For your next research assignment, you are to identify a qualitative research article (ATTACHED)–not a summary or literature review, but a bona fide research study–that

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Review of Religious Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-021-00465-y

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R E S E A R C H N OT E

Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy During the COVID‑19 Pandemic

Erin F. Johnston1  · David E. Eagle1  · Jennifer Headley1  · Anna Holleman2

Received: 11 May 2021 / Accepted: 5 July 2021 © Religious Research Association, Inc. 2021

Abstract Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and con- gregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and communities during the pandemic. Purpose and methods This paper provides a more detailed look at how pastors and congregations experienced and responded to COVID-19 and its associated restric- tions in the early period of the pandemic. To do so, we draw from 26 in-depth inter- views with church-appointed United Methodist pastors conducted between June and August 2020. Pastors were asked to describe how their ministry changed as a result of COVID-19 and interviews were analyzed using applied thematic analysis approaches to identify the most common emergent themes. Results Pastors reported that COVID-19 fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. This disruption generated both challenges and opportunities for clergy and their congregations. In the findings, we describe how clergy responded in key areas of ministry–worship and pastoral care–and analyze how the pandemic is (re)shaping the way that clergy understood their role as pastors and envisioned the future of the Church. We argue for the value of examining the pandemic as an “unsettled” cultural period (Swidler 1986) in which religious leaders found creative ways to (re)do ministry in the context of social distancing. Rather than starting from scratch, we found that pastors drew from and modified existing symbolic and practi- cal tools to fit pandemic-related constraints on religious life. Notably, however, we found that “redoing” ministry was easier and more effective in some areas (worship) than others (pastoral care). Conclusions and Implications The impact of COVID-19 on pastors and congrega- tions is complex and not fully captured by survey research. This study provides a baseline for investigating similarities and differences in the responses of pastors within and across denominations and traditions. It also provides a baseline for

Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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assessing whether changes in ministry implemented during the early stages of the pandemic remain in place in the post-COVID world.

Keywords Clergy · COVID-19 · Ministry · Worship · Pastoral care · Unsettled times · Congregational culture

Introduction

COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. In March 2020, public health officials across the country ordered religious organiza- tions to limit in-person activities and move worship and other services online. This mandate disrupted one of the most fundamental activities of religious congrega- tions–bringing people together for corporate worship (Chaves 2004). As a result, often in the span of a few days, clergy were forced to adapt the practices of their reli- gious communities to public-health restrictions (Sulkowski and Ignatowski 2020) and denominational guidelines. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded (Lifeway Research 2020; Manion and Strandberg 2020; O’Brien 2020; Seabright and Raiber 2020; Sulkowski and Igna- towski 2020), these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting the work of pastoral ministry and congregational culture. Our aim is to provide a more detailed and nuanced look at how pastors and congregations experienced and responded to COVID-19 and its associated restrictions during the early period of the pandemic.

To do so, we draw from 26 in-depth interviews with church-appointed United Methodist pastors conducted between June and August 2020 in which we asked pas- tors to describe how, if at all, their ministry changed in the wake of COVID-19. The majority of clergy we spoke with described the pandemic as profoundly disruptive of ministry-as-usual, upending their usual habits, practices, and routines in relation to core aspects of their work such as worship services and pastoral care. We found this disruption generated both challenges and opportunities for clergy and their congregations. In the early period, pastors scrambled to create and implement new forms of practice and strategies for connecting with congregants. This required con- siderable time and energy but also allowed for creativity and innovation. By forcing them to adapt ministry to public health restrictions, the pandemic has also pushed some clergy to rethink their role and the role of the Church.

Based on our findings, we propose the value of examining the pandemic as an unsettled cultural period (Swidler 1986, 2013)1–a moment in which cultural ideas and practices are in flux–for religious institutions and communities. Swidler (1986, 2013) argues that culture functions differently in settled versus unsettled times. In settled times, “culture is intimately integrated with action … culture and structural

1 Recent research on the impact of COVID-19 in other social fields has also suggested the value of this framework (Goode, Stroup, and Gaufman 2020; Shepherd et al. 2020).

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circumstance seem to reinforce each other” (Swidler 1986: 278). As a result, people rarely think consciously about their actions. However, unsettled moments raise pre- viously unconsidered practices to the level of conscious thought and prompt actors to reconsider the status quo, and, if necessary, develop new strategies for action (see Swidler 1986: 278–280; Swidler 2013: 99–103). During unsettled periods, religious leaders, as cultural producers, “refashion aspects of their own religious cultures … they create new means to old, or new, cultural ends” (Regnerus and Smith 1998: 1351). Swidler’s analytic framework foregrounds the pandemic’s potential to change pastoral ministry and congregational culture by forcing pastors to create new strate- gies of action (new means) and possibly, by prompting clergy to more fundamen- tally rethink the meaning of worship, ministry, or the Church (new ends). This paper provides an illustration of the value of this framework for making sense of the pan- demic’s impact on pastors and congregations. In the discussion, we highlight key take-aways from our research and identify questions for future research.

Data and Methods

This study is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 26 church- appointed United Methodist pastors in one of the two Annual Conferences in North Carolina.2 The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a particularly useful case study for several reasons. First, it is the third-largest denomination in the United States, involving nearly 6.5 million members, 30,543 churches, and 38,308 clergy (General Council on Finance and Administration of the United Methodist Church 2018) and representing 9% of all religious congregations in the country (Chaves et  al. 2020). Second, UMC denominational leaders encouraged congregations to abide by pub- lic health guidelines and UMC congregations, like most churches in the US (Life- way Research 2020; Seabright and Raiber 2020), generally did so. In May 2020, a federal court overturned a North Carolina executive order that limited indoor reli- gious gatherings, meaning congregations were allowed to set their own COVID pro- tocols (Bridges 2020). The two UMC conferences in the state did not issue direct orders, but instead issued recommendations to congregations to honor public health guidelines encouraging mask-wearing and social distancing (UMC NC Conference 2020b; UMC Western NC Conference 2020). As a result, pastors had considerable leeway to modify practices in line with their congregation’s specific needs, prefer- ences, and available resources. Clergy, as leaders of their congregations, were typi- cally responsible for making final decisions regarding whether and how to gather; their responses provide important insights into how COVID-19 restructured congre- gational life. By focusing on pastors in one denomination in a single state, we were able to identify similarities and differences in how pastors under similar guidelines responded. We opted for in-depth interviews as the primary method of data collec- tion. Interviews provided a more detailed picture of COVID-19’s impact on clergy

2 In North Carolina, the United Methodist Church is organized into two Annual Conferences with a combined membership of almost 500,000 people, 2300 churches, and 1800 clergy.

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and congregations than would be possible using survey data, particularly during such a dynamic and evolving time.

Participants were 26 UMC pastors currently appointed to serve 32 congrega- tions; they were interviewed between June and August, 2020. Participants had pre- viously responded to the 2019 Clergy Health Initiative Statewide Survey of United Methodist Clergy, a longitudinal survey of all UMC clergy in North Carolina with a response rate of 73% (n = 1454). To capture variation across the career-span, we purposively sampled three different groups of survey respondents based on number of years in ministry: early career (five or fewer years), mid-career (six to 19 years), and later career (20 or more years). Within each career stage, we ensured that non- white pastors were represented in the respondent pool in proportion to their overall presence in the state. A total of 61 potential participants were identified for recruit- ment and invited by email to participate in the study. Potential participants were contacted a maximum of four times before being removed. Of the 35 participants not interviewed, four declined to participate, one was ineligible, one was unable to be scheduled, and the remaining 27 did not reply or respond.

Our sample was 88% white, 50% male, and, on average, 44 years old. Ten partici- pants were early career, nine were mid-carrier, and seven were late career. On aver- age, respondents had spent thirteen years in vocational ministry. All but one partici- pant was an ordained elder in the UMC (the remaining participant was in the process of becoming ordained and already serving a congregation). Twenty-one respond- ents were appointed to serve a single congregation, while five respondents pastored multiple churches. Compared to the population of UMC clergy in North Carolina, the sample had more female participants and was slightly younger, but was gener- ally representative of the racial make-up of UMC clergy in North Carolina (90% of clergy in the state are white, 34% are women, and the average age is 53  years old, Clergy Health Initiative 2020). Of the 32 congregations served by pastors in our sample, we classified 31% as being located in rural areas of North Carolina, in accordance with the Rural–Urban Commuting Area Codes of the USDA (USDA Economic Research Service 2020). Additionally, we classified 53% as small congre- gations, meaning they had 100 or fewer regularly attending adult parishioners.

All participants provided informed consent prior to the interview. Interviewers, both of whom identified as women and white, were trained in qualitative inter- viewing and were not affiliated with the UMC.  Interviews, which lasted between 50 and 75 min (mean = 63 min), were conducted by Zoom or telephone and audio- recorded. All interviews followed a standard guide that  included ten open-ended questions (plus potential guided probes) about how COVID-19 impacted pastors’ ministry, how church finances were affected, what stressors pastors faced, and what resources they relied on during this period (see the online supplement for full inter- view guide). Interviews were transcribed and identifying information removed prior to analysis. Pseudonyms are used to protect participants’ confidentiality. Participants received a $25 incentive for participation. All study procedures were approved by Duke University’s Institutional Review Board.

Transcripts were coded in NVivo 12 using applied thematic analysis approaches (Guest et  al. 2011; QSR International 1999). First, a structural codebook was deductively developed based on the interview guide and applied to the transcript

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text. In this initial round, codes reflected key topical areas covered in the inter- view guide–such as changes in ministry, challenges, supports, and congregational finances. For six transcripts (23%), project analysts met to discuss code applications and refine the structural codebook. Codebook definitions and codes were revised on an  as-needed  basis by mutual agreement with initial emergent and inductive codes that cut across topical areas added through team discussion. Once coders established general consensus on the codebook and the application of codes, the remaining transcripts were split among three analysts for individual coding.  Throughout the structural coding process, analysts created respondent-level and cross-case memos (Deterding and Waters 2018), in which they identified emergent themes, questions, and foci for further analysis. A second round of thematic coding was then conducted in topical areas most relevant to the impacts of COVID-19 on pastoral ministry and congregational culture. To do so, analysts reviewed all text coded as relevant to a given topic (e.g., changes in ministry) and inductively generated a thematic code- book based on common themes in pastors’ responses. Thematic codebooks were refined through collective discussion prior to application and then applied to all transcripts by a single analyst to ensure consistency.

This approach to qualitative analysis combines deductive (structured coding) and inductive (thematic coding) approaches to coding–a method best suited to semi- structured interview data (Deterding and Waters 2018). The key themes identified in this paper, therefore, reflect respondents’ answers to explicit questions as well as their unprompted, spontaneous responses. For example, while we asked pastors explicitly what opportunities the pandemic had created for their congregation, as well as what aspects of their ministry during COVID they were proud of and would like to carry forward, we did not ask pastors to discuss how the pandemic was shap- ing the meanings of worship or of the Church, more broadly. In addition, pastors often referenced or discussed “silver linings” related to the pandemic spontaneously in other parts of the interview. In each section, the themes highlighted reflect both structured and spontaneous responses.

Findings

Early in our analysis, we identified resonance between pastors’ descriptions of min- istry in the wake of COVID-19 and Ann Swidler’s conceptualization of “unset- tled cultural periods” (Swidler 1986, 2013). As a result, we use this framework to organize and interpret the findings. First, we demonstrate that pastors experienced the early period of the pandemic as an unsettled time, one which disrupted habitual practices and routines, raising the work of ministry to the level of explicit reflection. Second, we describe how pastors were “re-doing” ministry in three key areas–wor- ship, pastoral care, and pastoral identity. In these sections, we build on a key insight from Swidler’s (1986) work–that during unsettled periods, people do not construct new strategies of action from scratch. Rather, they assemble existing strategies and practices in new ways to fit the new context (Gross 2009). Notably, however, we found that “redoing” ministry was easier and more effective in some areas (wor- ship) than others (pastoral care). In the final section, we focus on the “silver linings”

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(opportunities) pastors described as a result of the pandemic, drawing attention to the ways in which COVID-19 is beginning to unsettle existing ways of thinking about ministry and the Church.

Unsettling Ministry: The Disruptive Power of COVID‑19

Pastors’ descriptions of the pandemic clearly marked this period as an unsettled cul- tural period. As Swidler (1986, 2013) has argued, unsettled times are ontologically insecure moments when social and cultural norms are in flux. These moments are marked by experiences of uncertainty regarding the future of social institutions and structures within which social practices take form and are given meaning. In such periods, Swidler argues, people find that their cultural “tool kits”–socially-situated and culturally-derived sets of symbols, stories, rituals, and strategies of action, which people use to solve problems–no longer work and require “retooling” (Swidler 1986: 283). In our conversations with pastors, the unsettling effect of the pandemic was evident through the disruption of routines, habits, and rhythms related to ministry, feelings of uncertainty and ambiguity, and the explicit reconsideration of practices that were once taken-for-granted.

The pastors we spoke with described the changes to ministry in the wake of COVID-19 as global in nature. Beverly, for example, told us, “[Ministry] is radically changed. It is absolutely radically changed.” Describing the unprecedented nature of the times, Luke reflected,

We’re trying to figure it out, but there’s no blueprint for this … It’s almost as if all of us now are kind of required to be church planters, to think outside the box, to imagine what it looks like. And for those of us who grew up in the church and have this image of what ministry looks like, to pull yourself apart from that image … We’re unlearning ministry and starting from scratch.

Pastors often resorted to metaphors and analogies that highlighted the newness of the situation they found themselves in— like that of “church planting”—and cap- tured the feeling of being disoriented. Beverly noted, “It’s like you’ve been thrown into the deep end and you better learn how to swim really quickly.” Alice told us she felt like they were “reinventing the wheel;” Rebecca remarked she and her staff were “trying to build a plane while we fly it.” Prior to COVID, in-person gatherings were a primary means of doing ministry; under COVID, pastors could no longer do “the normal things” they used to do. Many pastors found this overwhelming. As one later-career elder, Alice, told us, “Everything I learned about how to be a pastor, I’ve virtually had to re-figure out … I was at a point where I felt completely competent in how to be a pastor and now I no longer feel competent.”

Pastors also described this period as one characterized by uncertainty and ambi- guity, where there were no clear rules and very little explicit guidance about how to do ministry effectively. Steven told us,

The pandemic has forced us … into a place where there are no rules, there is no tone. Everybody’s trying to figure it out. Everybody’s got a slightly differ-

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ent way of doing it. There is no magic pill. Each solution, I think, is congrega- tionally specific … We’re all navigating this in different ways.

Pastors, like Chris, felt they were simply “making this up as we go.” Time and again, pastors described the early period of the pandemic as “chaotic” and “frenzied,” characterized by trial and error and often riddled with failures. Pastors struggled to quickly create new practices and strategies for doing ministry. Many felt they were left to “figure it out” on their own, with little explicit guidance from denominational authorities.

As a result of the pandemic, pastors could no longer take the “how-to’s” of min- istry for granted. Steven told us that before COVID, “you just kind of had a rou- tine,” but in the wake of COVID-related restrictions, everything became the focus of conscious thought and deliberation. Without routine practices or explicit guidelines to fall back on, pastors deliberated and decided how best to do the work of ministry in ways that were both safe and satisfying for congregants. As Sarah told us, “I think there was a season where it felt like, it was just all figuring out what to do. So much energy, space, and time where it was problem solving and decision making, and nav- igating decision-making with leaders.” When asked directly about their initial expe- riences, pastors described this period as marked by questions, meetings and discus- sions–with pastoral teams, lay leaders, and denominational leaders–about how best to move forward. Pastors felt their lives became busier in this early period, not nec- essarily because there was more to do, but because their established routines were profoundly disrupted and they had to create and implement new forms of practice.

(Re)Doing Ministry in Unsettled Times: Building New Strategies for Congregational Leadership

If pastoral ministry is, as Luke described it, primarily “the ministry of presence,” pastors like Luke were left asking, “How do you remain present when you are not physically present?” In this section, we outline how pastors reported redoing min- istry in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restriction. We ask: What challenges did pastors face? What strategies of action did they implement? As we know from prior research, pastors spend the largest amounts of their time on sermon preparation, administration, visitation, and pastoral care (DeShon 2010; Lehman 1993). Because the pandemic restricted in-person gatherings, it is not sur- prising that participants named worship services and pastoral care as the areas of their work most dramatically impacted. Pastors also, however, reported changes in how they (and their congregants) understood their role as pastor. We cover each area in turn.

Worship Services

Figuring out how to conduct worship services online was the most immediate and pressing issue pastors faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the order came on Thursday, March 12th, 2020 from the North Carolina bishops

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of the UMC urging pastors to suspend in-person services, pastors had just three days to move worship online or be forced to cancel services entirely (UMC NC Conference 2020a). The first few weeks were described as frenzied, chaotic, and exhausting. It was a period defined by trial and error, especially in relation to technology. For example, Steven described the initial experience as follows,

We decided that doing worship services via Facebook Live was the most logical progression for us to do. But, nobody knew how to do Facebook Live. We knew about it, and I thought I knew what was going on … I thought all you did was hit the start button. But, no … After trying to figure out for 20 minutes … and not having any success, [I] ran back to the office, grabbed the phone, called a member that I knew did Facebook Live, and I said, “Help.” She helped me figure out a way to do it, which wasn’t exactly the best way to do it, but it worked. About 30 minutes after we were sup- posed to start the service, our first Facebook Live service started.

Steven was not alone. We repeatedly heard stories of missteps and failed attempts in those early weeks–from slow-downs with Facebook Live to the sound not working or videos taking 12 hours to upload. There were questions about broadcast licenses for music and platform subscriptions to address, equipment to be purchased, and video editing software learned. As Christina told us, “It was kind of crazy. Learned a lot.” Eventually, most pastors reported finding a format that worked for their congre- gations. Steven, for example, reported that he has used Facebook Live “ever since” and feels that the platform “works well for us.” Rusty told us, after the first few weeks, “You started to see a break in the clouds, so to speak. You got used to it.”

Some pastors had an easier time with technology than others. While solo pas- tors had to figure out technology on their own or were forced to rely on lay volun- teers for assistance, those on pastoral teams often had staff members or associate pastors whose primary job was to manage technology. Unsurprisingly, younger pastors tended to report fewer issues navigating the shift to online worship. As Kathryn, a 26-year-old pastor told us: “Yeah. I’m a millennial and so I didn’t have a super hard time with it.” Likewise, congregations that were already offering online or streaming services pre-COVID were better-positioned to quickly and easily make the shift online.

Generally, using technology to mediate worship was the most challenging for pastors in rural congregations, where members sometimes lacked reliable internet access, and in churches with older congregants who were unfamiliar or uncomfortable with new technologies like Zoom and Facebook Live. Pastors of these congregations developed creative solutions. One pastor sent CD copies of the worship service to congregants without internet access. Another created a “scripted worship-from-home experience” for congregants each week. In other cases, congregants themselves found creative ways to navigate access-related issues. One of Rusty’s congregants who lacked internet access, for example, would call another member who would “hold the phone up to her tablet, and [the woman] listens to the service while the other lady is watching it on her tablet.” In each case, pastors and congregants drew on existing knowledge and available

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resources to overcome issues related to access and find ways to stay connected despite existing constraints and limitations.

After pastors had settled on a platform and navigated issues of access, other challenges more inherent to the online format emerged. Twelve of the pastors we spoke with (46%) lamented the inability to perform practices, like singing and communion, they considered essential elements of the Christian worship experi- ence. For some, like Joe, these constraints led them to question what worship is and what it means,

One of the things that they had said about the pandemic is that we should avoid singing. Well okay, that’s reasonable. I get that, but at some point, we’re going to need to reflect on what does it mean to be a Christian com- munity that doesn’t sing? It’s all well and good to say we need alternatives for the passing of the peace, but can we, as a Christian community, give up passing of the peace? What does that mean for us? What changes when you do that?

These aspects of worship felt so central that some pastors were unwilling to skip them and, instead, tried to find creative ways to do them safely. Arthur, whose con- gregation was meeting outdoors, shared, “I told folks a couple of weeks ago, if you can sing softly, then do so. If you’re like me and you can’t sing softly, you have to belt it out, then put a mask on so it doesn’t spray everywhere.” Other pastors contin- ued to include live music in their outdoor services, albeit in pared back forms. Some placed vocalists and musicians fifteen feet away or even inside the chapel, with the sound projected outside.

Communion was also difficult to replicate online. Rebecca told us that she felt the existing substitutes–using “little pre-sealed packs” or “telling people to bring their own elements to an online service”–were not sufficient. For her, “there’s some- thing about physically offering the bread and cup” that defined the practice. Rebecca planned a different work-around: her congregants were going to “meet in small groups every now and then on a porch, socially distanced, for 15  min so that we can have communion.” These examples show that the pandemic pushed pastors to consider what parts of worship were essential and which could be dropped or modi- fied, as well as what modifications were acceptable. Pastors were not starting from scratch or trying to reinvent worship; rather, they aimed to maintain its core defining elements but accomplish them in new ways, under the constraints associated with COVID-19.

A final challenge commonly mentioned by pastors was the lack of feedback and interaction with congregants while preaching. Seven of the pastors we spoke with (27%) mentioned this. Wade told us,

I don’t get the feedback that I need to know whether or not what I’m communi- cating is effective …. If I throw a joke into my sermon, no one ever laughs, no one ever smiles …. I don’t get that immediate feedback after the service: “Oh wow. That really made me think about something in a different way” or “That was so comforting.”

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This was particularly challenging for pastors who saw preaching as an important part of their pastoral identity. One pastor we spoke with, Margaret, offered a crea- tive solution to this challenge. One of her staff members “will be behind the camera, and their job is to do this [nods her head]. You know? To give the head nod. To say, ‘Mm-hmm.&#x2019

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