New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 731

Did the Pandemic Change Church Planting?

Ed Stetzer

Episode 731

Did the pandemic affect your church differently than others? Host Ed Stetzer talks with Warren Bird about fascinating new research.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • How church launches and funding were affected
  • The effect on planters’ mental health
  • How evangelism and discipleship fared
  • The “big disappointment” in the research findings
  • Advice for planters in light of in the research

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

Movie theaters and schools where, disproportionately, church plants meet, were shut down. It really had an impact on church planting. When schools started meeting again, many didn’t let anybody in from the outside, to create a bubble. @EdStetzer

I was surprised at how few things dipped during the pandemic. I was brought to tears when I tallied the survey responses and I saw how many hundreds of churches launched during the pandemic. @WarrenBird

New churches put a heavier emphasis on evangelism than discipleship, but discipleship increased. @EdStetzer

We found that, both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, evangelism was stronger than the discipleship component, but during the pandemic the discipleship meter was almost as high as the evangelistic meter. @WarrenBird

I think it probably was the greatest time of church shifting and switching in our lifetime. I want new churches to be evangelized into existence. @EdStetzer

While people are willing to gather in most places now, the volunteering piece – that second step of engagement – has been really slow. It did not surge back with the people coming back. @WarrenBird

Can you imagine three years ago saying, “Hey, everyone, scan the QR code on your screen”? But now the grandmas are holding up their phones and scanning the QR code. It is fascinating how this has been accelerated technologically. @EdStetzer

Published on February 09, 2023

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About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Author

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.  He is the incoming Dean of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and he has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and regularly writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates. He serves at his local church, Mariners Church, as a Scholar in Residence and Teaching Pastor.

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