I have been pleasantly surprised by the response our recent worship and liturgy survey has garnered.  All told, we had 266 responses!  Forty-nine of them came to us on paper, and the rest were done electronically.  I was also impressed at how many people completed the entire survey.  Twenty-eight people didn’t finish the whole survey, but even those folks answered most of it.  We knew it was a long survey, and those of you who attended the Town Hall meetings understand why it was so long.  The options we have to make room at our worship services are many, and the decision making process is complex.  The response rate also tells me that we are an engaged congregation who do care what happens in the future. 

I just got the raw data back from the company we retained to administer the survey.  We worked with Holy Cow Consulting, based in Ohio.  Some of you will remember that Holy Cow is the company that administered the last parish-wide survey during the last interim.  We shared what we were trying to discern with them, and the sorts of questions for which we hoped to get answers.  They put together and administered the survey and will analyze the results for us.  When the survey closed on Monday, they sent me the overall responses, and will send us the detailed analysis soon.  The detailed analysis is important because some of the issues are complex and it matters how attendees at each service responded to different components. 

For example, we fully expected that the regulars at 8:00 am and 11:15 am would be less likely to identify parking and seating issues.  The overall data says that a slim majority of those who completed the survey think there is adequate parking, yet an even larger majority suggests that we could improve

the parking, and nearly 70% of respondents indicated that we should consider adding parking in the near future.  We are curious to see how that breaks down by people’s service of preference.  With other questions that were designed to get to the root of our preferences in worship, we also expect a nuanced breakdown by the service we generally attend or some other demographic.  The choice of preferred liturgy, music, timing, etc., will all skew differently (we think) depending on what choices people have already made.

I also learned that some of the questions made people suspect some things that really aren’t being discussed or evaluated.  The question about how important it is to kneel got people’s attention (based on a few comments).  That question wasn’t asked because we are considering eliminating kneeling, but because it is another way of gauging how likely it is that people would like worshipping in the parish hall where there is no way to kneel!  75% of respondents indicated that it is important for them to kneel in worship (including your Rector who also filled out the survey!), which tells us a little bit about how a service in the parish hall might be received.  It’s not a definitive piece of information for evaluating the parish hall option, but it does give us some information we didn’t have before. 

One of the places of highest agreement across the survey was with regard to whether accommodating growth and making new people comfortable was a part of our mission as a congregation; 90% of respondents agreed that it is!  That is definitely a mandate for the Vestry and me as we continue this work to address the needs as best we are able.  Many of the other preferences brought responses that had a much greater spread, as we expected, which means the hard part is still going to be deciding which option(s) are right for where we find ourselves today and anticipate where we’re headed tomorrow.   As a reminder, after we have our next round of Town Hall meetings, the Vestry will deliberate on these issues over the summer to make a plan to address the short term needs. 

I know that many of you are eager to hear and see the results of the survey.  Holy Cow will send us the full analysis on results soon, which the Vestry will then begin reviewing.  We will host Town Hall Sessions to share the data and engage the congregation in further conversation during June 4-6.  We will offer a Town Hall meeting after service at St. Ignatius on June 4, after the 11:15 am service at Christ Church on June 5, and at 6:00 pm in the Parish Hall on June 6.  We will also find a way to share the information with those who cannot attend.  The raw data takes up sixty pages, although it may be presented in a more compact form after it is analyzed.  We’ll keep you posted as that develops.

I also want to comment on why we offered this kind of survey; a survey that tried to get a picture of people’s preferences and choices, as opposed to simply taking a poll to see who liked a particular option better than another.  We clearly didn’t ask the congregation to vote on adding a service in the parish hall or offering four in a row or adding services at St. Ignatius, etc.  We would have gotten data back from a survey like that, but it really wouldn’t have been

as useful as one might think, and it would have left many things unanswered.  Consultants will tell you that every church, when polled, indicates that they want Bible studies to be offered – it often ranks very high in importance.  The reality in most churches, however, is that offering them does not mean people will attend them.  As a rule, Bible studies reach a small segment of any given congregation, even if the majority of the congregation indicate that they wanted them to be offered.  We may like the idea of a particular service, but at the end of the day, we aren’t able to offer what people like in theory; instead we want to offer the worship services in which they will actually participate. 

Keep praying for your parish and your leaders as we continue on this path.  Plan to join us for the next part of this process in June and we’ll see where the Holy Spirit is leading us together.

Tom+

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, you are the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person, the one foundation and the chief cornerstone.  Bless what we are now doing in this process.  Be the beginning, the increase, and the consummation of this work undertaken to the glory of your Name; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.  Adapted from Book of Occasional Services