One thing we have to be aware of when planning things for our churches in response to COVID19 is not just the objective impact of the virus in terms of its actual threat to health but also how news and perceptions affect the decisions of members and potential attendees.
With that in mind, I’ve conducted one of my little surveys looking at how people are reacting in response to the news about the Omicron variant. I expect these reactions to change a little as we get more information. Remember that this may lead to a more positive or negative scenario.
Here are the results from the questions I asked:
Remember that these polls don’t claim to be representative so I’m less interested in the proportions of people and more in the fact that there were several people indicating that the new variant was likely to affect the church attendance patterns over the next few weeks. It’s important to factor this in to any decisions you make including about online provision.
The mask requirement results are particularly interesting. I would expect that the same people participate in all of the surveys which suggests among my following that even if there’s a willingness to keep attending church among many, this may be dependent upon other mitigation measures being in place.
Faithroots 