COVID & Church Closures (Part 2)

David Schoen is Minister for Church Legacy & Closure, UCC Church Building & Loan Fund, dschoen@ucc.org .

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“The Covid-19 pandemic brought changing and challenging circumstances to our UCC congregations and clergy.”(from Survey Reports: Covid-19 and Our Congregations, UCC CARDD). 

Congregations have been challenged to creatively respond to COVID-19 with a new vision for mission, worship, technology, and community engagement. Churches have engaged in experimentation and introduction of new ways and understandings of being church, partnering with their communities, and reinventing church space and property for missional use. “Religious leaders must be willing to champion innovative visions and novel ways forward just as they did over the past 18 months…. the pressures of the lingering pandemic have surely intensified this innovation imperative.” (from Twenty-Years of Congregational Change: the 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview, Hartford Institute for Religion Research).

Not every congregation, however, has growth capacity, resources, leadership, technology, financial viability, or energy for the changes and challenges brought on by COVID-19. “Much that is written about the possible effects of COVID-19 suggests that, if anything, the pandemic will hasten the pre-existing trends and factors.” (from Twenty Years of Congregational Change). One of those pre-existing trends was the growth in church closures in the United States.

In November 2020, I wrote a blog Covid-19 and Church Closures looking at predictions of the impact of the pandemic on churches closing. Now more than two years into COVID, can we see an impact of the pandemic on churches closing in the United States?

Data on church closures from the information supplied to the 2021 UCC Yearbook & Directory has been compiled. Thirty-two congregations closed that year, the highest number in the last ten years of congregations reported in the same year as closing. Often congregations are reported in later years than they closed. For instance, twenty-two churches were reported closed in 2020 in the 2020 Yearbook & Directory. An additional nine churches were reported closed in 2020 in the 2021 yearbook information. There will likely be more churches reporting they ended their ministries in 2021 and 2020 (COVID years) that will be reported in the coming years.

Congregations that closed in 2020 and 2021 may well have been in the process of talking about and moving toward ending their ministries before COVID. Pastors have reported that the pandemic exacerbated and accelerated their closure decisions. The increased number of churches reported as closed in 2021 suggests an increase in churches ending their ministries during the time of COVID. How and to what degree will COVID impact church closures in years to come waits for more data to be collected.

The continued waves of COVID variants, the slow return to in-person worship in many congregations, and the coinciding economic context including a possible recession will all impact church closures. The past recession between 2006 – 2012 led to a total decrease of 30,000 congregations from all backgrounds in the United States.

Another impact of COVID includes the growing attention to congregations and church leaders considering church closure as conferences, national ministries, and many organizations respond to the increased number of churches asking for resources and support.

• Conferences have created resources, published articles and blogs, trained coaches, and designated staff members to work with churches in merger, consolidation, closure, and legacy planning.
• A monthly zoom discussion started during COVID in 2020 for pastors in churches discerning church closure as well as other options is ongoing and has grown in participation. (contact dschoen@ucc.org).
• Ministers are developing skills for intentional ministries in churches dealing with ending their ministries and creating a living legacy.
• Creative repurposing and redeveloping of church properties to advance faith-driven missions and visions are being developed and highlighted. See Rev. Gail Irwin’s recent blog “The Flexible Church Building” and the UCC article on the Molo Village urban development project created by St. Peter’s UCC in Louisville.

The award-winning film ‘It takes a Village’ telling the story of St. Peter’s UCC bringing new life to its urban neighborhood in partnership with the UCC Church Building & Loan Fund (CB&LF) will be shown at the CB&LF Partners in Building virtual event on September 29th and 30th, 2022. Presentations and workshops on a variety of topics include: Navigating Land Use, Repurposing Resources for Mission, Faith Based Entrepreneurs, Fund Raising, Hybrid & Online Ministry, and more.

There will also be a workshop on ‘So you think your church is dying’ looking at the warning signs, early conversations, future options, vital completion/closure process, and creation of a living legacy that looks toward the new life of what God can make possible. The new life that can be nurtured for the future of the church’s mission in the 21^st Century through the legacy of a closing congregation will be a long-lasting impact of COVID-19. Even through the grief of closure, a church can look with hope to new ministries that can be made possible through their legacy.

As Charles Kuchenbrod, Legacy Church Specialist for the Southern New England UCC Conference, wrote in his blog series Building a Legacy: Learning, Discovering and Leaning In, “A church that completes its ministry well, a church that completes its ministry faithfully, does not fail. Indeed, a church that completes its ministry faithfully and well becomes a participant in the resurrected Body of Christ.”

What is the impact of COVID-19 on church closures? More time will tell, but after more than two years, data and on-the-ground conversations suggest an acceleration and increase in closures. In response, there is also growing attention and help for congregations to faithfully and missionally end their ministries. Through churches’ legacies, a lasting impact of COVID could also be the creation and support of future new ministries and missions.