By Mark A. Taylor
How do leaders in Christian churches and churches of Christ feel about staying connected with others like themselves? After hearing from more than 1,200 of them in a survey conducted this spring, we feel confident of one conclusion: Leaders in our fellowship highly value their connections with each other.
Seeking Connection
Almost half (545 respondents, or 44 percent of the total) said it is “Very Important” to be connected with other leaders in Christian churches/churches of Christ. Another 21 percent (253 respondents) said it is “Critical.” That totals almost two-thirds of respondents, while only 11 percent (136 respondents) marked the question “Useless” or “Sometimes Helpful.”
While answers to this question varied somewhat by age, the majority of those in every age category answered this question “Important” or “Very Important.”
As we might expect, the older the respondent, the more who called these connections “Very Important.” Well over half of those 71 or older answered the question that way, while less than 30 percent of those 18-30 did so.
Yet the combined total of those who marked this question “Very Important” or “Critical” (the two highest ratings) was remarkably consistent among those of every age. (See the box on this page.)
Maintaining Connections
We asked respondents to choose from 14 possible answers to this question: “How important to you is each of the following means of staying connected with Christian churches/churches of Christ?” Respondents could mark each one “Useless,” “Sometimes Helpful,” “Important,” “Very Important,” or “Crit-ical.” We added the “Very Important” and “Critical” choices for each option and then sorted the list according to those totals.
The greatest number of these responses, 521 or 42 percent, were for “Christian Standard Print Magazine.” (Although we sought to find nonreaders of Christian Standard to answer the survey, about 84 percent of those who completed it said they are readers; almost half of them said they read the magazine every week.)
Area ministers or leaders meetings (493 or 40 percent) and personal e-mail (465 or 38 percent) also ranked high on this list. So did our national conventions; the North American Christian Convention received 479 votes (39 percent). The National Missionary Convention was labled a key connecting point by 435 or 35 percent of those who responded to the survey.
Almost all of those responding did so via the Internet (only 143 returned the paper survey published in our March 9 issue). Of these, 478 (38 percent) answered via a link on our Web site, and 305 (25 percent) responded to a link in our weekly e-newsletter. So it”s no surprise that 431 (35 percent) of respondents choose “Christian Standard e-newsletter/Web site” as a “Very Important” or “Critical” means of staying connected within the Christian churches.
Many of our questions were about Christian Standard more than the Restoration Movement at large. We asked what kind of input or information readers wanted. Ranked highest (with 673 combined “Very Important” and “Critical” responses) was elder training, followed by “Bible studies on key theological issues (614) and small groups training (579). We”re looking carefully at the whole list as we plan for future issues.
Raising Questions
The survey raises as many questions for us as it answers. For example 293 (24 percent) of respondents told us their church”s weekend worship attendance is under 100, and another 283 (23 percent) have 101-250 in weekend worship. This is a good reminder of how many we serve who will never be “mega.” Nevertheless, we”d like to hear more from members of larger churches.
Maybe, with “A Survey for Church Leaders,” we should have expected a high proportion of senior ministers as respondents. In fact 436 (35 percent*) of those who answered were senior ministers, almost twice the number from any other category. We”d like to hear from more elders, Sunday school teachers, and small group leaders.
And women! Almost all of our respondents (967 or 78 percent*) were men. We feel certain our readership isn”t that out-of-balance.
We”d also like more response from our churches” younger members. Almost
two-thirds (783; 63 percent) of our respondents were between the ages of 41-
70. About a fourth of them (311) were 51-60 (the largest category of respondents). Only 59 were 30 or younger.
We are very grateful to all those who took time to answer our questions. Be watching future issues of Christian Standard for the chance to tell us more and for the content we”ll provide to meet the needs you expressed to us.
Meanwhile, since so many have said Christian Standard is one of the best ways to stay connected with others in our fellowship, everyone reading this article might think about others they know who need to stay connected. Why not make sure they, too, are seeing Christian Standard every week?
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*These reflect percentages of total number who answered any part of the survey. Percentages on the chart show percentage of those answering that individual question.
Mark Taylor is publisher and editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD.
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