Churches pivot to win back youth as attendance lags post-Covid

On the eve of Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian season of Lent, church leaders were scrambling with fresh programmes to lure back young people whose attendance has yet to rebound from the pandemic slump,  a stark “new normal” of apathy and online viewing.

Head of the Barbados Christian Council and pastor of the Mount Tabor Moravian Church, Reverend Dr Cicely Athill-Horseford, told Barbados TODAY congregations have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

She said: “I wrote in a report that we would not be able to get back to normal or we have not gotten back to normal. So this is a new normal where people choose to come. Some of our congregations have streaming, so people stay at home and watch.”

The decline extends beyond young people, she noted.

“There is the trend that people are not coming out, not only young people, the older folks, those who used to come. They must have said thank God for COVID because they have not returned to church. However, I’ve seen that these said people have been going to their social gatherings anywhere you can find.”

The trend is also reflected in Ash Wednesday and Lenten services, according to Dr Athill-Horseford.

“The number has declined… I think it’s apathy [towards the] church generally.”

In response, she has tasked each church officer with reconnecting with one absent member – a strategy she said is gradually yielding results, particularly among younger congregants.

Looking ahead to Lent, she urged national introspection.

“I’m hoping that we as a nation, we as a people can take seriously the whole God talk and the whole spiritual part of our lives and live by that,” she said, stressing that Lent is a time to “stop the hustle and the bustle… evaluate and see where we have fallen… We just need to put a little more effort into our spiritual lives.”

At the Calvary Moravian Church, Pastor Adrian Smith said while attendance has remained consistent among a core group, youth engagement often depends on targeted programming.

He said: “Whether that is around steelpan activities or youth-related activities, you’re still seeing them and they are still pretty much engaged,” he said. “What we’ve been working on has been having more intergenerational stuff, so that is a combination of youth working not just with youth, but youth working with different age groups, so that has been helpful.”

Pastor Smith did not anticipate significant youth turnout for midday Ash Wednesday services, particularly for those working outside Bridgetown.

“I’m not necessarily anticipating a lot of young people unless they’re working in and around the area and they have the time to come.”

But structured youth ministries would likely remain active during Lent, including youth fellowship, Sunday school, junior choir, recorder and steelpan groups, he said.

“The children are also a part of the Lenten sacrificial journey. So I’ve noticed that it has remained consistent for those who are active and involved,” he said. “Of course, our emphasis is to keep reaching out and trying to get more children and young people to participate.”

Founder, CEO and Senior Pastor of Mount Zion’s Missions Barbados Foursquare Church, Reverend Lucille Baird, said her congregation did not experience major fallout during the pandemic, as leadership structures and communication systems were already in place.

“I would send out a voice note as regularly as possible so that people would get to hear my voice, and also I never stopped preaching on Sunday in the pulpit. There were only three of us allowed to go to church so my members were able to still see me preaching and so on,” she shared.

While Rev Baird said youth attendance remains steady, she admitted that in-person participation has not fully rebounded: “Young people like to have things that are exciting… Since the COVID, they have not gone back to the in-house gatherings as before. I mean that I would want to see change as soon as possible.”

To address this, she revealed that two senior leaders were sent overseas for training last September on engaging next-generation church attendees, and additional training is scheduled.

“We have to at the church know how to facilitate them, how to adjust to suit them because they are different from the ones before,” she said.

But she stressed that adaptation does not mean compromising core beliefs.

“We will not lower our standards because you can’t lower the standards when it comes to the word of God… But we have to adjust our programs and adjust our way of doing things so that we can accommodate the next change because they are very much different in how they do business and what their expectations are.”

As Lent begins, the church leaders appear united on one point: rekindling youth interest will require deliberate shifts in engagement strategies, rather than a change of doctrine, if congregations are to move beyond what many now describe as a post-pandemic “new normal”.