How Small Congregations Thrived Through the Pandemic

As the pastor of what would be deemed a “small church”, with under 250 members, I have thought often about the “winners and losers” among congregations since the Covid pandemic.

I have pastored over 20 years in the Northwest corner of the U.S. It is “wide open and empty country” in many ways. In my denomination, the United Church of Christ, there are only a smattering of little churches in hundreds of miles of small towns and cities.  The overwhelming majority of these churches are quite small, from 15 attenders in some cases, to 50.  My congregation of 200 was deemed “larger than most”.

How did these churches weather the pandemic?

With grit, determination and creativity!  In the area I serve (northeast Washington state) none of the little congregations I know closed their doors for good because of the pandemic.

Some of them, deep in the mountains, could not take advantage of the rush to “Zoom worship”.  One pastor I know created a worship service each week, with prayers, sermon and music that went straight to YouTube.  This formula worked for her remote, mountainous village and widely dispersed congregation that could not find reliable internet service.

Other communities struggled to learn how to create online worship, but they took on the challenge and produced simple zoom services of familiar faces sharing heartfelt prayers, and perhaps a hymn or two.

Some few closed their doors for a time and relied on the tried-and-true method of old-time church; the “phone tree”!  Calling one another week after week after week, tiny groups of church members kept one another connected, cared for and prayed over.

In my congregation, I was grateful for the technologically savvy skills of a Church moderator who was also a programmer.  Our music ministry was led by a gentleman who also facilitated concerts, led live radio shows and large music events throughout our city.  His knowledge and connections allowed us to have high quality music and singing almost immediately. 

Our Church moderator had us on Zoom, sharing on Facebook and YouTube, within days of the lockdown.  She provided training and troubleshooting for all the congregational members as they learned how to use the new technology, and she trained others to assist her.

Early in the pandemic we offered hymnals in a drive by format…pick it up, take it home and sing along with the zoom.  Some folks enjoyed this option, but we soon realized that it was much simpler to make slides of all songs and prayers.

As pastor it was at first a bit disconcerting to learn that members and friends who joined worship online admitted to doing other tasks during worship.  One member baked, another confessed to cleaning house.  But as the research confirms from the vast number of respondents to the Hartford study, online worshippers still felt connected in worship, still prayed, and even sang along at home.

Well after life returned to “normal” I can see that hybrid worship is an important option in congregational life.  Families with children, the elderly and shut in, sick members, and those traveling; all have access to our communal worship and that soul warming connection.

Was the diversifying of worship forms hard on pastors?  It felt that way to me, when it was suddenly necessary, yet confusingly new.  The Covid pandemic was an exhausting time, heartbreaking and soul stretching for pastors and congregations.  I remember walking through the empty halls and worship spaces of my church and aching for the people to return. I longed to see more than just their faces!  I wanted to respond to them in worship, to see them responding to me as I preached and prayed.

It was a long, lonely time. Yet, over time the urgently needed expansion of technology proved that even smaller churches could adapt and accommodate to our rapidly changing world. Faith and community would endure, we would learn, and continue to love.

The study conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research was heavily concentrated among evangelical and larger faith communities in more eastern parts of the U.S. Only a fraction of respondents came from the western United States.  As a friend of pastors among some of the tiniest Mainline Protestant communities out here in a western corner of the U.S, I felt compelled to speak up for their surprising strength and adaptability. Most of my colleagues are very part time pastors, some of the congregations in my area had no pastor at all at the time of the pandemic. But they had each other, they had determination, they shared their faith that God was with them.

And they are still here.

Rev. Andy CastroLang is a recently retired pastor in The United Church of Christ. She served faith communities in Nebraska and Washington with great joy for 29 years. She lives in Spokane, Washington and enjoys time filled with books and flowers, her husband, grandchildren and friends.