Which Churches Will Close Due to COVID-19?

Churches, like businesses, must have funds to cover expenditures.  Wealthy churches have large endowments or other revenue sources that provide income in addition to members' donations, but many small churches do not have such resources to draw upon when faced with financial struggles.

This Religion News Service article is about the financial struggles of small churches during the COVID-19 pandemic.  One factor is location.

Director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research Scott Thumma, who helped lead the Faith Communities Today project, said small churches look different depending on the region. About 44% of these small churches are located in rural areas.

Churches in small towns or rural areas may have an advantage, Thumma said.  If a congregation is struggling in a city, there may be people who would want that property, "but in a small rural area the church can exist because there is not great demand for their building," he said.

Another is the membership's age.

Thumma said it's more common for small congregations — churches with weekly attendance of 50 or fewer — to have members over the age of 65. 

Data from the most recent Faith Communities Today research shows that in 2015 more than half of small churches (52%) have a membership that's at least one-third seniors. Whereas, in larger churches (with weekly attendance of 100 or more), just 11% have a membership made up of at least one-third seniors.

While having the ability to go online for services could help smaller churches remain viable during this time, Thumma pointed out that having more seniors in the congregation who are less likely to use social media would make it difficult to set up online giving.

So, which churches will not survive the pandemic?  We will just have to wait to find out, but we do have a few clues about which will struggle the most to survive.  Doing the research to find out which ones actually do close down due to COVID-19 would be a good research project for a student.