I received a surprise phone call from my friend Rick Warren (yes, the Pastor Rick Warren) over the Thanksgiving holiday. Once I got over my shock that Pastor Rick would take time to speak to me, we got talking about declining and stagnating church attendance following the COVID season. He said to me, “Mike, (he’s the only person who […]
Category: Evangelization
Preaching to an empty church in the early days of the COVID crisis was jarring, to say the least. I knew the cameras were rolling but was anyone really watching? Losing my congregation was disheartening, even though we knew it wasn’t a permanent loss…at least not totally. Certainly, by now, it is clear church attendance […]
This time last year, I was reporting on this blog that our attendance was hovering somewhere around one-third of our pre-Covid congregation. We had anticipated that the post-lockdown attendance would be sluggish. But even so, we were surprised by all the empty seats each week. At that time, there were still so many unanswered questions, […]
Thus says the LORD: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. – Micah 5:1 It was the prophet Micah who foretold the birthplace of the Messiah. Like other Old Testament prophets, his is a challenging message […]
Advent is far and away my favorite liturgical season of the year. Perhaps it’s because I was ordained just before Advent and the season was my first experience as a priest. Perhaps it’s because the days are getting shorter, the evenings darker and colder, and all that seems perfectly matched with the themes and readings […]
What has become undeniably clear over the last months, and especially the last weeks, is that a return to pre-COVID church attendance is not happening anytime soon. We’ve discussed possible reasons why in previous posts. But what we didn’t completely anticipate was how the re-opening process would happen in fits and starts. In many places, […]
Every church I am in conversation with has seen a setback in their in-person weekend attendance this past year. Typically, I’m hearing between 20% to 50% of pre-COVID attendance. Currently, here at Nativity, we are consistently seeing 35% of our previous attendance at our reduced weekend Mass schedule (three Masses down from five). In case […]
In one recent national poll, respondents were asked to identify their mindset towards the next step in what I have come to call the COVID ordeal. The poll found that people fall into four distinct categories: 45% Vaccinated and ready for a return to normal 25% Vaccinated but not ready for a return to normal […]
Recently I was reading one of my favorite “church” blogs, Pastor Tony Morgan (The Unstuck Church Group) and came across this striking aphorism: “My church is for me, but it’s not about me.” I am often asked what was the single most important thing we did, decision we made, or turn we took, that had […]
In my last post I argued the ongoing importance of our online presence, including live streaming weekend Masses. It will be more important post-COVID than it was before. At the same time, this in no way suggests that attendance, physical presence, and, of course, the reception of Holy Communion at church are unimportant. They’re critical. […]
