"DJ Soto began preaching in the world of virtual reality (VR) in 2016. He is the founder and bishop of Virtual Reality Church, a church that is intended to be radically inclusive and consistent with Christianity’s long history of adapting to new forms of media." - C.Leaders
"The National COVID-19 Church Attendance Project (NCCAP) represents our efforts to try to see the bigger picture. By gathering as many individual church stories as possible, from all over the country, we aim to provide a broad sense of the impact of COVID on the church and what the path to recovery has looked like so far." - C.Today
When it comes to church participation, it is tempting to label the unenthused as probably unregenerate. Although this may be the case, it might be that professing believers who have lost the desire to come to church are simply socially anxious, isolated, and fearful of commitment. What I call “socially disconnected.”
Some people hate the church because they were raised in church-going abusive or hypocritical families and understandably want nothing to do with the church; some are vocal (or even militant) about this rejection while others console themselves, thinking they love Jesus but not His people. We are right to sympathize with those who thus suffered, but we also need to remember that such excuses will evaporate before the all-knowing Judge of all. To write off all churches or Christians is nothing more than stereo-typing and prejudice.
We live in a day, however, when growing numbers of professing believers avoid church for a reason they will not admit to others or even themselves: they are socially inhibited. (This should not be confused with shyness or introversion, or autism; shy, introverted, or moderately autistic people can be quite social, particularly if they have developed good social skills). Among the socially disconnected, complaints about the church may or may not be justified, but such complaints are not the actual reason for their non-attendance, just a handy pretext.
"To truly understand how healthy we are as a church we have to know how we are caring for the three circles of people we are called to shepherd; our neighbors, our followers and our disciples." - C.Leaders
"Our information at this point is both early and anecdotal, but we are hearing from numerous pastors that many church members who were frequent in their church attendance are now once-a-monthers. This observation lends itself to many questions. Is this trend temporary, one that will improve as COVID concerns wane?" - Thom Rainer
"...while the focus here is on church attendance, it’s logical to conclude that individuals who felt comfortable going back to weekend worship were also more willing to engage in other social activities. It is therefore difficult to isolate whether church attendance was the vector that most likely spread the infection" - The Conversation
"The Good: Two-Thirds of Churched Adults Feel “Encouraged” After Worship Services....The Bad: Half of Churched Adults Feel “Disappointed” After Church at Least Sometimes" - Barna
"This year, the majority of pastors (80%) [are] excited to celebrate Easter with congregants inside their church buildings with COVID-19 precautions in place. Another one in five (22%) [are] meeting outdoors to accommodate social distancing during the worship service." - Barna
