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Dear Folks:
A new study, funded by Lilly Foundation and run by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, was recently released that tallies data for religious engagement in the US. In 2025, they completed a study Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations (EPIC), and these are the results that have been published recently. Jumping off the longitudinal study Faith Communities Today (FACT) from 2000 2020, EPIC has reported on trends in faith communities across the US due to the pandemic. The online journal, Faith and Leadership, run by the Forum for Congregational Life at Duke University, gave a nice encapsulation of the data in an article titled “Signs of rebound: Church attendance shows first uptick in decades”.
The study showed that median attendance in US congregations has increased since the pandemic. Although modest, the gains are encouraging, since the trend of attendance over the last 25 years has been a significant decline. The numbers are still much lower than in 2000; however, this is the first time in decades that there has been even a slight uptick. Church leaders are reporting that signs of vitality and optimism are more palpable than 6 years ago during the pandemic. Clergy are naming that their mental, physical, spiritual health is better, and giving overall is up, too.
While most of these gains are seen in large churches, I have seen on my congregational visits and heard from many of you that there is a quiet increase in attendance and membership. Young families are returning to church to better prepare their kids for a tumultuous and unclear world. Elders who haven’t worshipped in sometime are coming back. Although costs are up, I am hearing that financial pictures for our churches are stabilizing. (The study points to more online giving as part of the cause.) And of course, online attendance is much higher than prior to the pandemic. I think we can cautiously celebrate some of these changes.
These studies have lots of data that can be hard to read and interpret, and I wonder if you recognize these trends in your communities. I also wonder what the pandemic taught you.
I am seeing hope return to the Conference. I’ve had conversations about how we might think about search and call differently, and there are a few of our members discerning calls to authorized ministry. The Small Town and Rural (STAR) Coalition is giving the UCC a new priority for programming, and our Conference is part of these conversations. Faithful and Welcoming organization for Evangelical, Conservative, Orthodox, and Traditional (ECOT) UCC churches is reaching out across the denomination to be sure the table is open to those all along the political and theological spectrums; along with Rocky Mountain, Northern Plains, South Dakota, and Nebraska Conferences, we are planning an ECOT event in November to gather folks in conversation and support at Placerville Camp. The UCC Musicians Association is taking on the STAR priorities, with some promise that this will begin to be helpful for us in Montana and Wyoming, and we are looking toward a Conference-wide church music day in the near future.
So, maybe some good news for the middle of summer!
In peace and prayer,
Pastor Tony
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