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Luke Britcher

Dr. Dixon

COMM 493

3 May, 2022

Online or In-person: How Do Young Adults Perceive Church Attendance Post COVID-19?

Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted nearly every aspect of people’s lives.

Public places needed to adapt in order to continue during these past few years, and churches

were no exception to this. Christian churches have been forced to “‘do’ church differently and to

reimagine the future of the church” (Pillay 266). At the start of the pandemic, many American

churches closed their doors hoping to wait out the virus. But how could a church continue to

operate if its members could not even step inside? One of the most common solutions to this

question came in the form of digital communication, and more specifically, livestreams. Now, to

be fair, some churches had already implemented livestreams. But to many other churches across

the country, this was a new form of communication to tackle.

With the implementation of livestreams, congregants of a church were able to take part in

a service without leaving the comfort and safety of their home. This was considered a mostly

positive adjustment, at least by medical professionals. It is no surprise that congregating

increased the risk of infection of COVID-19, so holding in-person services could “affect the

health of many” (Knight et al. 3182). Therefore, live-streaming services was the safe thing to do.

However, many churches have since reopened their doors. People are able once again to attend
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an in-person service if they feel comfortable doing do. Yet, in most cases, it seems as though

watching the livestream at home is still an option. Therefore the goal of the research detailed in

the rest of this paper is to consider how the increase of virtual church services may impact

church attendance in a post-pandemic world.

Literature Review

Many researchers have begun to tackle how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted

churches in America, with a lot of that research analyzing at least some aspect of an increase in

digital communication within the church due to the virus. In his article “COVID-19 Shows the

Need to Make Church More Flexible,” Jerry Pillay studies the many shifts that American

churches have made due to the ongoing pandemic. He explains that these shifts, such as live-

streaming services to provide digital worship, has helped the church become more flexible and

has “reaffirmed that the church does not live within walls,” but is rather “the people of God who,

in the power of the Holy Spirit, live and long for God’s reign in the world” (Pillay 274). Pillay

looks forward to the church continuing these shifts into the future.

In their article “COVID-19, Virtual Church Services, and a New Temporary Geography

of Home,” Lauren Andres, John Bryson, and Andrew Davies discuss similar concepts to that of

Pillay. They studied how live-streamed services have created temporary sacred spaces in the

homes of those watching along. Like Pillay, they come to the conclusion that churches are not

simply buildings, but rather the people in them. Yet, they acknowledge that more research should

be done regarding this topic. The authors state that “this new virtual normality…” (i.e. the

watching of digital services at home) “should be central to developing an ongoing discussion

between theology and human geography” (Andres et al. 371). They seem to state that although
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live-streaming has been a positive solution for churches during this pandemic, they are unsure

what affect it may have on the church as a whole moving forward.

Anita Cloete, author of “Living in a Digital Culture: The Need for Theological

Reflection,” would agree with the aforementioned authors. In her article she studies different

theological perspectives on Christianity in a digital culture, yet she believes that more research is

required on this topic. Unfortunately, she does not really address how COVID-19 has increased

digital communication within churches, so is not overly helpful in answering some of Andres,

Bryson, and Davies’s questions.

Overall, there does not seem to be much research regarding the impact on the future of

American churches from the increase of digital communication as a result of COVID-19. Most

of the research around this topic has been focused on the present effects on churches, rather than

looking towards the future. For example, in their article “Whether One May Flee from Digital

Worship: Reflections on Sacramental Ministry in a Public Health Crisis,” Kyle Kenneth and

Guerrero Schiefelbein study how live-streaming impacts certain aspects of services such as

communion. They are much more focused on a Sunday to Sunday basis rather than looking

towards how the church may operate in the future.

Similarly focusing on the now, Ralf Reimann discusses how a lot of churches have begun

to use forms of digital communication for the first time in his article “Uncharted Territories: The

Challenges of Digitalization and Social Media for Church and Society.” While this study, and

other studies that focus on the current effects of this digitalization are important, there must also

be research done regarding how the church will look moving forward in a post COVID-19, or at

least a lessened COVID-19, world. As of writing this, there seems to be a gap in research on this

topic.
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Research Gap

Little is known about the future effect that the increase of digital communication due to

COVID-19 in American churches will have, but the research presented in the rest of this paper

seeks to fill in some of this gap. Yet it is important to be aware that this research will only begin

to scratch the surface of addressing this topic. This research was originally planned to investigate

how, following the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person church service numbers may be impacted by

the increase of virtual church options. As opposed to past research, such as the articles and

studies mentioned above, this research seeks to understand what the church will look like

moving forward.

Of course, research cannot be conducted in such a way that it can actually predict the

future. Because of this, the research recorded in this paper focuses on current opinions and

experiences regarding online versus in-person church services, hoping that this will provide

information for how the future may unfold.

Research Question

With an increase of online church services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where do

young adults see themselves attending church in the future: online or in-person?

Methodology

To address this question, qualitative research was conducted at Messiah University.

Qualitative research is often used within communication settings to better understand or describe

patterns in communication and interaction (Davis et al. 320). Furthermore, qualitative research is

an inductive form of reasoning and is overall interpretive. Ethnography is a method of qualitative

research that focuses on cultures and cultural groups through the use of observations, focus

groups, interviews, etc (Davis et al. 325). The culture that was studied in this research was

church-attending young adults. The characteristic of ethnography that was used for this study

was focus groups.

A focus group is an in-depth discussion held by a group on a specific topic. In a focus

group there is a facilitator who asks questions and moderates the conversation. Through the use

of a focus group a facilitator can learn about the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the group

members, as well as the cultures in which they belong, based off of their conversation and

responses to the questions (Davis et al. 361).

Two focus groups were conducted in response to this research question, and I was the

facilitator for both of them. Each of the groups were originally comprised of five individuals, not

including myself. All of the participants were Messiah University traditional students, and both

of the groups were conducted on campus via Zoom. The sessions were recorded and are now

stored on the secure Messiah University Zoom account. Unfortunately, prior to the meeting of

the second focus group, one volunteer informed me that they could no longer participate. Then,

two of other volunteers did not join the Zoom call. Therefore, although the first focus group still

contained five individuals, the second one on included two. The participants for these groups

were chosen through snowball sampling.

Snowball sampling is a nonrandom sampling method in which people were asked to

make referrals to potential participants for the study (Davis et al. 164). The use of this method

ensured that I, the facilitator, did not simply recruit people I know for this study. The only

requirement for the participants was that they must be traditional Messiah University students so

that they fit within the targeted group and culture of the research question. Each of the
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participants were volunteers as there was no monetary incentive. All of the participants responses

and conversations were recorded anonymously.

In both of the focus groups the participants were asked a series of questions related to the

research question and were encouraged to dialogue with the facilitator and one another. They

were first asked if they attended church regularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether

that attendance was in-person or online. In relation to the first question, they were also asked if

they knew whether or not their churches even had an online service prior to the pandemic.

Moving on, the participants were asked if they have continued to attend church amidst the

pandemic. If yes, they were asked whether it had been in-person or online at first, and if that has

changed overtime as COVID-19 numbers have decreased and churches have begun to hold in-

person services again. If no, they were asked if they saw themselves returning in-person soon as

COVID-19 numbers continue to drop and vaccinated rates rise. Those who had stated that they

had attended online services (at least at some point) were then asked if they had attended the

online service because of COVID-19 precautions, or because of something else. They were then

asked to explain their responses.

Following this first round of questions, the participants were asked whether they prefer

attending church in-person or online. As a follow up they were asked why they answered the

previous question the way they did. They were then also asked if there were any reasons why

they would choose to attend virtually instead of in-person. Participants with roommates on

campus were then asked about their roommates’s church attendance. They were asked whether

their roommates had been attending church and whether they were doing so in-person or

virtually. After the discussion of these questions ended, the focus groups were released.
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In order to analyze the information gathered throughout the focus groups, grounded

theory, a specific approach to coding, was used. The grounded theory method begins with open

coding, which occurred as data was collected during the focus groups (Davis et al. 379). As the

focus groups occurred, emerging themes and ideas were written down based off of the

participants’ answers. Once the focus groups ended, axial coding took place in which codes were

created to connect the data collected (Davis et al. 379). Then, once no knew codes could be

created, the data had all been organized.

Results

Although the desired number of participants was not reached for the focus groups, there

were several emerging themes from the discussions that did occur. Prior to the pandemic, and

during the worst part of the pandemic, all seven of the participants shared very similar

experiences. When asked about their church attendance prior to COVID-19, each of the

participants explained that they attended church in-person on a regular basis. When asked if they

knew whether or not their church had a virtual option prior to the pandemic, two of the seven

participants stated that their churches did, but that they had never attended online before. They

both explained that watching church online did not seem like a reasonable thing to do until the

pandemic. The other five participants then explained that their churches implemented virtual

services within the first few months of the pandemic. All of the participants were then in

agreement that they attended church completely online for an extended period of time during the

pandemic.

These first results are not surprising but do indicate several things. It was expected that

many churches did not have online services in place prior to the pandemic, and that the pandemic
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caused many churches to adapt and implement virtual components for the first time. The results

from these focus groups are just further qualitative proof of that. Also, the fact that none of the

participants attended online church prior to the pandemic, even though some of their churches

offered virtual services, indicates that many may not have considered church online as a viable

option prior to the pandemic. But, when the pandemic caused most churches to only provide

online options for an extended period, the idea of attending church online began to become

normalized for many.

Moving on, all of the participants explained that their churches, whether at home or close

to school, eventually reintroduced in-person services. Although this seemed to happen at

different times for all participants, the common theme was that they all again have the option to

attend church in-person. All of the participants also explained that they have since attended a

church service in-person again.

These results were also not very surprising. Before the start of this research it was

expected that all participants would have had the opportunity to attend church in-person again. It

would have been surprising if any of the participants explained that their churches were still not

offering in-person services, but this was not the case. Although not necessarily surprising, it is

interesting that all of the participants have attended church in-person again. Just because it was

expected that they would all have the opportunity to do this, it is not necessarily expected that

they would have all taken advantage of this opportunity, especially with online options still

available. This could possibly show that young adults do have a desire to attend church in-person

versus online, but there was more information on this topic that came out later in the focus

groups.
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Since it had already been established that each of the participants had the option to return

to church in-person and that they had all chosen this option at one point or another, they were

then asked how often they had been attending church in-person versus online. It was here that

answers began to differentiate more between participants. Two of the seven participants stated

that they had not attended a church online since their churches reintroduced in-person services.

One of the other participants explained that although they have attended church in-person again a

couple of times, they have been mostly viewing services online. The other four participants were

somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum, with a couple of them stating that their

virtual versus in-person attendance is split 50/50.

To clarify all of the participants previous answers (not including the two who stated that

they have only been attending in-person), they were asked if their online attendance has been

because of taking cautionary steps regarding COVID-19, or if it has been for some other reason.

None of the participants responded by saying that their online attendance has been because of

COVID-19, but rather explained several other reasons. Some of the participants explained that

online services are just more accessible and less time consuming. They explained that because of

this, online services were the better option if they wanted to sleep in or had something else

happening after the service. Some of the participants also explained that being a student in

college contributed to them occasionally attending online. They explained that they would either

want to attend their home church, but because of the distance would watch online instead, or that

they struggle to connect with churches in the area so they resort to watching online. One of the

participants also explained that since they do not have a car, watching church online is their only

option unless they can catch a ride with someone else.

All of these results are incredibly important in the context of the research question. Since

the goal of this research is to learn about how young adults perceive church attendance in a post-

pandemic world, it was very helpful to hear first-person accounts of peoples’ experiences with

online versus in-person services since churches have reopened. Although the participants did not

consider online church as an option prior to the pandemic, most have been attending church

online (whether regularly or occasionally) for reasons other than health and safety. It is evident

that the pandemic has allowed people to consider church online as a more realistic option, for

reasons other than safety precautions. At the very least, the perception of online church as a

reasonable way to attend church is growing among young adults.

It was also very interesting to hear whether the participants preferred attending church in-

person or online. Each of the participants stated that they preferred to attend church in-person,

even the participant that more regularly attends church online. When asked why they preferred

attending church in-person over online, the participants were mostly all in agreement. Many of

the participants explained that they longed for the sense of community that was provided when

attending church in-person. Others explained that they were extraverted and just appreciated the

time to talk to other people at church. Some stated that they have trouble paying attention when

they attend church online, so they feel as though they get more out of attending church in-person.

One of the participants even explained that they considered it more powerful for the Body of

Christ to attend together in-person rather than online.

Each of the participants seemed very passionate about how they prefer church in-person,

which is surprising considering the amount of them that still attended church online semi-

regularly. This shows that preference alone is not enough reason for people to attend church in-
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person. It seems as though, at least for college students, convenience will sometimes trump

preference, resulting in more church attendance online.

The final question that the participants were asked was if they knew of any of their

roommates or friends general church attendance. The goal of this question was to see if the

trends within the participants of the focus groups could be attributed to other college students as

well. Some of the participants explained that their roommates/friends did not attend church at all,

but for the most part, the participants explained similar experiences for their roommates/friends

as they did for themselves. The overall trend was that attending church online was becoming

more and more common among young adults.

Limitations

Before looking at the importance and meaning of the results of this study, it is essential to

acknowledge the limitations of this study. Firstly, it is important to mention the limit of people

that could even participate in this study. Since this study is looking at and comparing in-person

and virtual church attendance, participants needed to be people that actually attended church

regularly, in one way or another. If a participant did not attend church regularly, then they would

not have been helpful to the study.

Secondly, the focus group participants were limited to Messiah University students. Since

Messiah University is a private Christian school, many of the students may have stronger

feelings about church attendance as a topic than other young adults. Because of this limitation for

who could participate in this study, an argument could be made that the participants are not truly

representative to young adults as a whole. Not only did the participants possibly have stronger
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opinions regarding this topic than the average young adult may have, but the young adult

population is also not completely made up of college students, yet the focus groups were.

Thirdly, a lot of the participants in this study knew each other. This could be considered a

limitation because it may have impacted the way that the participants answered the questions that

they were asked. Many of the participants explained that they preferred attending church in-

person, yet regularly attended church online. Although this may simply demonstrate that

convenience can trump preference, it may also be due to the fact that the participants were not

being completely honest in order to not be perceived a certain way by those that they knew in the

group. There is no way to prove that this was indeed a limitation to this study, but it is important

to mention nonetheless.

Discussion

Despite the aforementioned limitations of this study, the results from this study are still

important and meaningful in both communication and ministry fields. Firstly, this study further

demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic caused churches to adapt, specifically in areas of

digital communication. The participants’ experiences showed that many churches developed

online services only once the pandemic began. Of course, this is not overtly surprising or new

information, and it agrees with findings from other research. The studies found within the articles

“COVID-19, Virtual Church Services and a New Temporary Geography of Home” and

“COVID-19 Shows the Need to Make Church More Flexible,” which were reflected upon in the

literature review, demonstrated how the pandemic impacted communication of churches. The

first few results of this study agreed with these researches.

Secondly, this study showed that in-person church services were not completely killed

off by the pandemic. The fact that each of the participants had since attended church in-person

again, even if they more regularly still attend online, demonstrates that in-person services are not

going anywhere. Again, this is in agreement with the article “COVID-19, Virtual Church

Services and a New Temporary Geography of Home,” in which the authors argue that the

popularity of online church services will not diminish the amount of in-person services.

Now, the rest of the results from this study do not necessarily agree or disagree with other

research, because there has not been research conducted on this topic, yet they are important and

meaningful nonetheless. This study showed that although young adults may prefer attending

church online, the convenience of online services cannot be ignored. Since all of the participants

preferred attending church in person, yet most of them still attended virtually semi-regularly, it

seems as though online church services have become a realistic option for young adults, even if

they do not consider it to be the most ideal option. The common trend found in this research is

that attending church online is more popular among young adults than it has ever been before,

and this has a direct correlation to the COVID-19 pandemic. But why are these findings

important?

As Cloete pointed out in her article “Living in a Digital Culture: The Need for

Theological Reflection,” since gathering at church has become such an important aspect of the

Christian faith, any change to what church looks like should be followed by theological

reflection. With attending church online becoming increasingly popular among young adults, it is

important to begin to consider what impact this will have on the Church and on the faith of those

who take part in it.

The goal of this research was not to offer theological reflection on the increase of online

services but rather to see if the increase is impacting how young adults perceive church

attendance. Now that the research has concluded and it is apparent that young adults do indeed

perceive attending church online as a realistic alternative, further research and theological

reflections must be conducted. Ideally, future research on this topic would include larger sample

sizes, and not solely be focused on young adults but rather all church attenders. Furthermore,

future research and theological reflections will hopefully begin to explore the ripple effects that

the increase of attending church online will have on the Christian faith as a whole.
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Davis, Christine S et al. Straight Talk About Communication Research Methods. Kendall Hunt

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