By Tom Bandy
MissionInsite does a nationwide survey called “The American Beliefs Study” of religious preferences and practices. This tends to be richer than other national surveys because it uses a larger sampling. A new summary is now available as of January 2023 and there are recent videos available to explain them. Customized data for any given search area can be accessed as pre-defined reports downloaded from your site map. Among these reports are two that are related to ministry expectations. The smaller (8 page) MinistryInsite Priorities Report is a brief summary of the larger (29 page) MinistryInsite Report.
Most leadership teams only use the shorter MissinInsite Priorities Report. This report ranks in order of strength the life concerns and ministry preferences of people in the search area. It is important to understand that this list indicates the priorities of the wider community and not the priorities of the UMC participants included in PeoplePlot in particular.
For example, Annapolis District has completed 80% PeoplePlot representation and I am currently writing a more detail update report. The top Life Concerns in order of priority are:
| Ongoing impact of Covid 19Social & political tensionsRacial injusticeFinancing the futureHealthFear of the futureLosing weight and dietingQuality children’s education | Illegal immigrationPersonal heath crisesCaring for aging parentsReaching my goals or being a successTime for friends and familyStress managementSatisfying job or career |
The reports also indicate the relative strength of the concern (Extremely Strong, Very Strong, Strong, Weak, Very Weak). Note that a report for any given neighborhood may reveal different priorities than the report of the whole district. For example, a small report for the northwest region of the district around BWI airport suggests that concerns about health and fear of the future there are less strong than for the district as a whole. Further research will link this with the fact that the households in this small search area are younger and more mobile than the district.
The summary of top Program or Ministry Priorities also require further interpretation. The priorities in this example of Annapolis District are:
| Warm friendly encountersQuality sermonsOpportunities for personal relationshipsOpportunities for volunteeringHoliday programsTraditional worshipAdult social activitiesInvolvement in social causes | Seniors’ activitiesFamily activitiesSmall groupsSacramentsCultural programsSocial justice advocacyContemporary worship |
A chronic problem with all surveys is that respondents interpret choices differently than how the survey creators may have envisioned them. For example, surveys ask people to rank worship preferences as “traditional” or “contemporary” without considering how lifestyle segments might interpret these terms differently. The MiinistryInsite Priorities Report should be compared with the lifestyle segment commentaries on ministry expectations in the MissionImpact Ministry Application Guide that I created for MissionInsite. You find these in the menu from the “Helps” tab on the bottom toolbar along with portraits and descriptions from the Experian E-Handbook.
For example, in the Annapolis District, some lifestyle segments understand “traditional worship” to be a blend of educational and louder, faster inspirational styles (usually larger congregations), while other lifestyle segments understand this to mean a blend of educational and softer, slower caregiving styles (usually smaller congregations). Meanwhile, in the northwest BWI area, some segments understand “contemporary worship” to be about topical, dialogical coaching for daily living, while other segments understand this to mean prophetic worship that supports social action causes.
Strategic thinkers should also use the longer (29 page) MinistryInsite Report. This study includes a much wider range of life concerns and ministry expectations and compares data from the search area to national averages. Life concerns are grouped into categories related to personal health, home and family, community, careers, and future hopes. For example, Annapolis District planners can discover that concerns about mental health are lower than national average while spiritual interest is higher than national average. You can also track five-year trends. For example, concern about finding a mate or spouse has declined in Annapolis District between 2017 and 2021, while fear of the future has increased over the same period.
A similar analysis is applied to program or ministry preferences. The relative importance or unimportance of a particular ministry can be compared to national averages. For example, in the Annapolis District the only really strong ministry preference is for warm and friendly encounters. Distant second priorities are for opportunities to build relationships and volunteer, holiday programs, and quality sermons. And across the wider region there is minimal preference for family counseling, religious education for children, virtual worship, bible study, size of church, youth activities, and marriage enrichment in contrast to the importance of such ministries nationally.
Once again, surveys like these indicate very general trends. Despite national or regional priorities, local priorities may be quite different. MinistryInsite reports must be compared to the lifestyle mosaic in any given congregational mission field. For example, in neighborhoods that are becoming more culturally or ethnically diverse, there will usually be a stronger priority for the sacraments and for holiday and holy day programs. And in neighborhoods that are becoming more racially diverse, there will usually be a stronger priority for youth programs and the size of a church will matter more.
MinistryInsite and MinistryInsite Priorities reports can be particularly helpful when conference program committees work collaboratively with local congregations. Whatever the more general regional district reports say, financial and volunteer training support often happens directly between conference budgets and congregational budgets, and conference staff and congregational teams. Children and youth ministries are perhaps the best examples. Although these are priorities for local churches, they may not be urgencies for larger regions. These reports can help conference leaders select specific churches where their expertise will be most useful, partner congregations within or across district boundaries for program planning, and target funding where it will have the most impact. Such research takes the guesswork out of planning and applies limited resources where they are most needed.
In my next blog I will explore the value of ReligiousInsite reports.