The Unintended Consequences of Closing Weekly Church Services

This year has seen many leaders making every effort to do what they believe is the answer to COVID problems. Scripture indicates that Christians should submit to the governments placed over us unless submitting to the government mandates will result in sinning against God (1 Peter 2:13-17 and Romans 13:1-7). Further, the spirit of Matthew 18:15-20 shows us that when Christians are sinned against, we should seek to restore the relationship and seek to bring gospel redemption to bare when sin is committed. There is a process that should be followed until all options are expended. If there’s room for submission and grace as we work through the ideas of our government, that it seems these things should be offered. (For example, writing our elected leaders, seeking a meeting to discuss the matter, giving time for solutions, etc.)

When government leaders first asked churches to not meet for a short period, there was room for submission and grace to participate to help the leaders if the pastors of each church felt that was wise for the church. Each had their own reasons for the decisions they made. When safety protocols were shared by governments and asked to be practiced in churches, it was incumbent on pastors to examine the requests and determine if honoring the request would cause sin or not. There are times when the Bible shows us when not to submit to governments (like when Nebuchadnezzar ordered all people to bow to a statue of himself, or when Darius mandated that for 30 days people were only allowed to pray to him, or when Peter and John were ordered not to preach the gospel). And there are times when Christians submit to the government mandates, such as rendering to Cesar his due taxes, or paying the temple tax, or God telling the exiles to build houses and plant gardens while under a the rule of a sinful, conquering government).

But it still falls to the responsibility of the pastors and elders to continually examine how the process is going and determine the best course of action for the faith-family they lead.

In some places in the US, churches are still ordered closed. Chains hang on some doors. Months have passed. Cries to government leaders are going unheard. What becomes the course of action now? That’s for the pastors to determine. Some have started meeting against government order while others have not.

As pastors are examining what’s best for the flocks Jesus has asked them to shepherd, some secular data has recently published that speaks into the unintended consequences of COVID decisions being made.

Since 2001, Gallop (a secular research group) has surveyed to understand mental health and how it has changed among different demographics each year. Do not miss these two things: 

1. The ONLY group of people who said their mental health is excellent that grew in 2020 is that group of people who attend WEEKLY church services.  

2. The demographic of people with the most reporting their mental is excellent is the same group of people who attend WEEKLy church services.   

Among those who attended church services every week in 2020, 46% reported that their mental health is excellent. That's an increase of 4% in 2020. Of those who attend a couple of times per month or monthly, only 35% said their mental health is excellent, a 12% drop.   

The most likely indicator of excellent mental health is not income, political party, race, or marital status. It's church attendance. But it's essential to realize that these demographics overlap. For example, 41% of males said their mental health was excellent, while only 27% of females reported excellent. 41% of married participants said their mental health was excellent compared to only 27% of the single people surveyed. Republicans reported 41%, while Democrats reported 29%. White reported 35% while non-white was 32%. Therefore, a married, Republican male who attends church weekly is more likely to be in excellent mental health than a single, Democrat female.  

These measurements are not trying to identify all the categories you should try to fall in. Instead, they isolate different factors to see what impact those various factors might have upon mental health. There is also a factor of self-reporting, one of the weaknesses of surveys. Yet, when these surveys are conducted year after year, change (up or down) is measured. Regardless of the self-reporting weakness, the change over time is telling. 

In the case of this study, nearly every demographic had a drop; most of them double-digit declines. One group had only a 1% drop, except it was already low, at the bottom of the political party's options. The top of that category took a 15% drop among the excellent mental health responses. (The survey was taken from November 5th to the 19th, which may have contaminated the self-reporting responses one way or the others.)    

Church attendance, however, had two categories drop in the double-digits and one climb. That's interesting! 

While nearly weekly or monthly attendance was once higher than weekly attendance, 2020 has brought severe changes. The nearly weekly response took a 12% hit. Weekly attendance saw 4% more people report they had excellent mental health in 2020 compared to 2019.  

From this study, we should conclude that there is a benefit gained by weekly church service attendance. And looking at all those drops in other mental health factors, it's probably fair to say it's a precious benefit.

Read Gallop's report for yourself here.   

Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not forsake the assembly, meeting for worship together. There are numerous examples in the Bible of the normative and regulative mandates of God that churches should meet. The most notable examples are the ones meeting daily. But it would seem it’s not about the Christians forsaking the meeting but instead be prevented from gathering. Pastors have decisions to make. But so to Christians.

If you’re a Christian and you can gather, are there good reasons for your to remain away? Is it just a heart issue or is it a real safety issue? If it’s just neglect, the Gallop poll seems to support the Truth of the Bible’s instruction for gathering. This should give us all a reason to examine what happens next.