Over cups of coffee, in the Sunday School room, and in conversations after worship, such comments could be heard at the Wallace Presbyterian Church. Our 230-member congregation finds itself needing space for all sorts of activities and programs. As the session discussed what to do and wondered how to evaluate our needs, I suggested that we investigate what the Office of Research Services of the General Assembly Council in Louisville had to offer.
An initial phone call to the office put me in touch with Dr. Cynthia A. Woolever, Associate for Congregational Research. After a brief conversation in which I described what sort of help we needed, Dr. Woolever sent me helpful information outlining the various data-gathering and research tools and services available to congregations. Our session elected to use two different research tools: The Ten-Year Trend Report which provided data from the session's Annual Statistical Report (e.g., gains and losses; expenditures; mission giving; worship attendance) and a Congregational Survey which gave us demographic information, information about the strengths and priorities of our church programs, and tools for strategic planning. Because our session wanted to gather specific information about our congregation's perception of the need to expand our physical plant and their willingness to participate in a building program, Dr. Woolever helped us design additional questions for the survey along those lines.
We quickly received the Ten-Year Trend Report and a copy of the Congregational Survey, ready to be reproduced and distributed to the congregation. Session members distributed the survey to the congregation and we collected completed surveys over a two- week period. James N. Guinn, Research Associate in the Office of Research Services, then provided much helpful guidance. Within six weeks we received a copy of the Congregational Survey Report and an appendix which broke down in detail the survey results question by question. The session made these reports available to members of the congregation and will use these them in our decision making process.
If your session is wondering how to gather helpful information about your congregation's needs and dreams for ministry, I highly recommend using the Office of Research Services. The staff members responded professionally, helpfully, and in a timely manner to all of our requests for help. They helped us design the research tools to fit our particular congregation. Our session has been pleased with the results. The survey analysis will certainly help our session address the questions and comments about what we need to do as a congregation to meet the challenges of ministry in the coming years.
A short version of the Ten-Year Trend Report for Presbyterian churches is now available at no cost via the Web. Go to: Ten-Year Trends for Your Congregation and follow the directions.
We also have additional Help for Congregations available online.
Research Services