According to a Gallup report by Frank Newport "the most dramatic result (in religion) has been the exceedingly quick shift of religious services from in-person to online worship."
While for almost a hundred years, churches have used various communication methods to reach their audiences, such as radio, television and online media, Gallup says that the halting of in-person worship "is one of the most significant sudden disruptions in the practice of religion in U.S. history."
A Pew Research report from March 2020 reported a change in respondents' religious habits due to the pandemic. More than half of respondents said that they have "prayed for an end to the spread of coronavirus," "attended services in person less often," and "watched religious services online or on TV instead of in person."[8]
Time magazine reported that drive-in church services have achieved a great level of attendance in the COVID-19 outbreak.[9] As to whether the crisis had an effect on long-term personal religious life, 19% of Americans said that their faith has strengthened and only 3% said that it got worse.[7]
In a survey conducted in late May–early June 2020 by the American Enterprise Institute, 60% of Americans said they feared that they or someone in their household might get COVID-19. Responses differed demographically, however; 69% of Black Protestants and 42% of White Evangelicals worried about infection. When it came to weighing the public health risks of returning to normal economic activity, a majority of Black Protestants (84%) and Hispanic Catholics (70%) said they would prioritize public health, while a majority of White Evangelicals (65%) and White Mainline Protestants and White Catholics (52%) prioritized the economy.[10]
In the United Kingdom, Christian denominations including the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Reformed, and Presbyterian Churches, published guidelines on adapting worship in light of the pandemic.[11]
In July 2020, North Point Ministries—which, before the pandemic, typically hosted 30,000 churchgoers every Sunday across its seven locations in the Atlanta, Georgia area—said it would only offer services digitally through the rest of the year. The church's founder said that contact tracing for coronavirus exposure would be impossible given the church's size.[12]
On 30 November 2020, one of the pastors at the California megachurch Water of Life died of COVID-19. He had recently been leading outdoor services after the governor banned indoor services.
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