact of regulations, caution and hardships mean more than 1 in 10 churches are still not meeting in person for any type of worship service. Churches are living organisms, and when more than a third of their members are missing, they are not whole.”
A majority of African American Protestant pastors (60 percent) say their congregations did not meet in person last month. [Read more…]