Research on Church Member Satisfactions

A few years ago, Bill Hybels and his team of marketing gurus decided to ask the members of their church how they were doing. A team of astute researchers put together a survey designed to ferret out where the respondents were in their commitment to Christ along with their commitment to the Willow Creek Church. That was a courageous thing to do. It is rare for a church or business to actually ask its "customers" to give them feedback. In fact it is almost unique in church history.

The researchers designed to get at four different levels of Christian commitment.

1. Attending but unsure about Jesus. We might call them Seekers or Explorers

2. Attending and committed to Jesus. The traditional title might be "saved, born again, converted" and Babes in Christ. They call the group, "growing in Christ".

3. Close to Christ and studying the Bible.

4. Christ centered and involved with the church.

They also asked the respondents how satisfied they were about the way the church was ministering to their needs and if they were committed to stay involved in the church or were looking for some other place to feed them spiritual food.

Here is the question for you. What do you think they discovered? What group seemed the most satisfied and which we're thinking about leaving?

I admire Willow Creek for their bold commitment to get feedback. Are you Christian leaders interested in hearing from your "customers"? What do you think they would tell you about your programs and practices?

The Willow Creek study was called Reveal and they published a book by that same name. The newest book is Move and discusses what various churches are doing to follow up on the research.Go to the Reveal web for more information. Their web site is clunky and my experience was pretty awful but you can dig deeply enough to find information.

At Sweeten Life Systems we believe in asking people about their felt needs and how we and/ or others can best meet them. We did a yearlong study of parents with children who have a disability. They told us a lot. Go to the Sweeten Life web for more information on our research.