SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
For the first time in decades, in-person attendance for worship at congregations in the U.S. has increased. That is one of the findings of a massive new study out today. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose reports.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Median in-person weekly attendance at houses of worship has risen to 70 people. That's up significantly from a low of just 45 people during COVID restrictions, and it's also up from pre-pandemic attendance numbers.
SCOTT THUMMA: That hasn't happened in my whole career as a researcher.
DEROSE: Sociologist Scott Thumma is the report's chief investigator. The study draws on surveys from nearly 7,500 congregations and was done by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
THUMMA: And then when we ask, you know, how strong is your congregation sort of post-pandemic, a large percentage of them were saying it's stronger than it was before the pandemic, that there's a different atmosphere here.
DEROSE: The study shows programming and volunteerism are also up, along with clergy wellbeing, which cratered during the pandemic. The survey included not just Christian houses of worship, but also Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Bahai congregations, among others. Additionally, Thumma found that giving to houses of worship increased in recent years, even outpacing inflation. He believes the main cause of this renewal was, counterintuitively, COVID.
THUMMA: Congregations never change. Then the pandemic happened, and now all of a sudden, people are livestreaming, they're meeting out in the parking lots - right? - they're doing all kinds of new and different things.
DEROSE: Including online giving, which he credits with the increases in revenue. The pandemic was also a time of people switching to new congregations.
THUMMA: So that means a lot of those new folks experience the congregation at a time that was most creative, the most innovative it probably had been in 50, 75, maybe 200 years.
DEROSE: But Thumma cautions that these changes don't make up for a decades-long decline. The median U.S. congregation is about half the size it was in the year 2000, and there's a gap that's widening. Larger congregations are growing and smaller ones are shrinking. Nearly half of all those surveyed by the Hartford Institute show declines in attendance. Still, the survey found that even those losing people were more optimistic about the future because they learned change was possible. Jason DeRose, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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