“We don’t need the building [for our mission]. Other people do need the building and should be in the building because there’s possibilities that God’s Spirit is going to be doing something in there.” — Pastor, Open Hearts UMC The Religious Workforce Project’s team has conducted interviews with 44 congregational leaders in the greater Washington,…
“…I believe that we are in a wilderness moment. … Just as the people of Israel were in a wilderness moment long ago, we are going to a place that we do not yet know what it will look like — life coming out of the pandemic, into an intentionally hybrid church, into a church…
How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? In this episode of Leading Ideas Talks from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary, Scott Thumma shares insights from ongoing research on the pandemic’s impact on congregational life and…
This article shares highlights from an in-depth interview with Scott Thumma, available in Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary. How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? Doug Powe, director of the Lewis…
How are congregations faring two years after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in the United States? Has the number of worshipers who attend services in their houses of worship reached the level it was before the pandemic started? Is worshiping online still the “new normal”? Starting in July 2020, Pew Research Center carried out…