During the last few decades in the handling of ongoing crises and preparing forfuture crises, governments and other public authorities increasingly emphasize theimportant role religious organizations can play in crises and disaster management.Considering this development, it is appropriate to ask whether the expectations bypolicymakers are mirrored by the religious organizations themselves? This articleaims to answers this question by studying both the organizations' desired role in timeof national crises and disasters and the actual role taken by local congregations inSweden during the Covid‐19 pandemic. It also aims to study whether this differs inrelation to organizational differences and religious affiliation. The study clearlyshows that 8 out of 10 congregations believe they have an important role to play inthe event of a disaster or crisis. However, despite the high level of willingness, therole congregations take may not always mirror the governments expectations. Interms of differences between congregations, although cross‐religious differences arenoted, the size of the organization is the critical factor. The article concludes bydiscussing the disparity between policymakers' expectations and the willingness oforganizations as well as the complexity of policymakers assuming that non‐profitorganizations will help unequivocally