It is five years since COVID-19 started to impact on local church life. In some places, it was a dramatic disruption with the impact still being felt today. In other places across the country, churches were able to continue their activities with little impact. During the course of 2021 and 2022 we collected information from over 5000 local church leaders across Australia, and heard how they were responding to the pandemic. We revisit these insights now.
The results? We identified six key features of local Christian church leaders' responses to the pandemic. This includes the necessary pivot many leaders made to continue to offer their core activities and nurture the faith of their attenders in new ways.
We also heard how leaders preserved their own wellbeing, with many retaining a mostly positive outlook, and indeed, drawing inspiration from the new practices they acquired.
For the past 30 years NCLS Research has run the Australian National Church Life Survey which is a study of Christian congregations (or churches), their local leaders and attenders. This is now the largest, longest running survey of religious congregations in the world. The latest national survey was completed in 2021 and 2022. With the background of a global pandemic, we collected information from over 5000 local church leaders from 2100 congregations in 20 Christian denominations and movements and we reflect on these findings below.
How local church leaders responded
Here are six features of how local Christian church leaders responded to the pandemic.
Australian local church leaders:
- Faced the facts
- Used religious festivals to unite
- Gathered in supportive communities
- Maintained core religious activities
- Sustained their own wellbeing, and were
- Mostly positive about the future.
1. Faced the facts
Local and national Christian leaders chose to face the facts – even if they were difficult to hear.
First, the Australian government has run a national census for more than 100 years. Back in 1901 nearly every person identified as Christian. By 2021, only 44% identified as Christian, which is, for the first time, a minority of the population. Christian leaders have had to face the fact that having a religious identity is not important to many Australians.
A second example is churches’ responses to the National Church Life Survey. Throughout 2020 and 2021, local Australian churches had been impacted by extreme bushfires, floods and then a pandemic. How could it be possible for a national survey to proceed? How could we get people in local churches across the country to complete a survey? Christian leaders encouraged us to do this project. They said ‘this is the time when we need to know, more than ever, what is happening in local faith communities. Then we will have evidence to inform our decisions about the future’. It was not been easy, but religious leaders were hungry for the information we shared with them.
2. Used religious festivals to unite
Nearly seven in ten Australians believe that spiritual practices have been important during the bushfires and COVID crises.
The first lockdowns in Australia happened in March 2020. This was just before the significant Christian festival of Easter. As local religious leaders faced this unprecedented crisis, many turned their efforts to how they would conduct their Easter religious services. This short-term goal gave a focus and a purpose to activities and solutions were found and shared quickly. This meant that many congregations were set up well for managing through the extended periods of lockdown in different places.
3. Gathered in supportive communities
There are 11,400 local Christian congregations across Australia. These existing communities were committed to helping people continue to regularly gather – in person and also online – locally and in regions. Leaders gathered regularly to share knowledge about practical ways to respond to the growing challenges of COVID cases, lockdowns and so on.
Religious congregations offered ways for their own members to be supported and have their faith nurtured. In 2021, higher proportions of church attenders reported being in small prayer, discussion and Bible study groups.
In addition, these local faith groups provided care to people in their surrounding community. The results of our national survey found that compared to previous years, even higher proportions of individuals volunteered in their community during 2021 and 2022.
4. Leaders maintained core religious activities
We asked local leaders about how they had been able to operate during the pandemic. The majority of local leaders felt they had been able to maintain many core religious or ministry activities.
For example, three quarters felt they been able to deal with the sick or dying, funerals and the bereaved. Most also collaborated well with fellow ministers. Two thirds felt they supported the small groups well.
However, in some areas higher proportions felt that certain activities were not possible or not done well. Examples include conducting weddings, working with the local community and being a spokesperson or lobbying.
5. Leaders sustained their own wellbeing
We know that the highly stressful conditions caused by the pandemic has impacted on the health of people. What about our local Christian congregational leaders?
We learned from our survey that more local leaders reported that they were actually faring better than worse during the pandemic. Overall, 75% said they were coping the same or better than before. Higher proportions also reported that their physical health, mental health and spiritual health was better. Only one in ten said their spiritual health was worse than before. We also tested for levels of burnout. We think many leaders can be described as ‘Happy, but exhausted’.
What is behind these positive results? Perhaps it is a combination of time to look after oneself, a sense of being needed by others and the deep underlying sense of meaning and purpose that comes with a religious world view.
6. Mostly positive about the future
Finally, our research found that during 2021 and 2022 local Christian leaders and church attenders were mostly positive about the future.
When asked to reflect on the future, only one in 10 local Christian leaders agreed that they were likely to leave their current ministry, due to the impact of the pandemic. A further 15% were not certain. In contrast, three quarters had no intention of leaving their role and seven in ten claimed they will draw inspiration from the new practices they have acquired.
Among those who attend local congregations, we learnt that there was a sustained commitment to the vision and future directions for their local church – although some acknowledged their confidence has been eroded.
Attenders have also maintained a strong and positive view about innovation in local church life. Seven in 10 agreed that their local church and local leaders are open to new things and eight in ten said they were personally supportive of new developments.
In summary, in Australia local Christian leaders and church attenders showed signs of resilience and a positive outlook to the future in response to the pandemic.
