Q: During COVID, we started streaming our services. We still have strong numbers online, but some of our former in-person regulars now just watch our services. How do we get people online to attend our church in person?
A: For some, a preference for online worship is one of the permanent consequences of the pandemic. Many people want to be online, and we need to accept that we may not actually see them in our sanctuaries. The reasons are many: children’s sports, other Sunday commitments, work, fear of getting COVID or the flu from the congregation, simple exhaustion and as one family told me, “the joy of watching in our pyjamas with snacks.”
So it’s no longer about counting how many people are present on a given Sunday, but instead how many are experiencing your worshipping community in all the ways you offer throughout the week. This continued trend of folks participating solely online means we need to be asking some new questions: How do we create community for these folks? What are their pastoral needs? How can they participate in our outreach? Do we need to offer children and youth programming online? How can we blend in-person and online worship? How do we create a specific stewardship ask for this group? It will also inevitably raise the question of how many church buildings we actually need in an online world.
More on Broadview:
In-person worship is very important to me — being with other people is a key way I experience my faith. But that is not the case for a whole cadre of church folks, and we need to adapt to this new reality.
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Rev. Christopher White is a United Church minister who lives in Hamilton. Do you have a query for Question Box? Email christopher.white143@gmail.com.
This article first appeared in Broadview’s January/February 2025 issue with the title “Zoom Worshippers Not a Problem to Solve.”
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