Church Attendance In & Out of COVID

Covid took the world by storm, it is a disease that changed people’s lives forever! Some people lost businesses, houses, money, or even family. In my story, I am going to give you a look and insight into how Churches looked before and after Covid. Also, we will take a look at the stats on people attending church before and after Covid. In my story, I went local before seeing global stats. I went to Christian Centre Church located in Jane & Finch to ask them how they have done during the pandemic. Pastor Olu, who is the Lead Pastor at CCC, discussed how they did during the pandemic. Pastor Olu felt like his church did fairly well during the pandemic, “For us, a lot of people stayed in touch by going online, and our online numbers increased”.  For the first time, they transitioned to online services during the lockdown to still stay in touch with their congregation. When restrictions eased up, they eventually opened up and they’re almost back at regular attendance. “With restrictions easing up, our Church is almost at regular capacity”. With my story, I didn’t want to look locally, I wanted to see how the numbers look in the U.S and the entire world. When it came to the U.S. I analyzed and researched how the different generations of people made up the church. Elders, Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials make up the church.

One of the most interesting facts is that many young people are still rather connected to somewhat of a faith in which they were raised, but by the looks of it, it’s looking like it’s away as individuals move further away from their parents.

Churches attendance in 3^rd world countries has stayed at a high percentage, for example, the continent of Africa is at 77%. At 28% of North Americans, it looks like it’s been difficult to get people to attend Church. North America is so advanced with technology, that it makes me believe that maybe more people are attending Church online. So much content is produced every day that people have so numerous resources to go and look at.

Doing my story, I had a chance to talk to a CCC church member, Janet Orowale. During the pandemic, she enjoyed watching church in the comfort of her home. “To be able to wake up and roll out of my bed was something that I highly enjoyed, but I realized how important interaction was with other people, and that’s something I’m happy that’s back,” Hearing Janet say made me realize that interaction with others is what people really need! Will we see online services decrease or will see in-person services increase, only time will tell. Times will never be the same coming out of the pandemic, but hopefully, we can work towards that.