The Multi-Church Movement: Five Years After COVID Changed Everything

By Colleen Hill I Hartford Institute for Religion Research

Jackie Maki’s Sunday routine would puzzle churchgoers from previous generations. The 76-year-old Episcopalian starts her morning at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Irving, Texas, where she’s been a devoted member for over 20 years. But her worship doesn’t end there. After coffee hour, she returns home to tune into online services from St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., where she serves on the vestry, and All Saints Episcopal Church in East Lansing, Michigan, to participate in weekly prayer and study groups.

Maki isn’t alone in her multi-congregation worship pattern. According to research from the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations project’s latest report “This Place Means Everything to Me: Key Findings From a National Survey of Church Attenders in Post-Pandemic United States” nearly half of church attenders now regularly participate in other congregations—a dramatic shift that represents one of the most significant changes in American religious practice in decades.

“One of the more fascinating patterns our survey uncovered was that almost half of church attenders regularly participate in other congregations,” says Dr. Scott Thumma, principal investigator for the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations project. “One might think this is primarily due to the increase in streaming services and online worship, but in fact physical in-person attendance accounted for greater multiple engagement than did those who participated virtually.”

Multi-church in person and online

This finding challenges assumptions about digital worship leading to church shopping. Instead, the data suggests that people who are deeply engaged with their faith communities are seeking multiple sources of spiritual nourishment. “This is a religious behavior that seldom gets reported or acknowledged,” Thumma notes. “Clearly, for many believers, one church is not enough. It takes multiple sources to satisfy their spiritual demand.”

The research indicates that attendance at other congregational services and activities appears to be more of an added spiritual practice, rather than a detraction or reason to split their time, attention, and resources from their primary congregation.

While the pandemic accelerated this trend through digital accessibility, the roots of multi-congregation worship run deeper. For Maki, the journey began in March 2020 when her home parish in Texas couldn’t immediately provide online services during lockdown.

“It took us a good six or seven months, really, to gear up to have worship services reliably online,” Maki recalls. Rather than wait, she reached out to two Episcopal churches from her past: All Saints in Michigan, where she had worshipped as an undergraduate student 50 years earlier, and St. Margaret’s in Washington, D.C., where her brother was a member.

What started as a practical solution has become a rich spiritual practice. “I never expected to be connected very closely to three parishes,” she admits. “But both of those parishes reached out to me and other hybrid participants and really included us in things.”

Kit Carlson, the former pastor at All Saints in East Lansing, witnessed this phenomenon firsthand during the pandemic. Her church’s online services attracted participants from outside of their Michigan community, including Maki, who became a regular presence in the chat and eventually joined multiple weekly groups.

“We started to realize that there was this Jackie Mackey watching us from North Texas,” Carlson recalls. “She always jumped into the chat right away… saying -Hi from sunny north Texas- So we started to realize that there was this other person here.”

For multi-church participants, the attraction goes beyond convenience. Maki describes the richness that comes from experiencing different worship styles and building relationships across congregations.

“It’s been a joy for me. I really appreciate the different styles of liturgy that the different churches use,” she says. “Just to see how different people worship in different congregations and to become friends with the ministers and people that are active in those churches. I mean, I feel like my circle of friendship, as well as my spiritual knowledge, has just expanded exponentially over the past five years.”

This sentiment reflects a broader shift in how Americans approach religious community. Rather than viewing church membership as exclusive, many believers are embracing a more fluid model of spiritual engagement that allows them to draw from multiple sources of wisdom, worship styles, and community connections.

Even clergy are embracing multi-church participation. Now retired, Carlson finds herself visiting different congregations and sampling online services from colleagues’ churches. “Since I’ve been retired, I have started going around to a bunch of different churches of different denominations to see what other people are doing,” she explains. “I also like to look and see what’s going on with my friends and colleagues… I don’t watch their entire services. I just scroll to like the sermon and listen to the sermon.”

Interestingly, Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations research reveals that participation in other services does not negatively impact how often one attends their primary congregation,
donates a percentage of their income, or how frequently they volunteer. Attendance at other
congregational services and activities appears to be more of an added spiritual/religious
practice than a detraction or reason to split their time, attention, and resources.

Five years after the pandemic forced churches online, multi-congregation worship appears to be a lasting change rather than a temporary adaptation. Jackie has no plans to reduce her involvement with her three congregations.

“I think it’s going to go on indefinitely,” she says. “Our last two years have been pretty normal in terms of the pandemic and people’s health… just as long as my technology is available, I think I’ll be connected to those two churches in DC and Michigan until they won’t have me anymore.”

As for Kit, she recognized early that the hybrid changes of worship would outlast the pandemic. “I started saying, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to be streaming till Jesus comes back,'” she recalls.