The Lift folks were asking for input on twitter… Well, I like twitter for a lot of things, but commenting on a massive survey doesn’t lend itself a whole lot with a 140 character limit. Even on facebook, the character limitations proved troublesome.. and as a blog comment, I dont want to be a hog, thus this entry. That being said… lets roll through my notes.
One thing somewhat fascinating is the correlation between open comments, and clergy… Its a little disturbing as to why lay leaders while leaning the same way as clergy, often did not have as strong a position as clergy and open criteria. Or… it might mean that within the open criteria, more clergy participated than others, or more specifically if I read things correct, more female clergy based upon the gender ratio?
The answers amongst lay leaders are astounding. Picking just one, the ELCA has incredibly educational resources… yet only 32% of lay leaders said yes, ELCA Christians were unique. Then again, it likely depends on how one reads the question too, ie, I’m looking at beliefs and theology, others may be looking at how Christians love God, how they love others perhaps?
Changes in the religious climate / culture of American Society as far as having a negative impact stood out as a big deal…. but its the sort of question that creates more questions than answers. Is it that society has less economic resources? Is it that society is going more lukewarm? Is it that society is more into Loving Jesus, but not so much the church? Its hard to tell from this rather wide ranging question.
Children and adult education are felt nearly equal as to importance based upon question 10b and 10c survey data…. but my experience in a number of churchs show the emphasis is mostly on childrens edu in alignment with the priority results of question 11. This disparity depending upon how the questions are asked is interesting.
Pastoral education seems to be dumped to the Churchwide body… no wonder there is little local support and pastors get stuck with massive debt on graduating seminary… it wasnt like that years ago.
Ecumenical relationships seem to be again be a churchwide thing and within pulpit and altar fellowship, thats appropriate… but unity also starts in the pew.
Age distribution seems a bit scary, over 75% of the respondents were over 45, and only a tiny number under 24.
Another oddity is the following dealing with connectivity to the wider body. Feeding the hungry, and helping with the poor ranked very high as priorities amongst those who felt strongly connected to the wider body… yet amongst those who were less connected did not rank feeding the hungry and helping the poor as highly, rather they replaced such ranking levels with teaching the confessions and traditional Bible teaching. Its almost a direct reverse correlation… The survey presents the following as a possibility.
It may be the case that a significant number of lay and clergy respondents feel disconnected from the wider church because they believe it is too involved in issues they would address differently or not at all.
I tend to think the answer is likely differently, moreso than not at all.. wow, there is a massive disconnect somewhere.
As far as the clergy/lay leader disparity… this is massively counter productive, as mixed messages are likely being sent. They need to all be on the same team, not one going this way, and another that. How can the congregation be on board, if the lay leaders are sending mixed messages, in some cases counter to the pastor? Pastor Joelle presented an interesting blog on pastoral authority or the lack there of… I think such likely plays a significant role in this.
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