Survey Studies Show: Church-Goers Wish to Continue with Digital Services in Local Congregations after the Pandemic
Before the Covid 19 pandemic, digital worship services in Germany were connected to online communities but non-existent in most local congregations. Covid 19 has brought digital worship to congregational life. Two survey studies (ReTeOG conducted in 2020 and ReTeOG 2 in 2021 “Rezipient*innentypologie evangelischer Online-Gottesdienstbesucher*innen während und nach der Corona-Krise” / “Recipient Typologies of Protestant Online Services during and after the Covid Crisis”) with nearly 5000 participants have shown how church-goers experience online worship and what are their wishes and expectations of digital services in comparison to in-person worship.
A new and detailed analysis of the data collected in these surveys allows to cluster participants of online services into three groups: The “skeptics” only attended online services if in-person worship was not possible, post Covid they wish to return to traditional in-person worship services; the “pragmatists” alternated between digital and in-person attendance depending on their situation, hey want to have the digital option post Covid; the digital “enthusiasts” were excited that possibilities of digital communication (which they know from other areas of life) were now part of their spiritual and congregational life, they especially appreciated the new forms of interaction and participation.
Download of the presentation: https://theonet.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/07/Sievert_Reimann_GoNeDigiTal_Conference-2022-20220707.pdf
