Pandemic Boosted Resilience, Hurt Financial Health of Black Churches, Says Report
A new report highlights the challenges faced by Black and multiracial congregations, as well as their resilience, in the wake of COVID-19.
COVID-19 Health Emergency Is Ending but Faith-Based Vaccine Clinics Continue
Over the last few years, African American congregations have provided outsized action on getting people tested and vaccinated.
Study: Religious Attendance Dips Slightly After Pandemic
The study found the share of U.S. adults who generally say they attend religious services at least once a month dropped from 33% in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, to 30% in 2022.
Progressive National Baptists To Deploy $1 Million Grant to Boost ‘Compelling Preaching’
The Progressive National Baptist Convention plans to use a new $1 million grant to fund a five-year training program for ministers of the historically Black denomination as they adapt their preaching in an age changed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More Americans Stay Away From Church as Pandemic Nears Year Three
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while. For some Americans, that was the push they needed to never come back to church.
A Once-Dying Church Hopes To Reinvent Itself With Coffee and Kindness
The ongoing decline of organized religion in America has led to an existential crisis for tens of thousands of congregations. Over the past two decades, the median size of a congregation has dropped from 137 people to 65 people. Rather than owning a building that
Did Faith Fall off a Cliff During COVID? New Study Says No.
When the pandemic hit, many Americans lost the habit of churchgoing after almost every church in the country closed their in-person services and shifted online. But did some of them give up on God? In a new study, sociologists raise questions about the rapid decline
Back in the Boat: Thoughts on a Church Set Adrift
Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell offers her thoughts on how the church's model of the larger group tending to the few in need was swept away during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our pastors were like skippers left on ships trying to throw out as many lifelines as
Reckoning With the 9/11 Anniversary Effect
On this anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Christina Ray Stanton reflects on how traumatic reactions can be a normal part of the grieving process and what this means for how we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. As we approach anniversaries of traumatic events or dates
#PandemicPastoring Report Documents a ‘New Era in Ministry’
As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched from that first spring into summer, researcher Eileen Campbell-Reed said, she realized its impact on ministry wasn’t going to be short-lived.