Church Transparency Survey

CONTEXT: Earlier in January 2022, I created a scientific survey for a master’s degree psychology project. That survey collected the ages, average church attendance, and perceived spirituality and spiritual motivation of 40 anonymous participants of various backgrounds and beliefs who considered themselves to be Christians.

The data that I found interesting in the previous survey was that the average participant felt that spirituality only answered 73% of life’s most important questions, regardless of age, background, or church attendance. This was by far the lowest percentage of all the questions in the survey. Judging only by the *previous* survey, it seems that asking questions and having transparency is extremely important to Christians regardless of age.

This post, however, is the results from a follow-up survey I did out of curiosity (as opposed to a scientific study for school). It is for those who consider themselves to be Christian and attend a particular congregation at least once a month. The goal is to test the hypothesis that the average Christian desires open dialogue and transparency regarding most religiously oriented subjects as opposed to ignoring the subjects or only fairly presenting one view.

THEIR DIRECTIONS: Please list your age and rate your feelings regarding each question on a scale from 0 to 5. You are guaranteed complete anonymity. There is not a “neutral” number, so please pick a number that most closely relates to your opinion. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions! – Jesse Winn

Survey Results

There was a survey conducted anonymously by proxy of Google Forms. The link to the survey was posted on several Christian Facebook groups. The majority of the Facebook groups were Church of Christ in affiliation. However, many of the Christian groups were also affiliated with various political, theological, and/or denominational backgrounds.

The survey asked eight questions, seven of which are shown in the figures below. The other question was a demographic question regarding the age of the participants. There were 272 participants, all of which are Christians and attend their church at least once a month, and 262 chose to give their age. The tendencies regarding the age of the participants were a mean age of 46, median age of 46, and mode age of 28. The range of the ages was from 16-83 (67 years). Below I will post the results as well as any confounding considerations there might be.

NOTE. Zero means “not important at all” and five means “utmost importance.” (Thus, numbers 1 & 4 are “almost always unimportant/important” and numbers 2 & 3 are “slightly unimportant/important.”)

NOTE. 3% find this to be unimportant, and 97% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 4/4 of people find this to be important.

NOTE. 22.8% do NOT find their church to be open to talk about questions they care about, and 77.2% DO find their church to be open to talk about questions they care about. *POTENTIAL CONFOUNDING VARIABLE IS THAT PEOPLE USUALLY GO TO CHURCHES THEY MOSTLY AGREE WITH.* Therefore, roughly 1/4 of people feel they are not being heard.

NOTE. 10.1% find this to be unimportant, and 89.9% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 9/10 find this to be important.

NOTE. 8% find this to be unimportant, and 92% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 9/10 people find this to be important.

NOTE. 10.7% find this to be unimportant, and 89.3% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 9/10 people find this to be important.

NOTE. 6.2% find this to be unimportant, and 93.8% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 9/10 people find this to be important.

NOTE. 61.7% find this to be unimportant, and 38.3% find this to be important. Therefore, roughly 2/3 people do not find politics important to talk about in church, and 1/3 do find it to be important.

Conclusion: The average Christian who attends church at least one Sunday a month feels that it is important for the church to talk openly and transparently about all of the views mentioned above besides politics. That means presenting all sides fairly, and it means not avoiding the issues. The average Christian goes to a congregation they mostly agree with, but even then, they admit that the congregation could do better regarding these types of conversations. In fact, 1 in 4 do not feel heard or taken seriously concerning their questions. The implication for churches and church leadership is to keep having conversations about these issues but to do so fairly, listening to all sides, and not avoiding the subjects to avoid tension. Transparency in the church is highly important to almost all Christians. – Jesse

SURVEY QUESTIONS

  1. How important is it to you that your congregation is willing to talk transparently regarding questions you care about?
  2. Generally speaking, how open do you feel your congregation is to talk transparently regarding questions you care about?
  3. How important is it to you for your congregation to transparently talk about questions regarding apologetics (e.g., what other religions believe, reasons to believe in God, Jesus, miracles, the Bible, etc.)?
  4. How important is it to you for your congregation to transparently talk about “hot button” questions in Christianity at large (e.g., end times, hell, homosexuality, women’s roles in the church, biblical interpretation, etc.)?
  5. How important is it to you for your congregation to transparently talk about “hot button” questions in your specific movement/congregation (i.e., a tradition or view that your particular congregation or Christian movement generally holds)?
  6. How important is it to you for your congregation to transparently talk about questions regarding mental and emotional health (e.g., depression, anxiety, the importance of seeing professional counselors, conflict management, family well-being, etc.)?
  7. How important is it to you for your congregation to transparently talk about questions regarding politics (e.g., what party to vote for, what policies are good or bad, etc.)?
  8. What is your age?

ALSO READ: Intrinsic Spirituality and Church Attendance (Results from a Scientific Survey)