5 ways the Church has changed since Covid-19

In the five years since Covid-19, the Church has changed significantly. But it was not killed off as many predicted. Instead, it adapted and in many places is growing, says a new report from the Evangelical Alliance. Danny Webster explores

When churches were required to shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic, and then required to comply with strict rules when they could reopen, some questioned whether the UK Church would ever fully recover.

Would people fall out of the habit of attending church? Would the option of engaging with online church make leaving the house on a Sunday morning less attractive? There’s a dreadful joke about churches being like helicopters – you’ve got to be careful lest you get caught in the rotas. Having escaped their volunteering responsibilities for a while, would people be willing to reengage?

These were some of the issues that the Evangelical Alliance wanted to explore as we surveyed church leaders and church members in early 2025. How had the evangelical church changed in the five years since lockdown?