A survey by the Barna Research Group has pinpointed the reasons why Americans choose a church. A nationwide sampling of Americans were asked to respond to the following statement:
"For most people there are a few key factors that determine whether or not they will return to a church they have visited. For each factor I mention please tell me if that factor would be extremely important, pretty important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important in your decision of whether or not to return to a church you had visited."
Of the 22 factors named, including worship styles and community outreaches, the top eight reasons for selecting a church, in order of importance, were:
• Theological beliefs
• How much people care
• Quality of sermons
• Friendliness to visitors
• Help to poor and disadvantaged
• Quality of children’ programs
• How much you like your pastor
• Denomination
(From the Barna Research Group)
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About Me
- Del Smith
- Bensalem, PA., United States
- Pastor Del Smith is the Senior Pastor of Christian Life Center. He and his wife, Marvina, have been married since 1985 and have three children, Steven, Chelsey and Erica. He served as the Executive Pastor of CLC for four years prior to being elected as Senior Pastor. Del and Marvina have been in ministry since 1985, having served churches in Missouri and Indiana. He graduated from Central Bible College with a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Literature from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Pastor Del has a consuming desire to preach and teach the Bible in contemporary and creative ways. He is passionate in leading Christian Life Center to become a place where people discover God and experience His power in life-changing ways!
5 comments:
Interesting, but the main thing I do not see is "I go to church to Grow in God's word and prepare my heart to share with others.
You see the list is a problem, it is all the surface items, and if one thing changes you have transitional growth and people go "Church shopping" so one church gets smaller and another get's bigger.
People need to go to church for the right reasons, not programs and Doctrine or the Pastor, but go there to get in touch more so with God, and the through that thier life will change in amazing ways as they begin to walk the Path God has chosen for them.
I agree. I would assume the reason that's not specifically listed is because the Barna Group believes it to be fundamental to any church.
I tend to think in song lyrics and the one this list brings to mind is by the Gaithers. It looks like people are interested in "Loving God, Loving Each Other"
CLC is that and so much more.
ChurchofToday, you are obviously a very mature Christian.
But for people new to church, these factors will keep them in the fold long enough to understand the true value of the Word of God.
An unwelcoming congregation or a church that doesn't minister to all family members (children, teens, adults) in a language each can understand (we don't teach 6 year olds the way we teach 46 year olds)can't accomplish their mission either.
Stilllearning, I would not call myself a mature christian, we are all children, but I do appreciate the compliment. I agree with you that teaching with the use of words needs to be diffferent, but the word of God is still the word of God.
If we look at churches as a whole, the list is just that a problem, if you go into churches and walk up to 25 people and ask them where did they go to church before, I will bet you 22 of the 25 will name another church within the local community.
People get hooked on the list, this is why churches go through transitional growth problems.
Picture this, if you had a church of 25 people, and the Pastor discipled you to share your faith, you would go out and share your faith and bring people to church to learn the same thing you learned, and so on and so on, what size would the church be after a year?
It would be huge, and it would not matter if anything on the list changed, the people would continue to do God's calling.
We can teach children to do it to their own age group, Teens to do it to theirs, and adults to do it to theirs.
If you do this, you will have a church full of disciples, and very little transitional growth.
But Discipleship is the key, people are getting poured into from the Word of God.
A Healthy church is a church that is not full of transitioanl growth. A good book to read to understand this is Rick Warrens "Purpose Driven Church"
I agree a loving welcoming church is important, but you see if you have a church full of people out sharing the gift, the same gift given to them, there is no such thing as an unwelcoming church.
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