It’s been three years since Easter set records for church streaming, with churches canceling in-person worship during the early weeks of COVID-19. Though church doors have long reopened for services in the United States, the pandemic has had a lasting effect on attendance.
A multisite church based in Riverside, California, Sandals Church had about 80,000 people watch its services over the 2020 holiday weekend, up from around 3,000–4,000 before. Like churches across the country, Sandals saw online attendance numbers drop and level out once it resumed gathering, but it was still drawing in three to four times as many online participants as before.
The congregation has since launched a dedicated online campus—Sandals Church Anywhere—designed to be watched in small groups in people’s homes.
“Sandals Church Anywhere is an opportunity for a group to meet in person, but they’re not near a Sandals Church location,” said pastor Alfredo Ramos. “They can watch the service together, process it together, have a meal together, and have time to facilitate through the group questions. These are groups that I get to directly oversee and offer pastoral care to.”
