What Next?
How Has the Pandemic Changed Your Congregation for Good?

Congregational Change, Culture Frame, Interviews, Jewish Synagogues, Ritual & Worship, Theology Frame, United States & Canada

If ‘congregation’ implies gathering, March 2020 created a seismic shift that has fundamentally altered congregational life. If we are able to return to pre-pandemic habits sometime soon, which of the new habits will remain?
Thinking about that question will require the sort of careful assessment long-time congregation watcher Jack Wertheimer has offered in a recent essay, “How Will Synagogues Survive?”. He comes to his wisdom by asking good questions and gathering good data.

Finding God in a Pandemic and Beyond:
Online and Ordinary Sacred Places

Attendance, Buildings & Spaces, Catholic Parishes, Culture Frame, Ritual & Worship, Technology & Internet, Theology Frame, Theology-Feature, United States & Canada

Where does one go to find God? Quite commonly, a place of worship. Even people who aren’t sure if God exists seek divine help in churches and mosques and cathedrals because such religious buildings are understood as sacred spaces. If God does exist, surely God will be found in these holy places. 

This understanding of sacred space poses a problem in a global pandemic, however. Where does one go to find God when those religious buildings are closed? And beyond the pandemic, it challenges communities of faith to think in new ways.

Networked Congregations:
Together and Apart

Catholic Parishes, Commitment & Belonging, Culture Frame, Networks & Relationships, Ritual & Worship, Theology Frame, Theology-Feature, United States & Canada

Worship is a central activity of congregations everywhere, but what has happened during these months when gathering hasn’t been possible? A survey conducted during the first two months of the outbreak in North America showed that pastors’ top priority was to find a way to continue their weekend worship services in the midst of the…

Exploring Congregational Connections

Clergy, Ecology Frame, Ecology-Feature, Interviews, Neighborhoods & Contexts, Networks & Relationships

No – those aren’t coronaviruses you see! They are connections between congregations! As much as we all may feel isolated these days, you have likely also been discovering just how interconnected your world is and how much we all need each other. And that goes for congregations, too. The ecology in which your congregation is…

Flourishing Congregations:
Not All Are As They Appear

Attendance, Congregational Size, Interviews, Leadership, Process Frame, Process-Feature, Resources Frame, Surveys, Thriving Congregations, United States & Canada

Amidst the endless stream of research studies, news stories, and anecdotes that rightly report on religious decline across denominations and congregations, where are the signs of congregational life and vitality, and what can we learn from such settings? These are anchoring questions for our Canadian-based research team at the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University.…