The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Margaret Johnson will present Doctoral (PhD) research titled, Exploring Church Involvement in a Post-Pandemic Era: Factors that Contribute to African Americans’ Church Commitment on 10/20/2026 at 3:00 pm ET in https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/83818142508. Everyone is invited to attend.
Learning and Leadership
Chair: Dr. David W. Rausch
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
The Black Church has served as a cornerstone institution within African American communities for centuries, anchoring religious practice, social engagement, and civic life across generations. Despite this legacy, church membership and attendance among African Americans continue to decline, a trend accelerated by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. This mixed-methods phenomenological study explores the factors that contribute to African Americans’ church commitment in the post-pandemic era, examining the lived experiences of church leaders and churchgoers to identify patterns of religious involvement that sustain congregation engagement and growth. Guided by communities of practice (Wenger, 2000), the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2002), the transformative learning theory (E. W. Taylor, 2008), and Rosabeth Kanter’s commitment model (Kanter, 1972), this study employed an exploratory sequential design (Creswell, 2021). The qualitative phase utilized semi-structured interviews and focus groups with four African American church leaders and 10 churchgoers, analyzed through thematic analysis. The researcher administered the Religious Involvement Scale to 166 participants and analyzed the data using multiple regression to examine differences in church involvement across generational, educational, gender, marital, denominational, and geographic variables. Ten themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: family influence and early socialization, pastoral leadership and spiritual guidance, worship experience and spiritual practices, community belonging and outreach, ministry participation and service opportunities, personal spiritual growth and development, COVID-19 impact and hybrid ministry, connection between involvement and church growth, intergenerational engagement and youth inclusion, and emotional needs and personal support. Quantitative findings revealed no statistically significant relationships in church involvement scores across all demographic variables examined, with generation, education level, gender, marital status, denomination, church, and personal location each serving as significant predictors of involvement. Findings from both phases converge to affirm that involvement may not be shaped by demographic characteristics, but by family influence, pastoral leadership, and opportunities for meaningful participation. Implications for practice offer church leaders a framework for strategic resource allocation, and implications for future research identify longitudinal and denominational comparative studies as priority directions. This study contributes to the growing body of scholarship on race, religious involvement, and community dynamics in a post-pandemic context.