COVID-19 Church Survey Second Round Report
HOW CHURCH LEADERS ARE RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19
Andrew MacDonald, Daniel Yang and Ed Stetzer
"Churches are not exempt from this sense of uncertainty as they try to carve out new routines for weekly services and ministries in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic."
In partnership with the Billy Graham Center's Send Institute, Leadership Network, Discipleship.org, and ARC, Exponential conducted a survey of church leaders and pastors' responses to the COVID-19 epidemic and quarantine. The purpose of this polling is to help church leaders get a feel for where things are regarding the state of the Church and the significant challenges as they adapt to their new reality of remote ministry.
According to the 1,500+ church leaders who were surveyed, pastors and church leaders are experiencing the same uncertainty that we are seeing in other industries during this crisis. Churches are not exempt from this sense of uncertainty as they try to carve out new routines for weekly services and ministries. This most recent edition of the survey builds upon many of the same questions as our previous report while also exploring in greater detail the impact of the crisis upon the financial state of the church and the mental health of the pastor. We are well over a month into the crisis and many have been on shelter-at-home orders for several weeks.
In the complete findings of this report you will find:
- Trends in innovation
- Church leaders' outlook on uncertain finances
- Current top priorities for church leaders
- The emergence of collaborative platforms
- Trends in church leaders' mental state in relation to significant workload increases
This Report is one of many resources available on our COVID-19 Resources Page. Click here for more.
To read the first survey report, click here.
Thanks again to our partners the Billy Graham Center's Send Institute, Leadership Network, Discipleship.org, and ARC for helping to get the word out about this important study.
Author(s)
Andrew MacDonald is the Associate Director of the Billy Graham Center Institute. He has an MA in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Talbot School of Theology and is currently a PhD Candidate in Historical Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Andrew and his wife Jenna live in Wheaton, Illinois with their two children.
Daniel Yang is the Director of the Send Institute, leading and overseeing all of its initiatives. Prior to directing the institute, he planted a church in Toronto where he also helped recruit, assess, and train church planters through the Send Network and the Release Initiative. Daniel has served on various church staffs including Northwood Church, led by Bob Roberts Jr., where he was trained as a church planter and was involved in global and multi-faith engagement. Prior to church planting, Daniel was an engineer for eight years. He earned an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, and is currently a Ph.D. Intercultural Studies student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written or co-written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. Stetzer also co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets.
Sponsors
A special thanks to the sponsors of this eBook. This eBook is available to you thanks to their generosity. Please consider showing your gratitude to these sponsors by visiting their web sites.
In 1980, together with Wheaton College, Rev. Billy Graham birthed the Billy Graham Center, stating his vision that the BGC would be “a world hub of inspiration, research, preaching, and training that will glorify Christ and serve every church and organization in preaching and teaching the gospel to the world.”
Exponential is a growing community of leaders committed to accelerating the multiplication of healthy, reproducing faith communities. We equip movement makers with actionable principles, ideas and solutions. We are passionate about accelerating multiplication through movement makers!
Discipleship.org is a collaborative community of men and women committed to the discipleship lifestyle—being disciples of Jesus and making disciples of Jesus.
ARC is an association of relational churches working with church planters and church leaders to provide support, guidance and resources to launch and grow life-giving churches.
Leadership Network is the premier leadership collaborative for pastors and churches. Over 200,000 church leaders around the world engage in Leadership Network to acquire innovative knowledge and drive local impact. By inspiring and equipping leaders, we seek to help the Church flourish and communities thrive.