The Rev. Bruce Datcher wears an assortment of hats as pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.
He prepares the Sunday sermon, helps with administrative chores and attends welfare check-ins with congregants. In addition to these duties, Datcher is trying to solve a challenge facing his congregation: how to bring more people to Sunday worship.
“Sunday morning has become such a vacant hour at this point,” Datcher said.
Nestled between residences in the Stop Six neighborhood, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church recently celebrated its 146th year serving east Fort Worth residents. Despite its long-standing presence in the community, over half of its congregation have not returned since the pandemic, Datcher said. It’s one of many churches in the nation struggling to bring back its in-person attendance numbers since COVID-19. Now, as a possible solution, the church is aiming to reach younger families through nonprofit work.
Before the pandemic, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church would see over 100 people in its sanctuary on any given Sunday morning, Datcher said. Now, he said, the church is blessed to have 35 to 40 congregants for worship.
The challenge in bringing more people to the pews is not unique to Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. It echoes a nationwide trend of church attendance declining among most religions. One in five Americans reported attending religious services in person less often than they did before the pandemic, according to Pew Research Center.
Datcher said he believes there’s a multitude of reasons why the church is seeing fewer people coming to Sunday service. For one, the church streams its sermons on Facebook. By doing so, congregants are able to watch the service from home.
Dwindling in-person attendance can affect a church financially because there are fewer people available to provide offerings during the service, Datcher said.
De’Borah Brandi-Brown remembers the pews being packed every Sunday morning when she joined Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in 1998. She participated in the choir and children’s ministry. She now serves as its administrative assistant.
Brandi-Brown said she believes the decline in membership can be attributed to families struggling to bring younger generations to church.
“We had so many families, large families with multiple children and grandchildren and everything,” Brandi-Brown said. “All those children that had grown up in the church, they didn’t come back after college.”
Looking for solutions
One way Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church is trying to bring younger families to worship is through Brighter Outlook Inc., a nonprofit formed by members of the church. The organization aims to bring job and back-to-school fairs to Stop Six residents.
During February’s job fair, Datcher said, he passed out brochures about the church, which has helped the congregation gain some visitors.
Datcher said he is hoping Brighter Outlook can reach and build relationships with younger families coming to the neighborhood. The church also plans to start a mail campaign, putting brochures about the church in people’s mailboxes throughout the 76105 ZIP code, Datcher said.
“We’ve had a few visitors, but no members joined. So the challenge still continues,” Datcher said.
Brandi-Brown said she found a sense of belonging at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church because of its size. It was small enough for her to get to build relationships with other people in the church but big enough where she could be a part of a variety of ministries, she said.
One way she hopes the church can bring more people into worship is by offering a Spanish-language sermon for the neighborhood’s Hispanic residents.
“We’re at a place in time where, for this particular church, we all pitch in and do what we have to do to serve God and make it work to keep the doors open,” Brandi-Brown said. “I’m hopeful that the community is changing. Now, it’s just a matter of us being able to communicate.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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