“If anything, the last two years have been a big revealer of the foundation we built our churches on. Those materials have been tested by fire.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

As society looks toward a post-pandemic world, Ottawa churches are beginning to reflect on the past two years and evaluate the lessons. To help understand the big picture of the Church in this city, Spur Ottawa connected with six pastors about their church’s challenges and take-aways.

“I have heard an average of 25 to 30 percent fewer people are involved with congregations,” says Richard Long, director of Love Ottawa and a leader of Vineyard Ottawa. “One pastor of a moderately large church says that 30 percent of their former congregation are ‘ghosting’ them. There are churches that have increased by 50 percent, or even doubled. They are the exception. There are a few churches that have closed for good.”

Long predicts a number of dwindling congregations will have to amalgamate to survive 2022. Most of the churches Spur Ottawa spoke with had about a third of their former congregation no longer walking with them, either in person or online. One outlier is Manotick Community Church.

“Attendances are generally lower per Sunday, but also people are coming less frequently.”

“We are up in average attendance by about 20 percent,” says Pastor Doug Valerio. The church pivoted to Zoom right from the start of the pandemic, but Valerio says worship over Zoom has been nearly impossible. While Manotick Community Church picked up some new members over Zoom, digital fatigue took its toll on all the churches that responded to Spur Ottawa.

“We opened the auditorium up as soon as we could and have people looking for an in person service now attending,” Valerio says. One factor really worked in the church’s favour. “We could have our full congregation in the auditorium, as we rent a large space and come under the percentage allowed.”

For other churches, suitable worship space remains a critical issue. Before the pandemic, Kingdom Culture met in a movie theater, but that has not been possible for almost two years.

“We have been only online for about 20 months,” says Shawn Gabie, Kingdom Culture’s pastor. “Because all the theaters were closed down for so long and the rules kept changing, we stayed online.”

Their team planned to launch in-person services at the start of October, but three days before their soft launch they got some bad news.

“The biggest challenge is how to lead through all the change that is happening in the culture.”

“We found out that Ontario still hadn’t given vaccination exemptions for houses of worship in theaters, so we decided not to go back. Most venues require vaccination passports. As of right now we are still online.” Although the church was already experienced with online services before the pandemic, Gabie says it just “does not replace the in-person experience.”

Even for churches that have space, the constantly-changing rules have made things very difficult. Alan Gilman, pastor of All Saints Lutheran, says his biggest struggle has been “understanding how best to navigate the restrictions to effectively minister to our people.”

“The government has not made it easy to get information,” adds Jonathan Dent, pastor of Grace Presbyterian. “We have followed public health guidelines to the best of our ability.”

Practically, that meant that when they opened they had limited seating, spaced well apart, mandatory masks, and no singing until very recently. The lack of praise and lack of connection was especially hard.

Dent is deeply concerned about those who no longer connect with the church, but also with the direction Canada has taken.

“Sometimes leaders live in shame and condemnation when people leave.”

“The long-term effects of the pandemic for our children and for the general population is likely to not be good. It feels like a giant human experiment where no one was able to give informed consent. Whatever happened to religious rights, conscience rights, and human rights? None of the political parties seem interested in these facts.”

The pandemic has created likely long-term changes in how Christians engage with Sunday services. As Long speaks with pastors across the city, he has identified several disheartening trends. People tend to watch several services simultaneously, “channel surfing” between churches.

“Sitting at home watching church online has worsened the tendency toward a ’consumerism’ among believers.” For in-person services, he says. “Attendances are generally lower per Sunday, but also people are coming less frequently. Churches have to look at who has shown up over the whole month, versus the last week or two, if they are trying to measure who is still with them.”

A key issue many pastors have noticed is an unexpected effect of the isolation. With fewer in-person interactions, society at large has become much more polarized and those divisions are seeping into the Church.

“How we measure success in this season, number one, is obedience to God.”

“The unpredictable restrictions and the inability to meet face to face created such a feeling of disconnection. Distance often creates distortion,” says Caleb Davidson, pastor of myChurch.

Unable to find space to meet, myChurch combatted the disconnectedness by hosting in-person outdoor worship nights throughout the summer.

“We saw over 700 unique people attend across the summer. In late August, we moved indoors at an event space where we now meet for two services on Sundays and a midweek service and team night on Wednesdays.”

“The biggest challenge is how to lead through all the change that is happening in the culture,” Gabie states. “If anything, the last two years have been a big revealer of the foundation we built our churches on. Those materials have been tested by fire.”

“It looks like the Church coming out of the pandemic has come to treasure deep friendships and the presence of the Lord in our midst.”

The Church must examine the lessons and shortcomings of the past, including ineffective discipleship models, but Gabie stresses that leaders should not focus on outcomes. “Sometimes leaders live in shame and condemnation when people leave. Sometimes people quit their calling because they are measuring the wrong thing. How we measure success in this season, number one, is obedience to God.”

And there are signs of hope, amid the challenges. Long says some pastors are pivoting to make one-on-one discipleship and mentorship a central priority, and people are already responding.

“It looks like the Church coming out of the pandemic has come to treasure deep friendships and the presence of the Lord in our midst. I am hearing from some pastors that people are coming back with a new interest in getting involved in the ministry. That is very good news and a deep encouragement to pastors who have really had to figure out how to keep things going over the last 18 months.”