Voices From the Pew: Exploring African American Christian Women’s Perceptions of Church Readiness to Deliver Support Services Since the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Churches must be able to navigate forced changes like those brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions related to the pandemic impacted churches’ abilities to provide needed support services to the African American community, including African American women, who shoulder tremendous challenges. Few studies report the views of African Americans regarding the types of support services they need and none address the perceptions of African American Christian women’s need for support services from their church to assist them in recovering from the effects of the pandemic. The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore African American Christian women’s perceptions regarding their church’s readiness to deliver needed support services since the beginning of the pandemic. This perspective is crucial for addressing organizational change for church readiness. Using a social constructivist approach, I relied on participants’ views of their situation. Data were collected from semistructured interviews of 20 African American Christian women who attended churches throughout the United States. Six significant themes depicted the support programs reported by the participants, and two themes represented the needed organizational changes to enhance church readiness. These perceptions from the pew provide the groundwork for church organizational change by suggesting services that should be implemented or operations that should be changed.