A miracle in my family — it’s time to tell the story
ATOKA, OKLA. — To Tod Dillard, COVID-19 was no big…
Lessons amid pandemic loss
COVID-19 brought immediate changes — and long-term ramifications — to Churches of Christ.
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Five years ago, COVID-19 turned the world upside down.
On a Sunday in mid-March, numerous Churches of Christ in the U.S. and abroad canceled regular worship assemblies — some for the first time.
Thus began the remarkable upheaval caused by the once-in-a-century pandemic.
The prospect of a rare, contagious and sometimes fatal virus spreading among church members brought immediate changes — and long-term ramifications.
“We were asked by the governor … to not have gatherings together,” Mark Ray, minister for the Benton Church of Christ in Kentucky, said that first Sunday. “One-fourth of our members are over 65, and that’s who would have come.”
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Instead, the Benton church livestreamed a devotional message by Ray and made communion supplies available for pickup or delivery.
Noel Walker, minister for the Tintern Church of Christ in Vineland, Ontario, south of Toronto, said love, not fear, prompted his congregation to offer an internet broadcast instead of a normal assembly that Sunday.
“We wanted to be part of the local infection control strategy rather than contribute to the problem,” Walker said.
In East Tennessee, the Karns Church of Christ in the Knoxville area drew a crowd of 270 that Sunday, down from a normal 420.
But Karns preacher Steve Higginbotham stressed then that he did not view people staying home to protect themselves as “forsaking the assembly.”
“I just think we need to curtail the talk that goes something like this: ‘By not attending, or by canceling class/services, you are showing your lack of faith in God,’” Higginbotham told The Christian Chronicle that day. “Quite the contrary!
“We are demonstrating our love and deference toward our more vulnerable followers of Jesus,” he stressed. “Also, many of our members work through the week with people who are vulnerable and high risk. By curtailing certain assemblies, we are showing compassion toward them as well.”
In 2020, teens wear masks during a baccalaureate service at the Manchester Church of Christ in Connecticut. The coronavirus pandemic has brought changes to such annual rites.
‘Growth for us is the result of the pandemic’
Five years later, some Churches of Christ have seen growth and others diminished membership that they attribute to the pandemic.
Still others — no one knows exactly how many — have closed their doors for good.
Relying on advice from government officials or members in health care or, in some cases, virus denyers with no medical experience at all, church leaders made decisions about meeting together, wearing masks, worshiping online, gathering outdoors and dozens of other challenges and innovations.
Controversy often ensued, inside and outside the church walls.
Ray, the Kentucky preacher whose church did not meet that first Sunday, said the congregation has grown since the pandemic, from about 300 to roughly 345.
Like Ray, a surprising number of church leaders who responded to an online Christian Chronicle survey — representing bodies with Sunday attendance ranging from 30 to 1,100 — report increased numbers after COVID-19.
However, a majority of respondents indicate post-pandemic attendance is smaller at their church.
According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of U.S. adults taking part in religious services “in some way” — in person, virtually or both — has remained quite steady.
Survey findings from the Pew Research Center.
During the three to four months when members at Benton — a rural community in Kentucky’s Marshall County — did not meet, the church developed a stronger online presence that helped reach shut-ins, Ray said.
For a while, a New Jersey congregation with no preacher tuned in and worshiped with the Kentucky church.
Marshall County comprises more than a dozen Churches of Christ, most quite small, with some members who Ray said “didn’t believe in the virus or weren’t taking any precautions. And we had quite a few who came over because of that — they thought it was a little safer.
Related: Surviving a pandemic
“Growth for us is the result of the pandemic,” Ray said.
After returning to in-person assemblies, the Benton church offered two or three services to enable social distancing, and while some “took it as an affront,” others appreciated it and came to the church because of that, including some from denominations.
“And they stayed with us,” the minister said. “Part of it is the safety practices, but others came to appreciate an active youth program and programs for older adults, among others.”
In 2021, flags cover the snowy ground outside the Alum Creek Church of Christ in Lewis Center, Ohio, in memory of the millions who had died from COVID-19.
‘Everyone has taken one step back’
When COVID-19 hit, Christians at Tintern — the Canadian congregation — already were planning to meet somewhere besides their building during a major renovation later in 2020.
So when local authorities asked large groups not to assemble, the church made the shift to online worship. Their building contractor, who lost some other jobs because of the pandemic, got to work early.
Tintern is the largest of six mainstream and three non-institutional Churches of Christ in Ontario’s Niagara region. It’s about 30 minutes from Niagara Falls.
In a 2017 file photo, a Syrian refugee named Samira, then 18, serves a tiny cup of expresso to Canadian minister Noel Walker, as Noel’s wife, Julie Walker, and Samira’s younger brother, Mohammed, smile at the camera.
Walker said membership has remained essentially unchanged, but Sunday attendance has declined from about 150 to about 120, even though the number of families remains the same.
“Only three individuals and two couples left, but habits have changed,” the preacher explained, “People who used to come every Sunday now come three times a month, and people who came two or three times come once. Everyone has taken one step back.
“People are a little less likely to gather,” Walker said. “We have a livestream now, and about 15 to 20 use livestream on a Sunday.”
In 2021, a health care worker fills a syringe with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer.
People ‘shuffled to different congregation’
Whatever accommodations churches made for the pandemic — or didn’t make — most had some members who disagreed.
From the beginning, that was the case for the Karns church, said Higginbotham, the Tennessee congregation’s minister.
“Masks or no masks, all meet at the same time or divide — we tried all kinds of different things to make people happy and meet everybody’s needs,” he recalled.
Still, some people left.
Other Knoxville congregations, no matter what position elders took, lost members, too, as people “shuffled to different congregations,” Higginbotham said.
Ultimately, Karns lost about 60 people during the pandemic, but the contribution never went down. And the church celebrated 45 baptisms in 2024 and 34 in 2023.
Related: Faith and COVID-19
Today, Karns maintains its online presence and continues to modify its Lord’s Supper service by using single-serve packs. Of the various changes made by churches during the pandemic, the switch to single-serve communion sets remains common.
“We’re growing. We’re very evangelistic. That’s accounted for us not suffering,” Higginbotham said. “We’ve brought in a lot of different people through evangelistic efforts.”
In a 2020 file photo, Christians pick up individual communion packets on the way into worship.
‘Looking out for the vulnerable sheep’
No one wants to return to the time of isolation and arguments, well intentioned or otherwise, over masks and social distancing and how the Lord’s Supper will be served.
But even amid the loss of fellowship and loss of lives, lessons can be found — for churches and individuals.
In Kentucky, Ray said members learned “it’s not wrong to listen to science. It’s a way of showing love for your brother.”
“It’s not wrong to listen to science. It’s a way of showing love for your brother.”
He believes that lesson was worthwhile.
“For a congregation of 350, we only lost one person to COVID,” Ray said. “And most around here lost quite a few.”
Members learned to be willing to adapt, he said. “You had to ask a lot of hard questions about what is required and what is tradition.”
Walker said the Tintern congregation learned to hear different voices.
“Through two times of lockdown, we invited different people to participate in worship by recording a reading of Scripture,” he recalled. “When it came time to come back together, the congregation said, ‘Are we going back to the way it was, or can we involve more people in worship?’”
After a lengthy discernment process, elders allowed women to be involved in public worship roles.
Related: A long, lonely lockdown
“We saw it as an opportunity for our congregation,” Walker said. “And we’ve heard from voices we’ve never heard from before.”
He acknowledged the process was difficult. Some were delighted, and some struggled. “But they’re still with us.”
Higginbotham, meanwhile, said he really came to appreciate elders more.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime, on-the-fly situation, trying to make decisions and not being able to satisfy everyone,” he said. “And what I saw was, the decisions they made were for the good of people that were vulnerable. Some were contending for their fights, but the elders were looking out for the vulnerable sheep.”
CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact [email protected].
