On 28/5/2020 I posted a simple anonymous Google Forms survey in the Baptist Ministers in the UK Facebook Group. To gather additional responses on 22/6/2020 I posted it also on the Baptist Collaboration Facebook Group. Further responses will continue to improve the accuracy so the survey will remain live online at https://forms.gle/tbpwoWUR9FnWG1j56

This second report increases the precision of the results to a margin of error of 13%

The Government’s Guidelines on reopening places of worship from 4/7/2020 have had two major impacts. Firstly, very many churches are now delaying further their planning to reopen their buildings for worship. Secondly, the constraints within the guidelines will delay further the restarting of many rentals and many fund-generating activities on church premises. At the same time, we have seen the first of doubtless many “local lockdowns” and most experts now consider the likelihood of a “second spike” lockdown to be very high. All these issues will prolong the impact of Covid19 on the finances of many churches, for longer than many would have anticipated when they completed this survey some weeks ago. So Covid19 is likely to have a greater negative impact on the finances of churches than these survey results suggest.

I am very happy to discuss the survey and its results by email or on Facebook.