Despite their struggles, many congregations are optimistic about the future. Clergy dissatisfaction, on the other hand, remains on the rise.

Those are among the findings of the latest report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, part of a five-year study of the impact of the pandemic on America's churches.

This latest report drew from surveys for 4,809 congregations from 58 denominational groups, including an oversampling of 20 denominations, as part of the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations study. The surveys were fielded from January to May of 2023.

"It is apparent that congregational dynamics are still in a state of flux," said Scott Thumma, director of the study.

"Churches, and especially clergy, continue in a recovery phase. Even though aspects of church life are rebounding, the destiny of many faith communities is still uncertain."

The median attendance at local congregations stood at 60 people as of spring 2023, down slightly from 65 in the spring of 2020, according to the report — a decline of 9%.

About a third (30%) of churches said they'd experienced significant decline, while a quarter (24%) experienced some decline.

Twelve percent stayed the same, while 11% said they'd experienced some growth.

One in 4 congregations (22%) had experienced significant growth.

That pattern — half of churches reporting decline while a third reported growth — is similar to the pattern at the beginning of the pandemic, according to the report.

Researchers also found that 16% of worship attendees were new people in 2023, up from 5% in 2020.

A number of people also continue to attend services online — an average of about 25 people, according to the congregations that track their online attendance. About half of congregations do so, with a median attendance of 75 overall, including online and in-person.

"Congregations remain optimistic about the future, but it is also apparent they are continuing to wrestle with the troubling conditions that were in existence long before COVID-19 arrived," the report's researchers wrote.

Giving at congregations went up by about 42% over the past three years, from a median of $120,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2023.

"Even adjusting for inflation, this still represents a remarkable increase of over 25% since 2020," according to the report.

Online giving appears to have played a role in boosting donations. Congregations that offer online giving reported higher per capita giving, ranging from $2,052 at congregations where online giving is used a little to $2,428 where online giving is used a lot.

Congregations that do not offer online giving options reported per capita giving of $1,809.

The report noted that only 31% of churches reported using online giving in 2015, whereas now 67% do so, and nearly half (48%) use this method "a lot."

Researchers suspect that capital campaigns and other fundraising projects that were postponed in 2020 may have been started in 2023, boosting the giving.

Despite the boost from online donors, the return to in-person worship appears to play a role in increased giving.

In congregations where there are more virtual worshippers than in-person worshippers, the median per capita giving was $1,053.

In congregations where most of the attendees are in person and few are virtual, giving was $2,479 per capita.

"Whatever the reasons for the rise, it will be interesting to watch this trend in future surveys," researchers wrote. "This is especially true since the growth in income did not translate into a significantly more positive assessment of the congregation's financial health compared to their self-perception of five years earlier."

Giving to religious groups — including congregations and other faith-based charities — grew by 5.2% in 2022, according to the Giving USA report.

Those donations made up about a quarter (27%) of all giving to charity — and religion was the only sector in the Giving USA report where giving went up.

While online worship persists, other forms of activities — such as youth programs, adult education and prayer groups — that were held online during the pandemic are now mostly in person.

"Half of churches are not holding any small groups or Bible studies online, 40% do not use online platforms for their administrative and committee meetings, and 40% have no e-newsletter," according to the report.

In other findings, volunteerism is bouncing back, with congregations reporting that a third (35%) of their members volunteer regularly, up from 15% in 2021 and 20% in 2022.

That number, however, does not match the 45% who volunteered in 2020.

Conflict at congregations has also declined, with 7% reporting that conflict was so serious that clergy left, 9% saying people withheld funds due to conflict and 30% saying people left due to serious conflict. In 2020, 12% of congregations reported that clergy left due to conflict, 13% said people withheld funds due to conflict, and 35% said people left.

Thirty-nine percent said there was no serious conflict in 2023, up from 36% in 2020, while 32% said there was conflict but it was not serious, up from 28% in 2020.

Almost half of congregations (45%) said they were very positive about the future, while a third (36%) were somewhat positive. Nine percent were somewhat negative and only 2% said they were very negative.

However, the percentage of clergy who have thought about leaving both their church and the ministry altogether has risen since 2020.

In 2021, most clergy in the survey (79%) said they had never thought about leaving their current church, while 13% said they thought often about leaving.

In 2023, the number who never thought about leaving had dropped to 62%, while 29% said they thought about it often.

As for leaving the ministry altogether, two-thirds of clergy (62%) said in 2021 that they had never thought about doing so, while 27% said they thought about it often.

In 2023, 49% said they never thought about leaving, while a third (34%) have thought about it often.

Congregations also have less enthusiasm for change, three years after the start of the pandemic.

In the summer of 2021, 86% of congregations said they were willing to embrace change in order to meet their challenges — including 47% who strongly agreed that they were willing to change.

In 2023, two-thirds (66%) were willing to change — with only 20% strongly agreeing.

Researchers said congregations appear to be hopeful that they can face the challenges ahead of them. But those challenges are significant.

"Amid these positive signs remain some structural and organizational challenges that indicate all is not entirely rosy. Even given the rebounding attendance and level of optimism, the broad pattern of considerable membership decline remains ever-present."

• Bob Smietana is a veteran religion writer and national reporter for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome has set up a three-year study to find ways to respond to religious sisters' needs.

Stress and burnout are major reasons many women abandon religious life.

The UISGs initiative was highlighted in the monthly women's supplement of L'Osservatore Romano, which is the official Vatican newspaper.

The article prompted Pope Francis to open a house in Rome to welcome and give assistance to former sisters.

Of the world's 650,000 women religious, it appears burnout is causing a weakening of vocations. Sisters who feel overworked and exhausted are leaving.

This has caused concern at the Vatican.

"When you are a religious, you don't listen to one another, it is still frowned upon in many congregations," says a professional facilitator who regularly works with sisters.

As work is often linked to their service commitment, failing in work is often seen as failing in their vocation.

"They are so profoundly dedicated to their mission, that they sometimes neglect personal needs such as sleep or even food and recreation," a psychotherapist says.

"They have an extremely high and even unattainable ideal, they work for Christ, follow him with their whole being, and not to achieve this any more calls into question their faith."

Commenting on the sisters' situation, a priest who is also a medical doctor says burnout is a "disease of giving".

Burnnout is therefore particularly hard on social or service professions.

When the vocation involves "giving one's life", there are no limits, he says.

A man who set up a shelter for people suffering from burnout three years ago aims to get residents - which include vowed religious - back on their feet.

"Some people can't set limits. There is a kind of headlong rush to excess, which is accentuated by a misguided spirituality," he explains.

A literal reading Saint Ignatius of Loyola's prayer for generosity is an example of this:

"Teach us, good Lord... to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward," it says.

Whether nuns are more susceptible to burnout than others is a matter of opinion.

The answer seems to be "not necessarily".

Normally sisters benefit from spiritual accompaniment, which can help them accept their fragility and human condition.

However, "God's call can get buried under an agenda. 'Doing' can make us forget the reason why we follow Christ," says one sister.

"Religious life is not primarily about 'doing', but being with God," she says.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Flickr

Trevor McGlinchey, the executive director at the NZ Council of Christian Social Services, said the typical Kiwi family seeking help was now often more at risk of unravelling after a single financially stressful event. Read more

People agonising over healthcare, fretting about unemployment, troubled by tuition payments, mortgage payments, car payments or other costs.

So many people, it seems, are labouring to be at peace, groping for stable ground, living for the weekends.

So many people, even those with health and wealth, straining to be joyful and satisfied, seeing life not as a gift but as a series of unfair demands.

It seems that we've forgotten one crucial thing: Hardship is not the point of life. Stress is not our purpose.

We were not given this incomprehensible, stupendously amazing gift of being alive to spend it negotiating a ceaseless angst.

We are not here to carry on with an anxiety that turns us to addiction, pettiness, self-loathing and, ultimately, captivity.

Of course, we must not ignore suffering. Pain is not an illusion. Grief is real. Worry will wake us.

But pain and suffering are byproducts of being alive, not the point of it. We might struggle to live; we do not live to struggle.

We were not given life as a punishment, but as an expression of an infinite love. Remember: "God saw that it was good." Continue reading.

Matt Emerson is an educator and lawyer, who blogs daily for America magazine.

Source: Matt Emerson

Image: Vera in August

And yet ministers often endure the stresses of these dysfunctional relationships for months, or even years, before eventually being forced out or giving up.

Adding to the strain is the process, which is often shrouded in secrecy. No one - from denominational officials to church members to the clerics themselves - wants to acknowledge the failure of a relationship designed to be a sign to the world of mutual love and support.

But new research is providing insights into just how widespread - and damaging - these forced terminations can be to clergy.

An online study published in the March issue of the Review of Religious Research found 28 percent of ministers said they had at one time been forced to leave their jobs due to personal attacks and criticism from a small faction of their congregations.

The researchers from Texas Tech University and Virginia Tech University also found that the clergy who had been forced out were more likely to report lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of depression, stress and physical health problems.

And too few clergy are getting the help they need, said researcher Marcus Tanner of Texas Tech.

"Everybody knows this is happening, but nobody wants to talk about it," Tanner said in an interview. "The vast majority of denominations across the country are doing absolutely nothing."

Continue reading: Silent clergy-killers: 'Toxic' congregations lead to job loss

Image: Methodist Church

But there is a perverse human instinct to turn freedom into bondage. Thus down through the ages the laws of the sabbath were turned on their head so that new bosses, usually of the clerical variety, began to lay down what was and was not permissible on the Sabbath.

Is it time to reconsider the true meaning of the Sabbath rest?

"Every soul, every spirit, needs to rest, to empty out so that there is room for the pressures of life that are a part of life", writes Susan Smith in the Washington Post.

"Our human spirits have a finite capacity to carry stress, issues and problems. We get filled up with the "riff raff" of life more quickly than we know it, and when we do, our capacity to function maximally is severely decreased. Our patience grows short; our ability to make sound, emotion-less decisions is hampered, our relationships, even with the people we love, are compromised."

• Read Smith's Blog in the Washington Post
• Look at more of Smith's Posts
• Image: Advent

Susan K Smith, is a Yale Divinity School graduate, and author of "Crazy Faith: Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives", a winner of the 2009 National Best Books Award.