The Ten Most Incredible Church Statistics of 2021

Speaker 0 00:00:00 In today's episode, we discuss the 10, most incredible church statistics of 20, 21 each year. At retreat, we compile a list of church statistics from around the world into a blog post. This year, we decided to discuss the stats that stood out to us the most as we entered 2021, we hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. Speaker 1 00:00:32 You're listening to the read-write podcast. The show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help you your church see more visitors and grow well. Hey guys, welcome to Speaker 0 00:01:01 The reach right podcast episode number 30. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. How's it going? Oh, go and goody and got a good conversation here today. I think, uh, it should be able to tackle this and it said the 10 most incredible church statistics of 2021, uh, always a fun one for us, uh, for the last five years, I believe. Yeah. I think it's five. Uh, at retreat we've put out a post, uh, that is the biggest church statistics of the year. And this year, I think we had one that had 25 church statistics and we, uh, we put that out just yesterday that post went out. We'll have the link to that in the description of this episode here. Uh, but what we did is we kind of went through that post and found the five that each of each to each of us that stood out the most. Speaker 0 00:01:51 So we get to kind of share that with our audience here today. Some really crazy stuff. I think as far as statistics, uh, they were really interesting this year because we're coming out of that coronavirus season or, you know, God willing we're coming out of the coronavirus season, I guess nothing is official yet. So we don't want to count our eggs before they hatch on that. But I think everybody is excited and like we can all almost kind of all taste a little bit more normalcy that's right around the corner. Would you agree? I would agree. And Lord willing sooner than later, please. Absolutely. I think we're on the same page with that. So, um, you know, here in Hawaii, we have not had any church services at all because most churches that are evangelical in Hawaii, they meet in the public schools and public schools have been closed to churches since March. Uh, so I have not been in a normal church service in 10 months, and I know you guys are kind of back into services and things there and your church rights, how it varies from state to state and from region to region and such. But, uh, yeah, we've been back for a while. Had to shut down for a little bit then have been back. Uh, but, uh, yeah, it's, Speaker 2 00:03:00 Uh, it's crazy. Speaker 0 00:03:01 Yeah, that said, so we have some stats around that too. We'll tackle, but uh, why don't I I'll go ahead and kick it off with the first one and we'll just kind of bounce back and forth and, uh, share the ones that stood out and give some feedback on them. So, number one, for me was, uh, the Barna research group. They found that 29% of Americans attended church in the last seven days, which is down from 48% in 2009. Uh, so, um, as you look into this statistic, some people you might think, well, that kind of makes sense with coronavirus and all those kinds of things that have been happening. Um, but this stat actually, it's been in the upper twenties, low thirties for the last four years. So since 2017, it's been in that same region, which is about it, it's a 19% decrease from what it was 12 years ago, which is really just startling to see that, that kind of a decline. I think most of the pastors we talked to, and I know in my own church, I've kind of sensed that and there's a lot of reasons behind it. Um, I don't know. What, what do you think are some of the reasons that we're seeing that? Speaker 2 00:04:03 Yeah. You know, it's funny, that's what I was going to say. This, this was going on before the pandemic, like you mentioned, and we've been seeing this just, just through our communication with churches that I've been hearing this, you know, from so many pastors. And I think some of the reasons are, well, there's a lot, right. But, uh, you know, uh, I think just with the way cultures been in and the busy-ness of people, uh, the busy-ness, everyone is so much busier and preoccupied with so many things. Now you got youth sports that happen now on Sundays, which is, which is crazy to me that my son, he has, uh, uh, you know, football games on Sunday now, thankfully those are scheduled after church for us. But, uh, but I think it's that, and it's the busy-ness of people. And I think that, uh, yeah, I think people are a lot, lot more noncommittal, uh, with, with schedules and those things other than when their work schedules are that they have to be committed to. Uh, so yeah, those are a couple of things to bounce off. You come to mind. Speaker 0 00:05:02 I think that there's, I think there's, I've seen a lot more travel happening than used to, I think people just are, uh, accustomed to doing more travel on weekends and those kinds of things I think, and this is good, I would say by and large, but I think the, the stigma of missing church is gone. Like there used to be kind of this thing that you had to give an explanation for yourself as to why you weren't at church, and now you don't go to church, nobody's going to, nobody asks you, they don't call you and say, Hey, I couldn't help, but notice you, you weren't there on Sunday. They just, you know, they can kind of, they, they could assume what's going on. But if I can be really honest, I was surprised that this is what Barna found that 29% of people were in church in the last 20 and in the last seven days. Speaker 0 00:05:44 Like that seems really amazing to me. I can't believe that it was almost 50%, um, 12 years ago, but even having it at 29%, um, you know, I drive around on Sundays and I, I see what's going on and I I'm that one out of three, or I guess a little under one out of three people were in church on Sundays. That's really kind of a trip to me. So to me, I don't feel that that's, that it's, it's actually more than I would have expected if you'd asked me to guess a number, I would have said something more like 15%, but yeah, that's really good to hear. I think so, yeah, go ahead. Speaker 2 00:06:17 That then came to mind too, is I saw some data, I don't know the source, but a little while back that kind of relates to this. It said that a committed church member is someone that shows up now about twice a month and they're like in a small group or they serve somewhere and they're like giving a, so it's kind of that, that, uh, that kind of relates to what, uh, that stat, Speaker 0 00:06:38 We used to call someone who came to church two months or twice a month, uh, back in 2009, a backslider, a backslider. That's exactly right. Yes. So he used to call himself now, he's we kid about that, but yeah, it's just such a different culture nowadays, isn't it? Speaker 2 00:06:52 Yeah, it is. It is tackle, uh, my first one here and it's a little different, uh, but, uh, so to switch gears is that the Pew study found that 91% of church goers were happy with what their churches were doing with live streaming. And so, yeah, and I think that's kind of at first, I was like, what kind of intrigued me with this stat was just that I was like, really that's a lot. Like, I, I w I was just, you know, cause I've Speaker 0 00:07:18 Seen a lot of bad, you Speaker 2 00:07:20 Know, live streaming services out there, but I, I think maybe why that is, is just because it's a new thing for a lot of churches, we've seen the pandemic, especially for smaller, older, more traditional churches into live streaming, which is, they never thought was, uh, probably even helpful before or necessary, uh, you know, a lot of things. And, and I think that even if they were seeing something from someone's phone on Facebook live and it, and there wasn't really major, but for, to them, that was probably like, wow. Um, so, um, you know, that, that's my guess with that. Speaker 0 00:07:58 Yeah. Um, so I think I, it's an interesting way they worded the question because I think if you ask them like, cause there's some other stats that we'll talk about later about people's preferences of live versus streaming or going in person versus live streaming. Um, and that leads us a different direction on things. But yeah, I, I think that, um, I too have seen a lot of, um, not great live streaming and I think so many churches were learning on the spot with this, right? Like we, we figured out that we had to do something right away on, you know, Mo the end of February of last year. And then all of a sudden we all got crash courses in it. We wrote a post called the ultimate guide to live streaming your church services back in 2019. So well, before the pandemic, we put this out here and it was incredible in, in the month of March, we went from seeing maybe 10 visits a, uh, a day on that post to over like 500 visits, every single day of people learning how to do their live and everything. So, um, yeah, I I'm really pleased to hear that so many people were happy with their churches. I think maybe we just give our own churches, a lot of grace with that stuff. And just the fact that we're, they're out there and doing something, it makes us happy. I think there is still some room to improve in those areas for most churches. Uh, but yeah, that's really good news. I think Speaker 2 00:09:13 Maybe for some of it's just, I'm just so glad I get to hear and watch my pastor still. So yeah, Speaker 0 00:09:19 That's encouraging to hear, so here, let me share my, my second one here. Um, it's according to a church, a study by church development, which is a organization that helps church fundraise. They said only 5% of churchgoers gave 10% or more of their income, uh, and, or tie that I guess, as, as we would normally would teach it only 5% of people would tie. Um, this was, I don't know that it was surprising to me, but it was interesting to have some data around what I think a lot of us might've expected, uh, to see they had some other stats about people giving 2% of their income or more. It was still less than half of churchgoers give, uh, more than 2% of their income. So tithing, uh, what I would say most evangelical and many churches teach. Um, I've been a, someone who teaches tithing something that I have always taught and practiced, and it's something that God's grown in my life. Speaker 0 00:10:14 I was surprised to see that less than 5% of people, uh, were actually practically doing that now, how they got those numbers, they didn't get a lot of details on, on their sources on those things here. But I think it's really eyeopening. Um, you know, as someone that is taught on tithing, uh, I have seen at least in churches that I've pastored, that we saw much, certainly not half of our people were tithing, uh, but much larger numbers than 5% of them were typing. So it was an encouragement, I guess, in that way, but I think there's some room to grow there for churches. What do you have to add to that, Ian? Speaker 2 00:10:46 Yeah. Well, I'm glad you mentioned the encouraging side of that, uh, because you know, first glance, it doesn't look encouraging. Yeah. There's most certainly, uh, room for growth there. Uh, and so, yeah, yeah. Hopefully that's a number that picks up, cause that's obviously a, a big part of, uh, you know, uh, what, what biblical teaching, uh, calls us to do. So, um, but you know, yeah. Speaker 0 00:11:11 I think especially in this season right now, I think, um, tithers a lot people that are giving 10%, typically they're doing it regularly and consistently, and usually it's something that's automated. Um, I assume you do this. I know for me, we have an automated, uh, payment that goes to our church on the first of every single month. Maybe it's something weekly. I don't know what it is, but I think that in this pandemic season, uh, encouraging people towards this idea of giving 10% or tithing, um, you know, for the churches, the churches budget, it's important, even more important, this that don't even get me started on the importance of how it, how good it is to the people that are actually doing the tithing. Uh, so it's something that's changed my life, practicing that myself. Uh, so I think that it's been, it's something that churches, we need to really focus on that in this season, I would say Speaker 2 00:11:58 Same. Uh, I totally agree with you. And same here. It's something that's changed my life. And actually when I was, uh, first, when I was saved, um, one of the first messages that I heard was on tithing. And I think when you hear that, you know, as a pastor, you're like, Oh no, it's going to scare this guy off. I was here. I was new to the faith and everything, but, uh, but man, it, it, it actually was one of my favorite messages of all time because I was on fire for the Lord and just had made that decision. And then all of a sudden, you know, I hear a message about what God promises, if you do it, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to take that up on this. And, and we, we saw the blessings that he promised right away. So it actually just made me even more on fire. So Speaker 0 00:12:39 Yeah, to be clear, we're not, we're not prosperity preachers here. We're not tie, then you'll be rich, tight people. That's not what we're saying. We don't even want to get into a debate on whether or not tithing is biblical or not. We, I I've always talked that it is, it's something that I teach. Uh, I, we love our audience that maybe disagrees on that. And so, um, yeah, but for what it's worth, I think that was eyeopening to see that only 5% of churchgoers gave 10% or more of their income. So why don't you get your second one for us? Speaker 2 00:13:06 Yeah, I was going to say on that note, let's change the subject. So, no, uh, uh, yeah, so this is another live streaming related one, a case study covering several churches using live streaming, uh, saw that Georgia's re Redeemer church grew from a dozen members. So it was a small church dozen members, uh, to over a thousand in a year. And they also get viewers from over like 17 countries worldwide. Um, so I think what's really cool about this statistic. It just shows how smaller churches have particularly been impacted by the pandemic, which is when, you know, of course a lot of churches have up their game with live streaming and some have before too. And, and, and they're seeing albeit maybe a different kind of growth, um, but uh, still seeing growth from people, watching their messages, writing in, connecting with them. Uh, and then of course, some becoming physical members after, you know, after they'd been watching live. Speaker 2 00:14:01 So that's a big deal. Uh, you know, cause a lot of pastors, I know that I've communicated, uh, communicated with have thought that, Oh, okay. You know, if someone just going to be watching us on live, uh, you know, live streaming, they're never going to show up in person, but uh, churches have seen actually the opposite. Someone actually feels more comfortable after a certain amount of messages to come. So I think it's really neat. And even if you're not meeting physically, it's another way to grow and, and uh, and maybe see more giving and so on. Speaker 0 00:14:28 Yeah. I think that stat really captures the, uh, this transition and really transformation that's happening in the church that we're moving from physical organizations with a digital presence to a digital organization, with a physical presence. Uh, so it's really kind of a trip to see that I've heard lots of testimonies that way. Now I do feel that some of those numbers are sometimes, uh, because I think that there's just a much, I I've seen lots of churches that will count three second video views. As you know, new members that's like counting everybody that drives by your church on the highway as a new member of your church had stopped quite the same. I wouldn't say, but Hey, it's still something to celebrate. We're we're for those kinds of things. And I think we haven't quite even hit the tip of the iceberg. I think with the revolution that's happening and the opportunity that I think churches have to reach more people in this new digital world that we're moving into. Speaker 0 00:15:24 So I think it's going to be exciting. Yeah. Good. Number three, for me, uh, it's a Gallup poll found that sermons were the deciding factor in why someone chooses a church with 76% of churchgoers. They cited that biblical teaching as the most significant reason for attending a church. Uh, this was really eyeopening to me, I think because there's much that's been made about all the church growth practices and all the things that happen out there and the importance of, and it's not to dismiss this stuff, but worship music and the singing is important and community is important and all those things, I don't want to take away from that. But when people are asked to self-identify why they choose a church it's because they felt that biblical teaching was the 76% say biblical teaching was the reason why they chose their church. We've been saying something to this effect for years and talking through this process with pastors, that the main reason why people choose a church is feeling some kind of a connection with the past, right. Speaker 0 00:16:26 That's always been so important, but I just was, I was floored by that, that that's such a high percentage of people really cite a biblical preaching as something that they really value you would have expected something else, maybe a, um, yeah, just something other than biblical preaching. It seems so old school and standard. And so honestly, so simple. That's what I love about it. It's like, Oh, you mean, if I teach the Bible, that's the most important thing to people. That's what they say they want most from pastor. What, what, how refreshing is that right? Speaker 2 00:16:55 No, no, no, that you're you're right. That one surprised me too more than the 76%. Uh, because you know, I think that we've known for a while that if someone doesn't like a pastor's preaching, they're probably not going to hang around. You know, you gotta, you gotta hear from the guy every Sunday. So no, uh, I agree with you that, that other one is a little more surprising, but, uh, that's good. Yeah. Awesome. I'll tackle mine. I'll talk on my third point. So, um, so there was a study, uh, that said 64% of members stayed the same in terms of their faith through the pandemic. Uh, and that pastors also said 14%, uh, of their people may not be quite as faithful as before. And, and then 22% to be exact are actually growing in their, their faith. Uh, so this is, uh, this was a study done for the pandemic know over the pandemic. Speaker 2 00:17:47 So there was a lot of fear. They had members were going to lose their faith. And especially if like they had a family member that was in, you know, impacted or died from the coronavirus. Um, and so that, that was kind of the basis of this study. So again, 64, it's kind of hard to what also I thought about this is like, how do you measure that to kind of, you know, so it's, uh, it is, it is one of those where I'm, Oh, I don't know, but, uh, you know, 64% their faith, how do you know that, that it stayed good and then a 14% they all back slid or something like that. It's kind of funny Speaker 0 00:18:20 Answering the survey saying, no, I, I mostly back slid in this pandemic time. So change my mind, you know? Speaker 2 00:18:27 Yeah. Let, let another pandemic happen. So I'm out, I'm out. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:18:32 Self-reporting type things. It's tough to measure that. I agree. But, um, I guess that's encouraging, I'm surprised by that. I would think that who'd have thought that, and that's, I'm kind of questioning the methodology on that one with you too, who would have thought that in, if we got rid of having physical services and people gathered less, that people would say that their faith grew in that time more than they say it went away. Like, it doesn't quite add up to me. Uh, but you know, I Speaker 2 00:19:01 Happy that they don't have to go to, they didn't have to go to church and where they're yeah. I'm stronger than ever before. I just stay home, Speaker 0 00:19:07 Not having to listen to that, a pastor all that time there, I get to sit at home and do it and not listen anymore. It's perfect. And so my dream church, it doesn't expect anything of me and I'm a, I'm a fully committed member, so Speaker 2 00:19:20 Yeah, I chose, I chose this one just cause it was kind of perplexing to me. So I'm with you on that. So, uh, Speaker 0 00:19:27 Number four, it's a study from CDF capital, which again has to do with church finances and they found that churches of all sizes experienced a 29% decline in tithing and giving since the start of the pandemic. So that's a more sobering statistic. Uh, I think, uh, I've never talked to a church in all of my time that said they could easily whether a 29% reduction in their income. Uh, so that is a, a pretty, uh, pretty sizeable chunk. Um, in my experience, what I felt like I heard happening is that we, and we have the benefit of talking to pastors all over the country daily and, and hearing their stories. And this is more anecdotal, but I found that out of the Gates, everything was okay. I think people stayed pretty consistent. And the testimony I heard over and over again is, yeah, God, you know, praise God. Speaker 0 00:20:19 We, uh, we were still good, like everything. Um, all of our needs are met and our tie that has stayed consistent, we've even heard from some churches that said their tithing went up in the season. And I think I heard that through the summer, into the middle of fall. And then I think as we got into late fall and the winter, I started to hear some more changes in people's tunes that like, Hey, it was good. Uh, it's really starting to Slack kind of change now. Um, I think maybe some of those consistent maybe have backed off on that and the idea that it wasn't going to be consistent, like this was going to be a, a new normal sort of set in on people. I think some of the stimulus money dried up a little bit and some of the paycheck protection program. So more people lost jobs. Speaker 0 00:21:02 And I think it just became more of a reality. So it doesn't surprise me to see that number, but 29% is a huge number that I think there is going to be real ramifications of this next year. I think churches have, uh, that's a tough road, uh, having to dig into that we're talking to more and more that are having some tough staffing conversations and that kind of stuff now. So, um, I expect a lot of those changes and that those challenges, I imagine most of our audiences in the middle of that right now, and wrestling with some of those. So, uh, we're with you guys and that's hard stuff. So what do you have to add to that again Speaker 2 00:21:37 Much? Cause I was gonna say that, you know, that's what I've been hearing and you were exactly right. Where what was encouraging is, is during the summer. And like you said, early fall, I was hearing from, you know, and as you know, I talked to a ton of churches. I was hearing from most churches that they're giving either stayed the same or went up. Uh, but you're right. We, we, and I think that other than the reasons you share just the, how this whole pandemic season has been prolonged, kind of had a bit of an effect, uh, to that. So yeah. So, um, hopefully we'll bounce back and, uh, kind of one of the more discouraging stats, but at the same time, you know, um, there's some encouragement based on all the other stuff we're sharing. So Speaker 0 00:22:15 Yeah, I think churches, I'll just kinda end this point with this is I think churches need to take that seriously. So if you are seeing a 29% decline, um, you know, let's be prayerful, be faithful trust that God's going to increase your, uh, what he's giving to you. If you're faithful in the little, he'll give you much. I think all of that's true. I think don't Dodge those tough questions though, you know, so I think that there's a, uh, if in this pandemic, your staffing probably ought to have changed. And I know we're a year deep into it now, and I know nobody likes letting people go or reducing hours or reducing salaries. But I think that, um, just our needs as churches have changed. Uh, we, we don't need a lot of our resources were dedicated to staffing physical events and those aren't happening as much or they're happening with fewer people at them. And so I think every church should have probably taken a hard look at that. And, um, face that reality if you're one of those people that's at that 29% or you're on the higher end of that spectrum. Uh, yeah, just praying for you guys, but, uh, yeah, we have the boldness to make those tough decisions. That's our encouragement to you. Speaker 2 00:23:20 That's good. That's good to wall tackle my fourth one. And everyone's going to need to bear with me a little bit. It's a little lengthier here, but, uh, but I did find it very interesting in, in a good one church executive study found that 73% of churches say leaders agree on a Corona virus strategy. However, their members weren't as agreeable with the following. And that was that, you know, in-person gatherings only 34% were agreeable wearing masks. Only 19% were agreeable, uh, worship styles, only 13% and conspiracy theories, 13%. Um, so, uh, and then only 9% said they didn't have any divisive newness with, uh, with these topics. And it did. The funny thing came to mind to me when I first saw this, was that the, the whole wearing of masks, uh, as you know, I'm in Texas and I've been thankful that we've been a little more open and that we've been able to meet, uh, our church was requiring mass. Speaker 2 00:24:20 However, we had people that they would come in and they'd sit down in their seat and I would just, it, it was pretty humorous to me actually, they'd take off their mask and throw it down in anger. Uh, and, uh, there, I was to say that we wore it in, but now we're sitting here. So it, these are real kind of disagreements that churches have been dealing with. But again, the interesting part too, is that, you know, 73% of the leaders were on board with the strategy, but not so much with members. So it was kind of, it was kind of Speaker 0 00:24:50 Funny to me. Yeah. That's interesting. Like, I am glad to hear the unity among leaders because I think that's where this kind of stuff starts, but it doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, you have to think it's as if we might have some divisiveness in our country or in the world right now, it's really strange, shocking. It's weird that it even carries over into the church as people bring their lives into that. And it's messy. I think it's a, it's a challenging thing. I, I think I've seen the same thing of people. You know, we have little mini mass protests. I really feel for pastors, like, what do you do in that situation? If you say we require masks and then someone doesn't wear a mask or in your case, I'm sure dozens that are maybe hundreds of people at a mega church are most people wearing masks in your church right now Speaker 2 00:25:34 Most are. Um, it's been a tough thing personally for our church to kind of police, uh, you know, how do you do that? Everyone wears them for the most part. Uh, and, uh, and then, you know, but we do have a good chunk. Uh, if I were to guess off the top of my head, maybe about 20%, that when they, once they get in inside the sanctuary, take them off. And you know, Speaker 0 00:25:56 That's, it, that's a few hundred at your church though, right? That's, that's not a lot of people. So what are you going to do? I mean, do you have, do you have to have 300 ushers there to come and talk to every single one of these people and just it's challenging, right. Are you going to, are you going to escort them out? Are you going to handcuff them? Are you going to turn it over to the police? What, what are you doing in those situations? So, pastors, man, we feel for you guys that is, that is so hard to try and figure that out. God bless you guys, as you try to navigate that whole thing, but don't be discouraged. No, that the problems you're seeing in your church, everybody's seeing them too. Uh, so we're all on the same boat with this and there's going to be some challenges with it. Speaker 0 00:26:37 And I've, I've heard stories of people leaving churches over these issues and it's, it's tragic to hear the Lord want it. I think that's, uh, that's the enemy at play, uh, for sure. But yeah. Um, we just, uh, we feel for you pastors, as you navigate that whole thing. So let me get my last one here. Um, it's according to Barna, uh, 71% of boomers want in-person services. Uh, and that number for gen X is 47% for millennials, 42% for gen Z. It's 41%. So what this says is the older you are, and the more at risk of coronavirus you are, the more you want to be in service with other people. And the younger you are, the less likely you are to want to be in service to other people. Uh, so it really is. Um, I don't know, I guess it's, I guess I'm not surprised by it, but it seems counterintuitive that the people most in danger are the ones most wanting to be with, uh, with other people and in service, I would guess that because they're most comfortable, this is what they've, they've been. Speaker 0 00:27:42 If you're a boomer, uh, that means you're probably in your sixties at this point, uh, or older than that. And so it would be something that, uh, this idea of digital church is probably something that's newer, it's newer to everybody, but you've had decades and decades of being in in-person services and a transition like that. I imagine it would be especially hard. Um, you, you and I, as gen X-ers, I think that, um, you and I are both in the, we still see value, obviously in the in-person gathering. We really miss that. I know I really miss it a lot and I'm excited to go back when it is safe to do that. And we're able to, uh, but yeah, I dunno, it's something that, uh, is surprising to me, but I think, uh, it there's a reckoning coming for churches when we're looking at that gen Z, that they would prefer in this study, they prefer to be in online services and the same goes for millennials and even a lot of gen X, they would say their preference is to be online here right now. So that's surprising to me. Uh, and I think that, um, you know, you can, we can try and resist that. Um, and I think there is some merit and I, again, I'm going to die on that Hill of saying that the gathering of the saints in person is no longer valuable. I'm not gonna, I'm not going to ever go there, but I think that we're fighting a losing battle if we are insisting on exclusively only services happening in person and giving people options to do things online. So what's your take. Speaker 2 00:29:06 No, I totally agree with that. And it's funny what came to mind was I thought of my son who often plays the Fortnite video game where he has Speaker 0 00:29:16 And all this stuff fortnight, is that right? You said the fortnight. Okay. Speaker 2 00:29:19 Fortnite, Fortnite. I know that identifying which game by using anyway, my gosh, you're making me feel old now we're talking about, yeah. So anyway, so yeah, fortnight, if people don't know, it's like a, it's a virtual game where you can play others online and connect with them online, like a lot of video games these days. But anyway, these kids now are people that play this have Fortnite friends, and it's the only time they have like what they consider close relationships with people, you know, online, just playing this video game. And the reason I think that comes to mind is, again, the younger generations are used to digital virtual already. This was stuff already going on before the pandemic and everything. So I think that, you know, that's why I'm kind of not surprised a little bit. I think that, uh, I'm surprised how much, you know, when I think of my son that he feels close to someone, uh, that, uh, that, you know, he just plays video games with. Speaker 2 00:30:17 So, you know, and it is it's different. Yeah, absolutely. That's a good segue is actually a good segue to my fifth and final one. And that's the church executive found that in America, 70% of churches in the Midwest are back to in-person gatherings in the Western part of the country. Only 57% are back to in-person. So I guess, well, I think that's a good segue is the encouragement is, is a lot of churches are gathering again and back to in-person. So, uh, not, not just for the boomers, but the other, uh, the gen X-ers and the millennials that you just mentioned were also preferring that, um, there's some positives, I think, to that too, but again, to your, your last point on your last stat, I think that even as we see an increase in this, that's great, that's encouraging to me. I prefer in-person. Uh, and, but at the same time, we shouldn't force it for sake, the digital, uh, part of, of worship as well, because that's going to continue to be a need. So, um, I think that's a good takeaway. Speaker 0 00:31:20 I couldn't agree more again, back to that idea that this is churches. We are w we are not an organization that like surrounds itself or rallies behind a building or an organization that rallies behind a cause and causes can be physical and they can be digital and they go there, they can be really contagious online, and we have a huge opportunity. So, um, I think that this in the end, um, my prayer is that this coronavirus season will be a landmark time that we look back on and we won't look back on it, maybe fondly of like, we enjoy that time. But I think it was kind of like a shake that we may have needed in the church to say, we have to change our methods. Our message is going to stay the same, but we have to change our methods immediately. And I think this, this goddess a lot of us to change our methods. Speaker 0 00:32:09 And one of the biggest mistakes we can be as we can make is to go back and say, let's go back to our old methods, our old wineskins and, and not use these ones that we spent all this investment this time learning. And we really worked on, I think we need to continue to press forward in this area of doing church digitally and really being thinking about this and continuing to think about these kinds of things, and really pushing forward in this area, because these gen Zs and millennials and gen X is even like, this is what we're, this is what the church of the future is going to look like. Again, I'm going to die on the Hill of saying, we're going to gather in person still at some point, like, that's, that's going to happen. We're going to fight for that. I think that's important. Speaker 0 00:32:47 We don't forsake the gathering together of the saints. That's really important, but we need digital options. And this is where the gospel has one of its biggest opportunities I think, to go forth. And this is really, I believe the way that the, the prophecy of going into all the world and preaching the gospel. This is the clearest way that it's going to happen is through digital means where we don't, we still will be going to other places, but doing it digitally. It's just an enormous opportunity that we can step back from. I think at this point, I agreed. No, I think that's well put partner and, uh, yeah, we wanna, we wanna leave that as I think a great encouragement to our pastors. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it guys for this week. We appreciate you listening. Um, as always we ask, if he says something that has been beneficial to you, uh, it means the world to us. If you rate review, subscribe, like, uh, do all those things wherever you're watching us, whether it's on YouTube or on the podcast, uh, uh, we appreciate you as our audience, part of our retried family, and we'll catch you next week. Speaker 1 00:33:50 Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at <inaudible> studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week. <inaudible>.