When Congregational Surveys Give Mixed Results

Guest column from Rev. Michael Brooks of Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster AL

It’s common for congregations to administer opinion surveys occasionally. But I’ve seen mixed results.

Baptist denominational officials report that congregations who take surveys when searching for a new pastor discover members want a 35-year old with a seminary degree. Thus he is educated, not too old, not too young, but just right.

A retired minister told me about his displeasure with their new young pastor.

“He won’t wear a suit, and he won’t use a pulpit,” he fumed, so there is that.

I imagine the pastor had spiked hair and tennis shoes, too, but I’m only guessing.

We did a survey last year that we obtained from an organization that specializes in such, and got a good reading of opinion.

But I remember in another church doing a survey we concocted ourselves. The results were mixed. For example, one person was vehement that joking in the pulpit was disrespectful, and another noted how they appreciated good humor in sermons. The pastor—me—didn’t know what to make of this.

Several people noted that the pastor ought be sure the service was dismissed at the sacred time of high noon. I really wasn’t aware that we went much past noon anyway. Our faithful music minister took a stopwatch with him the next Sunday and actually recorded the time required for music, announcements, prayers and the sermon. Though having an actual stopwatch is so “old school” now that everyone has one on their phones, he discovered that the pastor isn’t the only one taking up time on Sunday.

I remember a number of times when we had guests who promoted causes and took inordinate amounts of time. A pastor friend, wiser than me, shared that he always invited these guests to make their presentations after his sermon, thus demonstrating the priority of God’s word, and putting the time crunch on them. I wish I’d known this sooner.

Later in the afore-mentioned church we had to vacate facilities for 10 weeks during renovations and borrowed the neighbor church across the street. This necessitated a change in morning schedule. The congregation decided they liked this new schedule, so we moved the traditional 11 a.m. worship to 10:45. This helped dispel the criticism that we “went past noon.”

I’ve always heard that the traditional 11 o’clock worship is traceable to an agricultural era. It was the time between the morning and afternoon milking of the cows. Few worshippers milk cows on Sunday now, so we’re more agreeable to different scheduling.

Another option than surveys is to invite members to share concerns and prayer with their ministers.

I think most pastors would welcome conversations about how we can do the work of the Lord more effectively.

"Reflections" is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Alabama. The church's website is siluriabaptist.com. Rev. Brooks has graciously given ALPolitics.com permission to repost his regular pastoral column here.

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