How COVID-19 changed how people attend church

Katherine Davis  |  February 24, 2025

Five years ago, as the world began to shut down, staff members at Beech Haven Church in Athens, Georgia met at a local Mexican restaurant to discuss how they would continue to offer church services while people were stuck at home.

Like most churches during the COVID-19 pandemic, Beech Haven decided to start livestreaming their worship services. Today, they still livestream one of their two services every Sunday morning.

Beech Haven is just one of the many churches that continues to offer livestreaming, even after their congregations began meeting in person again.

In fact, Beech Haven recently renovated their worship hall to better accommodate the technology they use to livestream their services. They have also invested more than $100,000 in equipment.

“All these things, five or six years ago, we weren’t thinking of, hypothesizing, at all,” said Chris Orr, the worship pastor at Beech Haven Church. “We got thrust into it.”

Livestreamed services allow families to stay connected to their church, even if they are unable to attend in person due to illness, vacation or something else.

“We don’t believe it’s a substitute,” Orr said. “We believe that it’s a tool for people who can’t come on a particular week.”

Cindi Weatherly used to go to Beech Haven Church every Sunday, before health issues and family commitments kept her from going. She started staying home after her husband became ill and hasn’t been back since.

Despite this, she is still able to tune into Beech Haven’s Sunday service every week.

Weatherly’s daughter, Aimee Ballentine, stays home with her in case she needs help with anything, along with Ballentine’s sons, Buddy, Nick and Jonathan. Ballentine’s sons often have to help their mother and grandmother pull up the livestream on their television.

Weatherly is planning on going back to attending in person when she feels well enough, but for now she is happy that she is still able to stay connected to her church. She hopes to start attending in-person bible study on Tuesdays soon.

Jordan Crumbley and her family also prefer to attend Sunday worship in person, and usually do so, saying that they enjoy the community and are more engaged when they are at church.

But when Crumbley was battling cancer last year, she also often utilized the livestream.

“I could stay home and still be a part of it,” Crumbley said. “So that offered that, whereas six years ago, I couldn’t have done that.”

The Crumbley family have been able to go back to attending church in person and are very involved. Jordan and her husband Daniel lead a Life Group on Sundays after the 9:30 a.m. service and their children, Lydia, Abbie and Ezra attend the children’s ministry. Jordan, Lydia and Abbie also sing in the choir on Sunday mornings.

“Community at church and gathering together to worship is really important,” Crumbley said. “We are leaning on each other and being community to each other when we show up on Sundays.”