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SERVING THE SIX-COUNTY DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES

At its June 2001 meeting in Salt Lake City, the council passed a resolution that proposed hiring a firm to conduct a survey of Episcopal Church members, asking them what mission priorities should drive budget considerations. The Executive Council passes on budget recommendations to its administration and finance committee, which holds hearings and forwards its recommendations to the Program, Budget and Finance Committee at General Convention.

The marketing research firm RoperASW was hired to conduct the survey of congregation members, clergy, bishops, national leadership and General Convention deputies. The results were based on a total of 2,173 returned questionnaires from all five constituencies, with the highest response rate from national leadership and bishops.

Profiles in diversity
The average respondent tended to be male, in his mid-50s, and from the South or West. Half or more of bishops, national leaders and General Convention deputies are "cradle Episcopalians," but 46 percent of congregation members and 54 percent of clergy joined the Episcopal Church with their families before they were 13, or individually before they were 30.

The results showed that Episcopalians are "highly interested" in all parts of the Episcopal Church, and tend to be ecumenical, pro-technology, and socially conscious--that is, they "want the Episcopal Church to speak out on a variety of issues."

But they differ somewhat on which issues deserve the church's attention. There's high consensus on the importance of issues such as the exploitation of children, human rights violations, world poverty, and racism. But congregation members disagree strongly about addressing debt in third world countries. That issue ranks lowest on the congregation members’ list, while bishops see it as a top tier issue and other constituencies see it as, at the least, a second tier issue.

All constituencies agree that "attending church on Sunday" and "spiritual growth" are the two most important aspects of parish life, and everyone (except bishops) agrees that attending church on days other than Sundays is the least important aspect of parish membership.

Priorities are youth, spiritual growth
The Roper survey showed that, across the board, Episcopalians agree on two areas of mission focus: increasing the number of youths and young adults active in the church, and promoting spiritual growth and discipleship. But then differences emerge.

For congregation members and national leaders, nothing else shares the top tier, but bishops, clergy and General Convention deputies think "reaching out to the unchurched" should share top billing, and deputies add "outreach programs at the congregational and diocesan level" to their list. Congregation members include "reaching out to disaffected church members" in their second tier of importance, but for all other groups, it's last on the list. By contrast, congregation members thought "establishing new congregations" should be the church's lowest priority.

Other priorities included increasing the number of members in individual congregations, achieving full status for women within the church, expanded training for lay leadership, and having the church reflect the increasing diversity of the population.

The Roper survey revealed that all five constituencies believe that the Episcopal Church is "doing too little" about increasing the number of youths and young adults active in the church, and about reaching out to the unchurched. "The clear desired focus of Episcopal Church outreach programs is youth," said the report. "Liturgical resources for multi-ethnic communities" and "innovative liturgies for changing constituencies" are at the bottom of the list, with one out of five believing "too much" is done to change liturgies.

Differing information sources
"Each constituency experiences the parts of the Episcopal Church differently," the survey reports. "Few feel they know a lot about the provinces or the Anglican Communion," but congregation members tend to know most about their parishes, clergy their parishes and dioceses, bishops their dioceses and the church at the national level, and national leaders and deputies know their parishes, dioceses and the national church.

Yet those who admitted that they didn't know much about the church beyond the local parish expressed a curiosity and even an eagerness to know more, raising some important questions for communications in the church.

All but congregation members find out about the church's activities primarily through personal interaction, meetings and conferences, and reading the church's national newspaper, Episcopal Life. Bishops think that the Episcopal News Service is the most effective source of information.

Congregation members rely on bulletin inserts and announcements and pulpit announcements and consider them the most effective sources. The two least utilized sources of information are the church's web site and various list services for committees, boards and agencies, and along with secular media, most thought them the least effective as well. Interestingly, bishops thought pulpit announcements--the most relied-upon form for most congregation members--were the least effective.

"Communications to congregation members are highly dependent on attending church. The implication is that drifting away from church attendance means losing contact with current information," said the report.

Funding past--or future?
Because the survey is meant to guide budget decisions, there is some concern that it may encourage funding patterns that reflect the church's past more than its future.

The Roper study concluded "where the energy is in the Episcopal Church--is youth. Every constituency believes that the future of the church depends upon retaining young people in the church and attracting young people to the church. No matter what the question, the answer is youth."

But the survey responses were overwhelmingly from older adults, and reflect their priorities, not those of younger Episcopalians and unchurched youth. "If the average age of respondents was 57, we can assume that there were not very many young people in the sample," said Thom Chu, program officer for the Episcopal Church's young adult and higher education ministries. "The nature of the survey methodology may help us to know where the church has been and where it is today, but it is not clear where it should be going.

"But we needn't wait for a more thorough survey of our younger members to begin acting on our impulse to reach younger people," Chu added. "I read this as an invitation for all church members to make a personal discipline to be in a relationship with a younger person, whether in the church or not. And I think that congregations should take a look at their collective checkbooks and see how this impulse to reach more young people is really reflected in their staffing and spending."

Another area of concern is church growth and evangelism. All those who responded to the survey want growth in existing congregations, but "establishing new congregations" is not seen as a priority, and even among those who place high importance on new congregations, few believe more effort is required. That runs counter to the received wisdom of church growth experts, and to the thrust of the 20/20 initiative, according to some observers.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service