Unchurch, Part Four (Survey Results)

How common is it to find people in an ‘Unchurch’ space? How is the Church changing around us?

As I stated in the beginning of this series, this conversation was birthed out of ongoing interactions with more and more people over the last several years who were finding themselves in a place of unrest - a place of loving God, but not satisfied with church as they had known it.

I think, in large part, the Church as a whole is pretty exclusionary. We tend to project our own beliefs, including the form & function of the Church that we are most familiar with, onto other people. This doesn’t apply to everyone, but I believe it applies to the majority of Jesus followers. We tend to think that the proper expression of the Church in other’s lives ought to be the same expression that we are used to.

One of the main reasons I wanted to put a spotlight on the Unchurch topic is because it is something that I believe is more prevalent than you might think.

A few weeks ago I created a short 10 question survey and invited people to add their own voice to the Unchurch conversation. Close to 50 people participated.

Before we begin, I have to add the disclaimer that I am not a statistician, nor do I play one on TV. I realize that 50 people is nowhere close to a large enough sample to consider the results conclusive. I don’t claim that they are. I believe, however, that they give a good sampling of where people are in their spiritual journeys - especially in relation to this topic.

Here is some of what I found as a result of the Unchurch survey…

65% of people who are active involved in a church meet together on a regular basis with a group of Christians outside of an organized church setting The “how it looks” differs from person to person, but a good majority of those surveyed shared that they meet together with a group of other Christians on a regular basis - outside of the programs or activities of an organized church setting. To me that’s a good sign that there is something lacking in our current common expression of church if so many people feel a need to connect outside of that setting.
40% of those actively involved in a traditional church setting consider their primary expression of Church outside of that setting I fully expected there to be a good percentage of people who considered their primary expression of church to be found outside of what most people would consider a traditional church setting. The numbers lined up right about where I thought they would. What was really surprising to me, however, was the high percentage of those who shared this conviction who were also actively involved in a traditional church. 40% of those who were active in a church, found their primary expression of Church somewhere else.
70% of the people surveyed are currently actively involved in a traditional church setting I was hoping for a more even sampling of people - a good half & half between those who were active in church & those who weren’t. The fact that 70% of those surveyed were active church goers lends even more weight to the last two findings, though. If the numbers would have been the same with a more even distribution of people participating, it would have been an important finding. The fact that the sampling of people was more lopsided toward active church goers makes the results, in my opinion, eye-opening.
Most of these people aren’t new to their churches… 75% have been there for at least 3 years; 53% at least 5 years; 34% at least 7 years. To add even more fuel to the fire… Those surveyed aren’t even church ‘newbies’ - the vast majority have been involved in their current church setting for a good number of years. The highest percentage have been active in their current churches for seven or more years. Out of this group of active church goers, a large percentage of them consider the truest expression of Church to be outside of the walls of their churches.

Other Results…

• The reasons people gave for being actively involved in a traditional church varied greatly… some did so out a desire for community, others did it for their children’s sake, others cited a desire to worship with others, and others said they were active because of parents or out of a sense of obligation, etc.
• For those not actively involved, almost all had been a part of a church in the past.
• The reasons shared by these people for no longer being involved varied greatly as well… some had negative past experiences, some found themselves in circumstances (work schedule, life situation, etc.) that kept them from attending, still others said they were seeking more than what they saw from their previous church experience, etc.
• The groups meeting outside of the traditional church structure described themselves as… sharing lives, praying for one another, discussing Scripture or current events, sharing stories, sharing meals, encouraging one another, serving alongside one another, etc.

Very few expressed themselves in a negative or cynical light. Rather, they found themselves seeking some higher ideal that they saw lacking in a normal church. They described this journey in ways similar to these…

• “We all have yearned for community and depth we can’t find in church and small groups affiliated with churches we know.”
• “A group of people who love God, want to follow, but can’t find a church that wants to worship & fellowship without strict rules.”

Perhaps most interestingly, even with the varied answers and situations that participants found themselves in, there was quite a bit of commonality when it came to their future perception of the Church. When asked “Where do you see the Church (big “C”) 10/20 years from now?” the common threads were…

• Some form of conventional church will still exist (in other words, it isn’t going away anytime soon)
• Less formal/structured
• More fluid/adaptable
• Community-based
• Much smaller
• Online more & more
• Meeting in homes more

Regardless of how much weight you give the survey, the point is that there are more and more people finding themselves in an Unchurch space, and that trend is sure to only increase in the years ahead.

Join us tomorrow as we conclude the Unchurch series…

MORE OF THE UNCHURCH SERIES…
Be sure and catch the rest of the Unchurch series…

• Unchurch, Part One (Introduction)
• Unchurch, Part Two (Pancakes & Jesus)
• Unchurch, Part Three (Kauzbots & 2nd Chances)
• Unchurch, Part Five (We Are Not Alone)

Posted 07.09.2009

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