OK, I just pulled this from churchrelevance.com and was admittedly suprised by these statistics. For so long the church has believed the most important way to grow your church is with music. Music is still very important, but it is interesting to me that it isn't the deal breaker, especially for unchurched people.
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Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church(research conducted by Ranier)
- 90% - Pastor/Preaching
- 88% - Doctrines
- 49% - Friendliness of Members
- 42% - Other Issues
- 41% - Someone Church Witnessed to Me
- 38% - Family Member
- 37% - Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
- 25% - Relationship Other than Family Member
- 25% - Sunday School Class
- 25% - Children’s/Youth Ministry
- 12% - Other Groups/Ministries
- 11% - Worship Style/Music
- 7% - Location
Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)
- 58% - Doctrine/Theology
- 53% - People Caring for Each Other
- 52% - Preaching
- 45% - Friendliness
- 45% - Children’s Programs
- 43% - Helping the Poor
- 36% - Denomination
- 35% - Like the Pastor
- 26% - Sunday School
Top 6 Things that Keep the Formerly Unchurched Active in the Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
- 62% - Ministry Involvement
- 55% - Sunday School
- 54% - Obedience to God
- 49% - Fellowship of Members
- 38% - Pastor/Preaching
- 14% - Worship Services
The statistics speak for themselves. Overall, doctrine, the pastor and his preaching, and the friendliness and fellowship of the congregation are the most influential qualities.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Reasons People Choose A Church
Scott Sterner reports:
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4 comments:
I'm also surprised about how little music seemed to matter.
I was also surprised how little a friendship was involved.
I am suspicious of this survey for a few reasons. First, of course, is that surveys about what people want are quite often far off the mark; people don't know what they want, other than they generally know they want to tell the interviewer what they think the interviewer wants to hear.
That first point might explain why preaching and doctrines rank at the top, and music ranks #12. When people are asked what they look for in a church, preaching and doctrine are the 'right' answers.
But, think about this from a Christian perspective. How can the unchurched look for a church based on doctrine? By definition, the unchurched are people who know little about doctrine. So, can they tell the difference between Presbyterian and Baptist, let alone PCA and PCUSA?
Similarly, I don't believe many church attenders choose based on doctrine. I have been around long enough to know most church attenders, unless they went through a significant catechetical system, know very little beyond the basics of their church's theology. Again, most members can't even tell you more than Presbyterians baptize babies and Baptists don't.
And while children's ministries rank relatively low, I know many people for whom that is their most pressing concern. Perhaps that ranks low because it would only be considered by those with children.
In general, I would take this survey with a grain of salt.
I certainly agree that we must take any statistical analysis like this with a grain of salt. One thing to clarify though…
In the secular sense of the word, everyone has a doctrinal position. Dictionary.com calls doctrine, “A body or system of teachings relating to a particular subject”, which in this survey is related to religious beliefs. Certainly an unchurched person isn’t discerning or understanding the same doctrines as a seasoned believer, but they are definitely weighing the doctrine of the church the minute a worship leader or pastor opens their mouth. In this sense, it would be no surprise at all, that the doctrinal convictions of a church would, at least on a surface level, weigh greatly on whether or not a person continues in the church.
Now lets face it, what many of us don’t like about this survey is that we’ve believed, at least on some levels, that hip music was a key component to reaching the lost. I'm just not sure this is the case any more and I’m glad to see the data substantiating it. In many regards this data reinforces the priorities of scripture, namely the value of preaching, doctrine, and community. As a worship leader I am not trying to diss music. I still think it’s incredibly important and biblically mandatory within the church. I’m just tired of the pressure put on worship leaders to grow churches and think this is a refreshing wake-up call to keep our priorities straight.
I agree that everyone has a theology. I am just wondering whether people even think their theology, or the theology of a church, is all that important. I see so much de-emphasis on doctrine, even among evangelicals.
I've heard mixed information about this in the past. Some researchers say that it's the theologically grounded and determined churches the grow. Consider that the liberal denominations are decreasing in membership rapidly, while conservative denominations are doing much better. On the other hand, some researchers say it's the seeker-sensitive churches that typically downplay doctrine that are growing. Consider Willow Creek that recently realized they're not feeding their sheep. And Rick Warren has actually written that many of the people in his church don't even know the church is Southern Baptist.
I guess one could argue even the downplaying of doctrine is a doctrine--specifically the belief that specifics don't matter to God. And perhaps when people look for the "Cheers" church (where everybody knows your name and troubles are all the same) are looking for a specific doctrinally belief set--that God is our cosmic self-help guru.
And since you brought up community, have you read the 9Marks blog series on how they develop community?
part 1: http://blog.9marks.org/2008/06/depth-step-1--o.html
part 2: http://blog.9marks.org/2008/07/depth-step-2-ev.html
part 3: http://blog.9marks.org/2008/07/depth-step-3-me.html
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