COVID and the Church

The pandemic did not impact every leader and congregation equally. Obstacles, pressures, and risks varied as they do in regular life based on a litany of factors.

As we've discussed, one of our biggest surprises was that the strength of state restrictions did not appear to significantly impact attendance, budget, giving, or staff size changes at churches across the country. Instead, one of the biggest predictors was how congregations reacted to the implementation of pandemic health measures. The two strongest predictors, as we're going to see, ended up being location and ethnicity, both individual and congregational.

Based on the Appendix of the report, in this special bonus episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with an all-star lineup of Arbor researchers to unpack how the pandemic disproportionately impacted leaders and congregations in terms of education, gender, individual ethnicity, location, age, and congregational ethnicity. Featuring contributions from Tyler Greenway. Eric Shieh, Ebonie Davis, and Terry Linhart.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Without question, the pandemic was one of the most difficult seasons the modern church has ever faced. Even though COVID-19 brought an immeasurable amount of pain, grief, and anxiety to churches and pastors, there was beauty to be found. In the face of all that the church endured, the theme of beauty from ashes remained constant throughout our interviews with pastors and leaders. It was a tangible reminder that for people of faith, there is always hope, no matter the circumstances.

Across focus groups, interviews, community case studies, and survey responses, pastors pointed to a number of unexpected blessings that would not have occurred had they not endured the adversity of the pandemic. In addition to cultivating a new unity in many local congregations, the pandemic also revealed the character of many churches, either highlighting a beauty that is easily taken for granted or providing the refining fire that transformed their congregation into a more Christ-like image. For some, the pandemic pause allowed for breathing room and for the Holy Spirit to take control.

Based on Chapter 9 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Ebonie Davis and Jon Swanson, to talk about the theme of Beauty from Ashes. This episode also features an interview with two amazing pastors, Daniel Shmitz and Demetries Edwards, located in Oakland, California, who started a new partnership during the pandemic in order to reach and bring healing to their community.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic presented church leaders with one of the most arduous tests of leadership in over a century. The early days of the pandemic were marked by a historical level of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. The stakes were literally life and death.

Churches lost not just members to the virus, but also pastoral staff. At the same time, the pandemic took away the fundamental practices that define the body of Christ, such as worship, communion, and baptism, as well as the building blocks which form and sustain communities within larger congregations, such as youth and small groups. The pandemic created a monumental challenge for American churches and pastors that, in many cases, precipitated a leadership crisis.

While many leaders showed tremendous courage and compassion amidst the initial uncertainty, they tired over time, especially as loneliness and weariness set in. Where leadership weakness was present, the pandemic exposed it, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Based on Chapter 8 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Brent Sickel and Terry Linhart, to talk about the numerous leadership crises that occurred during the pandemic and why. This episode also features interviews with several pastors and lay leaders who were directly affected by or lived through a leadership crisis.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pastors frequently cited COVID-19 as a source of political polarizing and ideological conflict in focus groups, interviews, and survey comments. A pastor in Jackson, Mississippi reflected, “We couldn’t please anybody. You had this binary thinking about everything that was happening.” 

Before COVID-19, the battle lines between politics, faith, and community in many American churches were already overlapping. During the pandemic, they seemed to disappear entirely. 

As you listen to this week’s discussion, please understand that our desire is simply to shine a light on what actually happened—the lived experiences of countless pastors and congregations across America. Our sole aim is to facilitate reconciliation, healing, unity and the proclamation of the Gospel, and our prayer for the American Church is the same as Jesus in John 17:20-21:

“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. ... so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Based on Chapter 7 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Jesse Brown and Tyler Greenway, to talk about the negative effects of polarization on pastors and congregations. This episode also features interviews with several pastors and lay leaders who were directly affected by political polarization and friendly fire during the pandemic.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pandemic held up a mirror to the American church. Congregations that rarely stepped back to evaluate their endless calendars of events were forced to assess whether their ministry models reflected the mandates given by Christ and the example of the early church. For many congregations, what they saw in the mirror was not pretty.

One East Coast pastor gave a common assessment.

"We're not really as open and involved in the community as we could be, as we should be. I see nice little buildings. I see fancy decorations outside on the lawns, manicured perfectly, and the steeple is still bold and standing. I just think that as a household of God, there's so much more we could do."

For many, COVID-19 became a catalyst for change, an opportunity to recalibrate rhythms and fall in better alignment with the church we are called to be in Scripture.

Based on Chapter 6 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Ebonie Davis and Terry Linhart to talk about how the pandemic pushed some churches to venture outside the walls of their church building in new and exciting ways. Featuring an in-depth interview with Dan Nold, a lead pastor of a multisite church whose leveraged the pandemic to launch a monthly "Church Without Walls" Sunday, where instead of gathering for worship at church members venture out and minister to their neighbors.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The expansion of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic drastically shifted the landscape of church ministry. Though some changes were temporary, many will remain. 

As one of the Arbor researchers put it, “The toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube.”

Our research indicates that more than two-thirds of respondents (67.5%) believe their church was reshaped due to its embrace of technology during the pandemic. Older churches and older participants were even more likely to see their congregation reshaped. Given these results, we believe the recent shift in technology has changed more than just a few activities, it changed the structure or landscape of ministry practice itself.

Based on Chapter 5 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Tyler Greenway and Terry Linhart to talk about the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on technology in American churches. Featuring an in-depth interview with David Lee, a lead pastor whose church pivoted and found new ways to connect digitally and in-person with their congregation of commuters during the pandemic lockdowns.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to some, the pandemic season was a plague of biblical proportions. It is not surprising then that the testimony of some pastors sounds like the story of the widow whose jar of oil and flour in 1 Kings 17 did not run out.

Instead of a devastating drought, some pastors talked about how God kept his promises and “they never worried about money.” Other pastors told a different, more tragic story.

In surveys, focus groups, and interviews, pastors were asked about the finances and attendance during the pandemic season. This included inquiries about sources of income, changes in giving, and ways of measuring attendance for online and in-person participants.

Based on Chapter 4 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with three researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Eric Shieh, Ebonie Davis, and Jon Swanson to talk about the common experience of what we’re calling The Miracle of Plates and Pews. Featuring an in-depth interview with Caryn Bell-Palo, an executive pastor who helped her church navigate through the financial challenges brought on by lengthy lockdowns in her home state of Washington.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The declaration of a worldwide pandemic in March 2020 and the cascade of health policies that followed forced pastors and congregations to rapidly respond. Because no churches wrote “close our doors” in their three-year goals, everyone had to learn quickly and make adjustments simply to survive.

In his article on power, privilege, and adaptive leadership in 2020, Todd Bolsinger framed the crisis in two phases: "First is the acute phase where you're just trying to survive." Second, is "the adaptive phase, where you actually use the energy of the crisis to address underlying issues."

What's clear in our research is that almost all churches faced acute changes because state and local restrictions, building arrangements and church demographics are different, the changes that everyone made were different as well.

What's less clear is whether churches actually adapted to how people live post-pandemic, and whether those changes will last.

Based on Chapter 2 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, Ebonie Davis and Jon Swanson, to talk about the common experience of adapting in order to survive. Featuring an in-depth interview with Eric Blauer, a local pastor leading a church in the Pacific Northwest, about his experience of rapid adaptation during the pandemic.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pandemic was a crucible that revealed underlying political and personal anxieties, as well as congregational strengths and weaknesses in many churches. COVID-19 stripped away the familiar and became The Great Revealer for church leaders.

Consequently, it enabled leaders to learn important lessons about their churches, themselves, and their ministries. While this theme only appeared in three responses to our initial quantitative survey, it repeatedly surfaced again and again in our qualitative work in focus groups, in interviews, in community case studies.

Ultimately, in the eyes of many pastoral leaders the pandemic did not manufacture new problems out of thin air. Instead, like a massive weight placed on a structurally unsound building or bridge, COVID revealed already existing cracks and flaws in American churches. Examinations of engineering disasters—collapsed buildings or bridges—usually uncover a series of mistakes and errors, compounded by decades of neglect, and a system of underlying problems that were repeatedly overlooked or explained away. The same is true in many American churches.

Based on Chapter 3 of the report, in this episode host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two researchers from the Arbor Research Group, S. Michael Greene and Terry Linhart, to talk about the common experience of COVID-19 as a Great Revealer. Featuring two in-depth interviews with Dr. Lorenzo Neal and Benjamin Marsh, pastors who experienced firsthand revelations about both themselves and their churches during the pandemic.

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic officially ended on May 11th, 2023. While it lasted only three years, the pandemic impacted almost every institution in America. Research studies have examined the impact of COVID-19 on economics, housing, and secular employment.

But how did COVID-19 impact the American church?

To answer this question, Church Salary (a ministry of Christianity Today) partnered with the Arbor Research Group (with the help of a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment) to conduct a year-long study of over a thousand pastors and church leaders from across the country. During the course of our research in 2022, we encountered thousands of hurting and wounded pastors and lay leaders who desperately needed to share their distinct stories—some tinged with hope, some filled with heartbreak and pain.

This podcast, COVID and the Church, will explore the results of this landmark study published online in a 111-page report. Read the full report, for free, by visiting churchsalary.com/covidstudy.

In this first episode, host Aaron Hill (editor of ChurchSalary) sits down with two of the key architects of this study from the Arbor Research Group, Terry Linhart and Jon Swanson, to unpack what actually happened to the church during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why talk about this now? And what nine themes or common experiences did every single pastor and congregation in the US navigate during the pandemic?

Hosted by Aaron Hill, editor of ChurchSalary

"COVID and the Church" is produced in conjunction with the Arbor Research Group and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., through a grant from the Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders (ECFPL) initiative.

Executive produced by Aaron Hill, Terry Linhart, and Matt Stevens

Director for CT Media is Matt Stevens

Audio Engineering, Editor, and Composer is Tyler Bradford Wright

Artwork by Ryan Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices